Predicting the Future of Food – Bon Appetit

Dr. Morgaine Gaye sweeps a hand over her blonde faux-hawk and smiles at me through oversize purple-tinted glasses. If she doesnt look the part of a self-proclaimed food futurologist, I dont know who does. The future, she tells me in her rapid-fire British accent, is all about Air Protein, a product that uses high-tech fermentation to turn carbon dioxide into chicken or whatever you want, really. Tens of millions of dollars are being invested into alternative proteins and air just might be one of the keys to feeding the worlds 9.8 billion people by 2050.

Thats nearly 2 billion more people than we (fail to) feed today, and an overwhelming amount of that growth, the UN predicts, will be in sub-Saharan Africa, where desert conditions make farming a challenge. Then theres that pesky issue of climate change. If the planet warms 2.7 degrees by 2040, as experts project, the implications could be devastating. Ongoing droughts, flooding, extreme weather, its all on the table. What may not be on the table: California avocados, predicted to go all but extinct by 2050.

The good news is that the food industry is already planning for those pressures, as Amanda Little investigates in her revelatory book The Fate of Food. I dont know that theres a future in which were all looking at a plate of wafers injected with specialized nutrients, she says. That just sounds like a culinary hell nobody wants to inhabit. Its the seeds, farming practices, technology, water, distribution, and behind-the-scenes innovations that are going to change the contents of our plates. Shes rooting for the avocados (though they might have to be grown indoorsand cost $20 a pop).

To take a look at what the future of food might look like, we talked to experts to come up with menu predictions for the future. For the years 2023 and 2024, scientists offered their insights on how food might change. But for 100 years from nowthe year 2122we spoke with people who were unafraid to make some bold claims: science fiction writers. See it all below.

Within the next decade, grocery stores will stock cell-cultured proteins. Stem cells are collected, put into bioreactors, and fed nutrients like glucose so that they grow into animal-free chicken, beef, pork, and even duck (as opposed to the meat alternatives we have today, which are very good imitations made with plant products). These proteins dont need room to graze and expel methane, dont waste uneaten parts of an animal, and are less likely to contain bacteria like salmonella. This is the beyond-Beyond burger.

Illustration by Haruko Hayakawa

The Menu

Personalized nutrition was the phrase I heard most from food industry experts, like the head of R&D at PepsiCo, which recently launched a sweat patch to tell you when you need more Gatorade (often). What 23andMe did for genetics, well see in the nutrition and gut-health departments. Imagine a wristwatch that pings you when your sodiums high. Cool! Creepy!

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Predicting the Future of Food - Bon Appetit