Spark

Meal-replacements, lab-made meat and other signs of the future of food

Meat the future.
Researchers are working on growing meat from the cells of animals. (New Harvest)

We've long fantasized about futuristic solutions to what to put on the dining table. Like the sci-fi future where a single pill will replace meals. Right now there are already drinks that promise to meet all your nutritional needs, replacing food and aimed at people who want to do away with the time consuming business of cooking and eating. But what's it like to rely on it? We hear from Soylent enthusiast Kenley Browne.

There's also on-going development into alternatives to conventionally produced animal products, as we hear from Isha Datar, the director of the non-profit organization New Harvest, where they are working on making meat in a lab with the muscle cells of animals.

While these examples are still on the fringe, what do they say about how we may consume food in the future? Futurist and author Ramez Naam talks to Nora about how he believes food production and consumption will change, and the new tools and technologies that are being developed in order to facilitate that change.