What Will Be On Your Plate?

Science and technology are driving the future of food, writes Jane Nicholls.

By 2050, our planet will have an estimated 2 billion more human mouths on board and, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, we’ll need 60 per cent more food to feed them. There’s a dwindling amount of land available to grow it on and escalating pressures to improve the sustainability and quality of protein production.

That’s why CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, released its protein road map in March, outlining a $13-billion market opportunity for Australia to diversify its protein products. This includes using technology to verify the provenance and science to improve sustainability, yield and disease- and pest-resistance of old favourites such as beef, lamb, prawns and barramundi.

But there’s also more focus on value- adding to turn our country’s rich grain and legume harvest into plant-based protein products, rather than shipping most of it overseas in bulk.

CSIRO provided the science and part of the investment to launch v2food, a plant-based protein range that first hit our tastebuds in 2019 via the patty in Hungry Jack’s Rebel Whopper. It’s now found everywhere from sausages and mince in supermarkets to dishes in restaurants. The aspiration is to satisfy the world’s appetite for high-end protein and grow a sustainable agricultural supply chain to do it. As v2food founder and CEO Nick Hazell says, “We have to get people who love meat to love us – we can’t just be for rich vegans.”

Lab-grown meat cultivated from animal cell lines is an emerging option for carnivores who aren’t willing to try plant- based taste-alike products. Australian startup Vow is building a “library” of cell lines to produce meat. Extracted animal cells are grown in a micronutrient solution in a lab cultivator, which looks a bit like a distillery. The cells then rapidly divide in the vat until they’re ready to “harvest”.

As well as being at the cutting-edge of future protein production, Vow is asking us to think beyond the four species that make up most of the world’s animal-based diet today. Because they’re raising cells rather than a live herd, Vow says its cultured-meat production has the potential to offer up to two million more animal species for food, including exotic species, and have already cracked kangaroo, pig, lamb, rabbit, goat and alpaca. It will debut its products in Singapore early in 2023, exclusively at high-end restaurants.

“We’ll be launching with an entirely new type of meat,” says Vow co-founder and CEO George Peppou, “unlike anything you’ve ever eaten.” Fries or salad with your cultivated-zebra steak?