According to current estimates, the UN predicts that in the year 2040 there will be about 9 billion inhabitants on our planet. Such sustained population growth requires the development of new technologies and food models that are sustainable to make the most of the Earth's resources and guarantee adequate nutrition for all.
Much has been discussed, and still continues to be discussed, about the unsustainability of traditional farms, which are considered to be too energy intensive and polluting (due to the high consumption of water and cultivable land, but also due to CO 2 and methane emissions. ). The simplest and most immediate solution would be to increasingly prefer plant protein sources, such as legumes and related derivatives, reducing meat consumption compared to western standards. However, more than food of the future, it is already food of the present, given that there are now widespread vegetable meats based on pulses and cereals, such as seitan, mopur, wheat muscle and derivatives (the most curious can be found on our site different recipes on these foods of the future).
In the coming years it is also likely that more space will be given to GMO foods ; biotechnologies, in fact, make it possible to generate more abundant crops that are close to human needs, using fewer resources (water, fertilizers, pesticides) and generating less pollutants (think of the agricultural interventions that could be saved or the lack of transport of products that can be grown only in certain areas of the planet). We all know, however, how controversial the argument is, so much so that assessments of the possible damage of the GMO could slow down the spread of this food of the future.
In a few years, biotechnologies will also allow the creation of " artificial meat ", making it grow in the laboratory starting from stem cells extracted from animal muscles. This result has already been obtained experimentally in 2013, with the "birth" of the first artificial hamburger; however, it will take several years before large-scale industrial production is possible.
A source of high quality proteins, cheap and with very little environmental impact, is represented by edible insects . In fact, these animals abound in proteins, but also in mineral salts and some vitamins, of which they are a much more generous source than traditional meat foods. In the world, insects are already part of the food culture of some populations, especially in Asia and Africa. On the other hand, it is more difficult to imagine a rapid spread of these foods in Western tables, even though their flours could easily be included in the composition of packaged foods, without too much disturbing the consumer.
For vegans and those who shun the idea of eating insects or meat grown in the laboratory, in the future there will be another alternative, represented by algae, more precisely by some microalgae. The best known example is spirulina, which is very rich in proteins and essential amino acids, but also in vitamins and antioxidants. It is therefore a matter of food that is rather ecological and complete in terms of nutrition, also because microalgae, just like plants, perform chlorophyll photosynthesis by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing oxygen.
