The human race has evolved from the early hunter-gathering nomads, who hunted mammoths and great game animals to live and survive in a ...
The human race has evolved from the early hunter-gathering nomads, who hunted mammoths and great game animals to live and survive in a very unpredictable primal world millennia ago, to smartphone-using sedentary metro-living city-slickers who only order food with a drop of a hat. As soon fire, agriculture and domestication were discovered, the whole human evolution exploded with the first cities established as different civilizations have risen and fallen. Eventually, population have skyrocketed to exponential heights that food production has catch up with it through increasing mechanization, industrialization and eventually, automation.
Despite the great length of human progress, food production has remained a vital issue that every agricultural and industrial societies have to deal with. This is where the fields of food manufacturing, agriculture, and smart technology come together into play. Genetic engineering have transformed fruits, vegetables and farm animals from wild to heavily-modified specimens specifically geared towards feeding more and more humans.
As humans are becoming increasingly integrated into the technologies it created for itself, food will naturally be intertwined to it as well. The question is, will we still be doing the humanly bite, chew, and swallow? Or can everything be further simplified by taking a single pill that captures the essence of a whole meal? What about personalized nutrition based on your genetic background? Such the case where vitamins and important minerals are automatically injected on the body round the clock thereby making the actual eating a lost remnant of our human identity. Bionic humans will no longer have the need to eat anymore.
As we evolve, food also evolve. Soon we will be eating something we don't normally eat and perhaps reinvent what we usually eat itself. As resources become scarce brought about by climate change and dynamic food demands, we will soon stop eating beef and pork and eventually eat more insects and alternative meat products. We can even grow our own algae or laboratory steak to feed us in the future. Food products can now be 3D-printed into perfection thereby reducing the need for food packaging.
If you come to think of it, tasting future food would be like introducing bubble gum or softdrink to someone 500 years ago! Imagine tasting something you haven't seen anything that you ever had before. The food you may have tasted today may not be the same 100 years from now. Even traditional cuisine is evolving as fusion and molecular gastronomy have changed the culinary landscape for the past few decades. From the humble home cook to the renowned Michelin-starred chefs, food preparation and presentation has been pushed to its absolute limits.
No comments