Future of food under the microscope

What is the future of food? What choices are being made to relieve pressure on the global food system? What does it mean for food producers and what role do they play in the changes? Over the past week, a number of scenarios have appeared in the media that may answer these questions.

What will we eat in 2040?

On Sunday, March 15, the VPRO broadcast the program Tegenlicht, which focused on the theme 'Future Food'. Technophilosopher Koert van Mensvoort sat at the 'Table of the Future' with a chef, a food designer, a brand strategist, the director of innovation at Unilever and a food futurologist. They discussed the future of food and the possible solution directions for the global food system. What will we eat in 2040?

Local products

Some people advocate a shift to eating locally produced food. Short and circular chains from producer to consumer, with potatoes that never travel more than twenty kilometers and animals that only eat the residual streams of our food system. By the way, that doesn't just mean traditional ingredients. It may also mean getting local plants on our plates that we don't normally think of as a tasty snack. Moss, for example.

Initiatives that are already emerging around this solution direction are often aimed at reducing the gap between farmer and citizen. In Limburg, we have long seen many projects that directly connect producer and consumer. Food forests also play a role in the field of local production. In Baexem in Limburg, work has been underway on such a food forest since the beginning of this year.

Critics of this solution doubt whether this local approach will be enough to feed nine billion mouths in the world in the future. And are consumers still willing to eat only regional products now that they consider having lots of choice normal?

Technology

At the total opposite end of the spectrum is the group that looks to technology to feed the mouths of the world. Here it is all about the social engineering of food. What nutrients do humans need and how do they get them in the most efficient way? In an extreme case, it doesn't even have to be a plant or animal, or even look like food. It can be a powder that you dilute several times a day and ingest as a shake in order to live. A less extreme example is growing meat as a technological approach to the food problem.

A company like DSM could play a role in a solution like this. Already they are deploying technology to provide food for both humans and animals with the necessary substances. The development of an algae oil for the sustainable farming of fish is a good example.

Mosa Meat from Maastricht is another Limburg company that uses technology to produce food. They hope to bring their first cultured meat products to the market in the coming years. Grassa from Venlo uses technology to convert waste streams into plant proteins and other nutrients.

Technology could lead to an affordable and accessible solution to provide food for the entire world population. But again, will it be possible to get people on board with this new approach? And is there enough confidence in the health of produced food?

Plant-based or hybrid

In the food discussion, eating meat always comes up as well and again there are several options. Only vegetable with meat substitutes and vegetable proteins, less meat, cultured meat or hybrid meat? Whether we go that way is primarily a matter of taste. Over 70% of the Dutch population still likes to eat their familiar plate of potatoes, vegetables and meat. But the line between a burger made of 100% beef and one made of 100% plant-based ingredients is blurring.

On NU.nl it was recently said that 2020 could be the breakthrough for hybrid meat, i.e. a product that consists partly of meat and partly of plant-based ingredients. For example, a burger made of minced beef and chickpeas or a schnitzel made of pork and cauliflower. In recent years, several hybrid products have already been launched on the market, but as yet with little success.

At the same time, new hybrid concepts are being conceived and introduced. The main difference with meat substitutes is that hybrid meat can be found on the meat shelf, so producers hope to capture consumers' attention better. After all, many consumers never stop at the shelf with meat substitutes.

In Limburg, FI&S is working on hybrid products for the supermarket, among other things. An insect burger is already sold in Germany that consists of fifty percent insects and is fifty percent vegetarian. And there is a variant with half insects and half meat. Also Scelta Mushrooms, which offers mostly vegetable products, has a hybrid variant with the BlendBurger: a burger of 50% beef and 50% mushrooms.

The Future

The broadcast of Tegenlicht does not give a definitive answer about what the solution will be in the future, but that changes will take place is clear. Engineering philosopher Koert van Mensvoort concludes by saying, "The best way to predict that future is to go and make it." A great call for the agri-food sector to keep innovating.

To watch the broadcast back, here.