THE FUTURE OF FOOD: No lives at "steak": a cultured burger, vertically farmed lettuce, and genetically modified tomato. Would you bite?

• Author: Dent, Michael
• Position: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

FROM FREE-RANGE CHICKEN to food miles on alfalfa, eating ethically is becoming more and more of a head-scratcher. Even for vegans, there are the questions of how sustainably agave was sourced, or whether environmentdamaging pesticides were used to grow kale--and all that is without even considering how the food tastes.

Advances in the food and agriculture industry could answer every one of these questions, plus some the regular consumer had not yet thought to ask.

For a slaughter-free spaghetti bolognese, a beef burger where no cows were harmed, and fresh produce growing from the walls of skyscrapers, food technology is turning science fiction into science fact one innovation at a time.

Plant-based burgers are on a roll. Meat alternatives are not new. Torn and seitan have been around for more than 1,000 years and veggie burgers have been on supermarket shelves for decades. However, these typically only have appealed to vegans and vegetarians, a niche market perhaps prepared to compromise on how meat-like the product is for their own ethical reasons. With the advancement of new food technologies, that no longer may be a compromise that needs to be made; plant-based food is becoming increasingly convincing as meat. One example of plantbased food appealing to a more carnivorous palate is Impossible Foods, which uses genetically modified yeast to make a vegetarian burger that bleeds, but could the search for sustainable, guilt-free burgers go further?--cultured meat says yes.

Culture shock: "meat" the new burger on the block. A burger, made from 100% real beef, but no cows were harmed in its creating? New technologies in cultured meat offer a potential solution for the burger lover who feels bad about it.

Cultured meat involves directly culturing the same (or very similar) animal cells that make up conventional meat. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to create meat products completely indistinguishable from conventional meat, and without the need for slaughter.

Since the world's first cultured burger was produced in 2013, the industry has grown at a rapid pace, with start-ups around the globe competing to be the first company to commercialize a cultured meat product.

In December 2020, the industry received a major boost when Singapore became the first region in the world to grant regulatory approval for commercial sale of a cultured meat product, a hybrid made from plant protein and cultured chicken cells produced by Eat Just. Many in the...