As they say, the future of food will revolutionize the way we eat as advanced technology will make agriculture and food processing more...
As they say, the future of food will revolutionize the way we eat as advanced technology will make agriculture and food processing more efficient than ever before. Fusion cuisine will become the norm as food culture will become globalized. We may bring future food technology to space colonies with vertical gardens, low-carbon fridge stocks and more novel solutions.
Petri dish meat courtesy of genetic engineering and custom-crafted dish courtesy of 3D printing will become the norm so that we no longer have to visit the supermarket or restaurant just to get a decent chow. We can make it ourselves and just like Andy George from How to Make Everything, we will no longer need food manufacturers and retailers to provide us our favorite sandwich and root beer.
Future trends of food technology will be affected by the impact of demand and supply, globalized food culture and changing flora and fauna. Experts believe that these are the future trends:
1. Large-scale industrialized food production
As global population increases, there is a growing need to industrialize the production of food in order to meet growing supply and demand. In this case, food will be produced as cheaply as possible at the expense of its workers and natural resources. If you have lots of resources then you might as well do the entire production and manufacturing process on your own. By this time, there will be a growing demand for home gardens so that anyone can produce local, sustainable food at a much lower cost. Unfortunately, we grow crops and turn them into food-like substances that may taste good, provide enough calories, and are cheap and familiar enough to tolerate, but they barely sustain basic nutrition. The logistical requirements of transporting food will become more reliable so that people will buy their grocery online!
2. Deconstructing the food we eat
Many Michelin-starred restaurants and up-and-coming chefs have tried to reinvent the food we eat by deconstructing our favorite dishes. With fancy mumbo-jumbo, there will be cryogenically-made ice cream and flavor-extracted roast beef powder. We may become dependent in chemically-induced and genetically-engineered food so that the future food will be basically chemicals injected into our system.
3. "Cruelty-free" meat
As food production becomes industrialized, we will eventually cut down the production process so that rearing livestock will become obsolete. There is no longer a need to raise cows and pigs when we can create meat on a petri dish. We don't have to kill animals for food, we just harvest their DNA. Whether you're from PETA and other animal welfare groups or not, this future growth area in food production could potentially free up enormous quantities of natural resources from worldwide grazing lands to agricultural irrigation water demand.
4. Roof and indoor farming
Agricultural lands will become smaller and growing desertification in certain areas will force humans to utilize the roof and indoor spaces in urban areas as farms. Hydrophonic technology will improve so what we can plant more crops than ever before. In this case, some industrial districts of cities from Beijing to Mumbai will be transformed into semi-agricultural districts with year-round vegetables and fruits grown in dense indoor farms using LED lights and little water. Meanwhile, vertical agriculture will be able to recycle all nutrients, capture all pollutants, and require no use of antibiotics and pesticides.
5. More 'alternative' options
By 2050, the protein-centric American dinner that has been exported to the rest of the world will become obsolete so that New York steak and monster burgers will be replaced by grains, legumes, and vegetables alongside under-coveted meat from offal to tongue. More people will be open to "weird" food options like insects, worms and other "exotic" delicacies.
6. Old food technology will make a comeback
As more people will try sustainable food production, there will be a growing interest in old food technology so that there will be a growing demand for hand-churned butter and crafted beers. Food that came out through industrialized process will force people to do the old school way of making cheese, ham and other preserved food.
7. Meal in a pill
As previously mentioned, food technology will become so advance that not only we make food production so efficient, we make sure that an entire meal will be encapsulated into a pill. In fact, Soylent has made a meal in a powder for people too busy to be bothered to eat. Nanotechnology is applied in such meal in a pill so that our nutrition is monitored and bad bacteria will be neutralized.
8. Sustainable food habit
Aside from healthy eating, there is a growing emphasis in sustainable food habit from minimizing food waste to recycling food itself. We already see that food prices are being affected by weather, disease and geopolitical issues.
9. Reinventing flavor
We all know what flavor is, whether its the sourness of a lemon to the sweetness of a mango. Future food technologists will create new flavors straight from a culinary laboratory so that we don't need organic material from fruits, vegetables and meat but from chemicals concocted to suit our taste.
