Food is being reinvented and business is exploring not only changing the way it is delivered, but also what we eat. There are questions about the safety of eating meatless burgers, meals that don’t need to be refrigerated, and startups exploring 3D food printing technology. Businesses are spending money on the research and development of new ways of delivering calories that taste good, are easy to standardize, and push the edge of how we define food.
Here are recent headlines:
Is the meatless burger safe to eat? (Eater)
Can this startup’s synthetic wine compete with Napa’s best? (The Mercury)
Every company is a tech company. Even Blue Apron. (CNBC)
Amazon is exploring new food tech for its home delivery service. (Zacks)
New fast food tech could lead to job cuts. (CBS)
Why are people interested in the technology of food?
It’s a matter of resources. We have a growing world population and finite areas of arable land available for food production. This represents an economic opportunity. With spikes in food demand due to humanitarian crises, weather events, or the loss of land available for farming, food security may be an issue that defines our time.
Fertile land is the most important resource for the future of food security. (The Weekly Times)
“That most precious of all resources, land that can support agriculture to feed a surging global population tipped to rise a staggering 24 per cent from 7.5 billion today to about 9.8 billion by 2050. That rise means the world’s farmers will need to produce at least 60 per cent more food than it currently does, if all mouths are to be fed adequately.”
Food security an even bigger issue after grocery store closures (KEVN Black Hills Fox)
“The two organizations created a map to show the walking distance to grocery stores in low income areas of Rapid City.
This map showed what the organization called a food desert, which is classified as an area with no store within one mile in every direction. ”
Food security has to be a Brexit priority (The Guardian)
“We rely heavily on other EU member states for food. Defra statistics show that in 2016 70% of all UK food, drink and animal feed imports were from the EU. If no trade deal is arranged, we will revert to WTO rules and risk a dramatic increase in the cost of food, both as a result of tariffs on imports and a weaker pound. Currently, only 15% of fruit and 55% of vegetables eaten in the UK are grown here. Without a robust domestic farming strategy, rising prices mean the healthy food that families need will become less accessible.”
And now the word “food” is being used in the same sentence as “blockchain”:
From Farm to Fork: Your Food’s Entire History on the Blockchain (Nasdaq)
“These advancements in technology will also lead to reduced waste, and in turn, make our world more sustainable. For example, not all food needs to be of the highest quality. A five-star restaurant might reject a delivery of meat for having too much gristle, but a pet food manufacturer would find it perfectly acceptable. In the new food ecosystem, it will be very easy for such parties to find each other and quickly negotiate deals.”
