Trends in Food Production

I was reading this morning about a company in Singapore that is growing shrimp meat in a laboratory.  They populate a "soup" of growth medium with shrimp tissue cells which then grow.  After a period of time, they strain the cultured tissue from the liquid and have what is basically a shrimp puree.  It is being served in high-end restaurants there.

Singapore is a tiny country with a huge population.  Only about 1% of its land mass is devoted to agriculture, so virtually all of their food has to be imported or, harvested from the sea.  That dependence on others for their food has led their government to invest a good deal of money in new technologies such as vertical farming -- or, greenhouses in the sky (in a land of tall buildings, they add greenhouses on the roof).

Here in the U.S. the recent Beyond Meat initial public offering was extremely successful.  They create meat-like products using vegetable proteins.  The products have zero appeal to me, but they must entice a lot of people because investors have bid up their stock to a $5 Billion valuation.  I guess my penchant for beef biases my opinion, but I am concerned about the sustainability of such an enterprise.  The ingredients compete with the vegetable industry more than the beef industry.  Cattle eat plants that are not especially desirable or usable by humans.  Beyond Meat has done a fabulous job on their marketing campaign which appeals to many groups such as vegans, animal rights groups and climate change fear-mongers.

You can probably tell by my posts of the last few days that new food-production technologies are on my mind.  I have always been intrigued by such things, that's probably why I have stayed with a career in agriculture.

There will be proponents of strictly technological solutions to the world's food needs, but I think we also must think about it in other ways.  Fully integrated solutions similar to "First American" practices (American Indians) are another approach.  Many tribes would plant corn (maize) and then plant beans between the stalks.  The corn stalks would act as trellises for the bean vines.  They planted squash and other species such as pumpkins and cucumbers in a similar manner.  They were producing multiple crops on the same land simultaneously.  Modern mechanized farming methods make that all but impossible.

Another initiative that has interested me is the "Whole Earth" approach that creates intensive farms on very small acreages.  It might combine fruit trees, berry vines, vegetable plots, bee-keeping, greenhouses, chickens and swine all in a small space -- maybe 10 acres.  Irrigation water would be cycled and re-cycled and the ditches would be used to grow fish.

The big difference between the two approaches -- technology vs. integrated -- is the labor necessary for success.  A technological solution replaces human labor whereas the integrated solution is labor intensive.  One question I have for the proponents of pure technological solutions is what do people do when all of the jobs are replaced by robotics?  Not everyone is suited to be a computer programmer or, an engineer....

I think we need to consider all approaches to food production.  Each has its place and proponents.  It will be interesting to watch and hopefully be involved in over the coming years.