10. Bridging the new and old
While technological developments will render some food production and cooking techniques obsolete, there are those who combine the new and old. We live in a society where most people would want to preserve and maintain the origins of quality by tailoring and adapting it with modern techniques without destroying the essence of the ingredients. On the other hand, some may say that most of us have become so 'lazy' in preparing food that instant food preparation techniques were developed.
1. Large-scale industrialized food production
As global population increases, there is a growing need to industrialize the production of food in order to meet growing supply and demand. In this case, food will be produced as cheaply as possible at the expense of its workers and natural resources. If you have lots of resources then you might as well do the entire production and manufacturing process on your own. By this time, there will be a growing demand for home gardens so that anyone can produce local, sustainable food at a much lower cost. Unfortunately, we grow crops and turn them into food-like substances that may taste good, provide enough calories, and are cheap and familiar enough to tolerate, but they barely sustain basic nutrition. The logistical requirements of transporting food will become more reliable so that people will buy their grocery online!
2. Deconstructing the food we eat
Many Michelin-starred restaurants and up-and-coming chefs have tried to reinvent the food we eat by deconstructing our favorite dishes. With fancy mumbo-jumbo, there will be cryogenically-made ice cream and flavor-extracted roast beef powder. We may become dependent in chemically-induced and genetically-engineered food so that the future food will be basically chemicals injected into our system.
3. "Cruelty-free" meat
As food production becomes industrialized, we will eventually cut down the production process so that rearing livestock will become obsolete. There is no longer a need to raise cows and pigs when we can create meat on a petri dish. We don't have to kill animals for food, we just harvest their DNA. Whether you're from PETA and other animal welfare groups or not, this future growth area in food production could potentially free up enormous quantities of natural resources from worldwide grazing lands to agricultural irrigation water demand.
4. Roof and indoor farming
Agricultural lands will become smaller and growing desertification in certain areas will force humans to utilize the roof and indoor spaces in urban areas as farms. Hydrophonic technology will improve so what we can plant more crops than ever before. In this case, some industrial districts of cities from Beijing to Mumbai will be transformed into semi-agricultural districts with year-round vegetables and fruits grown in dense indoor farms using LED lights and little water. Meanwhile, vertical agriculture will be able to recycle all nutrients, capture all pollutants, and require no use of antibiotics and pesticides.
5. More 'alternative' options
By 2050, the protein-centric American dinner that has been exported to the rest of the world will become obsolete so that New York steak and monster burgers will be replaced by grains, legumes, and vegetables alongside under-coveted meat from offal to tongue. More people will be open to "weird" food options like insects, worms and other "exotic" delicacies.
6. Old food technology will make a comeback
As more people will try sustainable food production, there will be a growing interest in old food technology so that there will be a growing demand for hand-churned butter and crafted beers. Food that came out through industrialized process will force people to do the old school way of making cheese, ham and other preserved food.
7. Meal in a pill
As previously mentioned, food technology will become so advance that not only we make food production so efficient, we make sure that an entire meal will be encapsulated into a pill. In fact, Soylent has made a meal in a powder for people too busy to be bothered to eat. Nanotechnology is applied in such meal in a pill so that our nutrition is monitored and bad bacteria will be neutralized.
8. Sustainable food habit
Aside from healthy eating, there is a growing emphasis in sustainable food habit from minimizing food waste to recycling food itself. We already see that food prices are being affected by weather, disease and geopolitical issues.
9. Reinventing flavor
We all know what flavor is, whether its the sourness of a lemon to the sweetness of a mango. Future food technologists will create new flavors straight from a culinary laboratory so that we don't need organic material from fruits, vegetables and meat but from chemicals concocted to suit our taste.
10. Bridging the new and old
While technological developments will render some food production and cooking techniques obsolete, there are those who combine the new and old. We live in a society where most people would want to preserve and maintain the origins of quality by tailoring and adapting it with modern techniques without destroying the essence of the ingredients. On the other hand, some may say that most of us have become so 'lazy' in preparing food that instant food preparation techniques were developed.
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