The truth is that we are still a long way from having to make much in
the way of radical changes, but it is sometimes fun to pretend. Just
recall that every hectare of tropical soil can support a family using
the biochar protocol and even depending on present cropping and
animal husbandry regimes. What we have successfully worked to the
present are those soils that are particularly forgiving.
In the meantime increasing attention is been applied to insects.
This has huge promise not least because of their ability to convert
biomass into high quality protein, but the sheer weight of their
presence on Earth. They are quite capable of supplying all the high
quality protein for a human population of 100 billion which would
otherwise be challenging.
Seaweed is barely tapped also as is noted here.
The moment we step outside our traditional paradigms, it becomes
surprisingly easy to produce food stocks. Our own efforts have
identified a multiproduct agriculture for the boreal forest. I began
with low expectations and a generally unpromising environment. Yet
it will be no more difficult than any other agricultural development.
You just will not be growing mangos.
Future foods: What
will we be eating in 20 years' time?
By Denise WintermanBBC
News Magazine
29 July 2012 Last
updated at 19:09 ET
Volatile food prices
and a growing population mean we have to rethink what we eat, say
food futurologists. So what might we be serving up in 20 years' time?
It's not immediately
obvious what links Nasa, the price of meat and brass bands, but all
three are playing a part in shaping what we will eat in the future
and how we will eat it.
Rising food prices, the growing population and environmental
concerns are just a few issues that have organisations - including
the United Nations and the government - worrying about how we will
feed ourselves in the future.
In the UK, meat prices
are anticipated to have a huge impact on our diets. Some in the food
industry estimate they could double in the next five to seven years,
making meat a luxury item.
"In the West many
of us have grown up with cheap, abundant meat," says food
futurologist Morgaine Gaye.
"Rising prices
mean we are now starting to see the return of meat as a luxury. As a
result we are looking for new ways to fill the meat gap."
So what will fill such
gaps and our stomachs - and how will we eat it?
Insects, or
mini-livestock as they could become known, will become a staple of
our diet, says Gaye.
It's a win-win
situation. Insects provide as much nutritional value as ordinary meat
and are a great source of protein, according to researchers at
Wageningen University in the Netherlands. They also cost less to
raise than cattle, consume less water and do not have much of a
carbon footprint. Plus, there are an estimated 1,400 species that are
edible to man.
Gaye is not talking about bushtucker-style witchetty grubs
arriving on a plate near you. Insect burgers and sausages are likely
to resemble their meat counterparts.
"Things like
crickets and grasshoppers will be ground down and used as an
ingredient in things like burgers."
The Dutch government
is putting serious money into getting insects into mainstream diets.
It recently invested one million euros (£783,000) into research and
to prepare legislation governing insect farms.
A large chunk of the
world's population already eat insects as a regular part of their
diet. Caterpillars and locusts are popular in
Africa,wasps are a delicacy in Japan, crickets are
eaten in Thailand.
But insects will need
an image overhaul if they are to become more palatable to the
squeamish Europeans and North Americans, says Gaye, who is a member
of the Experimental Food Society.
"They will become
popular when we get away from the word insects and use something like
mini-livestock."
It's well documented
how the appearance of food and its smell influence what we eat, but
the effect sound has on taste is an expanding area of
research. A recent study by scientists at Oxford University found
certain tones could make things taste sweeter or more bitter.
"No experience is
a single sense experience," says Russell Jones, from sonic
branding company Condiment Junkie, who were involved in the study.
"So much attention is paid to what food looks like and what it
smells like, but sound is just as important."
The Bittersweet Study, conducted by Charles Spence, a professor of
experimental psychology at Oxford University, found the taste of food
could be adjusted by changing the sonic properties of a background
soundtrack.
"We're not
entirely sure what happens in brain as yet, but something does happen
and that's really exciting," says Jones.
Sound and food have
been experimented with by chef Heston Blumenthal. His Fat Duck
restaurant has a dish called the Sound of the Sea, which is served
with an iPod playing sounds of the seaside. The sounds reportedly
make the food taste fresher.
But more widespread
uses are developing. One that could have an important impact is the
use of music to remove unhealthy ingredients without people noticing
the difference in taste.
"We know what
frequency makes things taste sweeter," says Jones, also a member
of the Experimental Food Society. "Potentially you could reduce
the sugar in a food but use music to make it seem just as sweet to
the person eating it."
Companies are also
increasingly using the link between food and sound in packaging. One
crisp company changed the material it used to make packets as the
cruncher sound made the crisps taste fresher to consumers.
Recommended playlists could also appear on packaging to help enhance
the taste of the product.
Jones says the use of
sound is even being applied to white goods. Companies are looking
into the hum fridges make, as a certain tone could make people think
their food is fresher.
Earlier this year,
Dutch scientists successfully produced in-vitro meat, also known as
cultured meat. They grew strips of muscle tissue using stem cells
taken from cows, which were said to resemble calamari in appearance.
They hope to create the world's first "test-tube burger" by
the end of the year.
The first scientific
paper on lab-grown meat was funded by Nasa, says social scientist Dr
Neil Stephens, based at Cardiff University's ESRC Cesagen research
centre. It investigated in-vitro meat to see if it was a food
astronauts could eat in space.
Ten years on and scientists in the field are now promoting it as a
more efficient and environmentally friendly way of putting meat on
our plates.
A recent study by
Oxford University found growing meat in a lab rather than
slaughtering animals would significantly reduce greenhouse
gases, along with energy and water use. Production also requires a
fraction of the land needed to raise cattle. In addition it could be
customised to cut the fat content and add nutrients.
Prof Mark Post, who
led the Dutch team of scientists at Maastricht University, says he
wants to make lab meat "indistinguishable" from the real
stuff, but it could potentially look very different. Stephens, who is
studying the debate over in-vitro meat, says there are on-going
discussions in the field about what it should look like.
He says the idea of
such a product is hard for people to take on board because nothing
like it currently exists.
"We simply don't
have a category for this type of stuff in our world, we don't know
what to make of it," he says. "It is radically different in
terms of provenance and product."
How is a hamburger
made in a laboratory?
There are several
steps and the procedure starts when muscle stem cells are taken from
animals in a biopsy, says Mark Post, who is leading the project at
Maastricht University.
Algae might be at the
bottom of the food chain but it could provide a solution to some the
world's most complex problems, including food shortages.
It can feed humans and
animals and can be grown in the ocean, a big bonus with land and
fresh water in increasingly short supply, say researchers. Many
scientists also say the biofuel derived from algae could help reduce
the need for fossil fuels.
Some in the sustainable food industry predict algae farming could
become the world's biggest cropping industry. It has long been a
staple in Asia and countries including Japan have huge farms.
Currently there is no large-scale, commercial farm in the UK, says Dr
Craig Rose, executive director of the Seaweed Health Foundation.
"Such farms could
easily work in the UK and be very successful. The great thing about
seaweed is it grows at a phenomenal rate, it's the fastest growing
plant on earth. Its use in the UK is going to rise dramatically."
Like insects, it could
be worked into our diet without us really knowing. Scientists at
Sheffield Hallam University used seaweed granules to replace salt in
bread and processed foods. The granules provide a strong flavour but
were low in salt, which is blamed for high blood pressure, strokes
and early deaths. They believe the granules could be used to replace
salt in supermarket ready meals, sausages and even cheese.
"It's
multi-functional," says Gaye. "And many of its properties
are only just being explored. It such a big resource that we really
haven't tapped into yet."
With 10,000 types of
seaweed in the world, including 630 in the UK alone, the taste of
each can vary a lot, says Rose.
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