As someone who loves good food and tends to buy local ‘seen-it-growing-with-my-own-eyes’ but equally is fascinated by science - I was captured by this article in the guardian by George Monbiot (a great columnist!) talking about lab grown food. A very interesting read - and I recommend you to head there and read that first before continuing (click here ) as what follows is entirely my own take. At the title and after the first couple of paragraphs describing the way the ‘food’ is grown, I was thinking that surely if we are at the stage in which we have to eat fake food, then it is no longer worth it for us to be here.. (yes, I have strong feelings about food and I do like when ingredients are good, thanks in part to my italian genes , or maybe just being my father’s daughter) .
More than that, I was expecting the article to go in the same direction of my initial thoughts.. But I was so wrong! It's not a surprise, or a novel thing that in the current state of affairs, the food industry is one of the major greenhouse-gases emittor. Whether you are an omnivore or a vegan, the truth is that we eat too much (in part because in many societies we are overindulgent, also there are more mouths to feed and yes we also waste a lot of what we produce) . And yes, in the debate of things, meat does seem to be the culprit number one (i am still of my opinion that we just need to eat much much much less of it and more mindfully and sourcing it sustainably, but that's just me) - and if you are in the UK this documentary, Apocalypse Cow, seem to be interesting one to watch, Back to the article, it highlighted a few things about what 'Farmfree' food can offer, and the two that it found me nodding in agreement with, were: 1) Less resources needed, especially less water and less land 2) less land for farming = more possibilities to rewild But there is a very big drawback, that it is also mentioned in the article: while good for the environment, farm free food will be a disaster for the farming industry. What about the number of jobs that will be lost ? One can say, perhaps, that instead of farming for food they could be farming for wilderness, but who will pay for that? I struggle to see how will it work out in reality Overall, it is obvious that no matter the solution there will be some hard choices to make in the future, and life as we know it will not be so much as we know it, and new territories will have to be navigated... farm free food is one avenue to take, and i have to say I am very curious. Solar foods are currently trialling this - so we shall see.. only have to wait and see I am personally still unsure as to whether this would be my 'preferred solution', and despite my willingness to do what needs to be done for the planet, i think i much rather retire to the countryside and carve myself a little patch of land, and get a goat and some chickens... And you?
6 Comments
Anna
1/11/2020 01:46:05 pm
Hey Camilla, thanks for your thoughts on this interesting topic! Future foods is a big topic nowadays. I think also because it's such a personal experience, right. As you also say in your post: the choices you make in buying/consuming food are very much rooted in your culture and a large part of your identity.
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Holistic fish
1/13/2020 08:08:19 am
Thank you Anna for your comment
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1/13/2020 05:48:50 pm
I personally am not sure about lab grown food. We have changed the way we interact with the environment so much that I am worried we are simply continuing down that path. I am also concerned about the health effects and whether we can truly know if it's safe until years down the road.
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Hi Camilla,
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Honestly, the thought of lab grown food frightens me. Extremely. I understand the “need” for less polluting sources... but there are so many unknowns. I agree with cleaning up the way we currently do things. Besides not knowing the outcome of lab grown food, if it were to become readily available as a source for food for livestock, we wouldn’t change our wasteful habits because we’d be even more justified in them because the animals now have a more sustainable food source. We need to change our habits before we start feeding our food, and this also ingesting, a lot of lab grown food.
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