Well that may not be too far off.
The rise of plant-based meat alternatives
and lab-grown meat could completely upend
the conventional meat industry.
But amidst the headline grabbing breakthroughs
one big question remains--
(upbeat music)
The moral and ethical reasons for not eating meat
evoke a lot of different feelings.
But the environmental impact is clear.
According to a recent study published in Science Magazine
meat, aquaculture, eggs, and dairy
provide just 37% of our protein,
and only 18% of our calories.
But use 83% of the world's farmland
and contribute to nearly 60% of its emissions.
Over and over again people can say
they don't like how animals are treated,
they don't like that our earth is not doing well,
that our environment is not doing well,
they're going to continue to eat meat.
So how can we give them what they wanna eat
in a way that is better.
- [Michael] This is Nicole Manu,
from The Good Food Institute.
They're an industry advocacy group
that is working through the regulatory
and marketing challenges that stand in the way
of alternatives to conventional meat production.
It's important that we make sure that
plant-based meat is at the same price levels,
as convenient to purchase, and cook and eat,
and that it tastes just as good if not better.
Cell-based meat solves that problem even more so
because it will taste like animal meat
because that's exactly what it is.
- [Michael] Veggie burgers are nothing new.
But the newest crop from the likes of Beyond Meat
and Impossible Foods are a totally different animal.
With cutting edge ingredients and processes
they taste and look a lot like the real thing.
- [Traci] A lot of vegetarians find
that it's actually too meaty.
If you didn't tell somebody you would have no idea.
While not yet as affordable or available,
lab-grown meat has taken it a step farther.
This is not a meat alternative at all.
But rather an alternative to conventional meat production.
The result is actual animal flesh.
These plant and lab-based substitutes
are crazy advances in the field.
And people have been talking a lot about them.
But we've spent far less time figuring out
if and how people will actually change
their meat consumption habits.
In fact, despite an evolving conversation
and advanced alternatives, meat consumption
in the US is at an all-time high.
So how do we get people comfortable
with eating things that sound kinda weird?
One lab in Denmark is trying to find some answers.
We're here in the heart of Copenhagen's
meatpacking district to visit Space10.
Space10 is an Ikea-backed research and innovation lab.
And their team is cooking up ideas for the future of food.
- [Simon] The mealworm sticks, you wanna try?
- [Monique] Yeah, I wanna try one.
Not spicy but it's more...
Sort of a little bit of sour cream and vinegar or something.
Um-hm, yeah.
The reason why we started exploring food
was actually because we played around
with some interaction design students.
And they came up with the idea of a smart faucet.
Something you could install in your shower
and it would start to glow when you've used too much water.
So we were like, okay, if we are doing this
then it needs to fix the problem.
So what is the problem?
That's the scarcity of water.
And then we started looking a little bit deeper,
and then we found out, okay, like a normal hamburger
takes 2,000 liters of water to produce.
That's three months of showering.
We might have a right solution, but we're not,
but we don't have the right problem.
- [Michael] Focused on that problem,
Space10 has pushed the envelope to try
to normalize what many of us think of
as weird when it comes to food.
In the beginning I was definitely the one
saying, okay guys, this is...
fucking dystopian.
Meats that are grown in Petri bowls in the lab.
Like, that's not natural.
And then someone said, Simon,
just YouTube meat production.
And then I was like, okay,
the way we produce meat today is not that natural either.
It's pretty hideous actually.
This might come as a surprise, but Ikea's one of
the biggest restaurant chains in the world.
Like everybody thinks Ikea, thinks furniture,
but also thinks meatballs.
We kidnapped Ikea's iconic meatball,
and we projected future food trends in there.
So everything from lab-grown meat,
to insects, to algae, to a bunch of trends.
- [Michael] After years of experimenting
with different sustainable ingredients,
Space10 has combined it all into their most recent project,
a cookbook called Future Food Today.
The cookbook makes futuristic and non-traditional
ingredients look beautiful, and most importantly,
like something people actually wanna eat.
So in the Future Food Today you can find
a bunch of different recipes, and some of them
are some snacks and hacks, some of them are drinks,
but some of them are also more hands on.
For example, the dogless hotdog where we
infuse spirulina algae into the bun.
But then we also experiment with alternatives to meat
like grasshoppers, where we take them
and make crisps out of them.
All the grasshoppers and worms in the book,
I mean, you can't hide what they look like.
But we don't wanna do that, we just rather
open up the conversation and showcase
maybe some of the things that are disgusting
to people right now, but they don't have to be.
We are not believing that a cookbook, for instance,
is gonna bring like a global food revolution to the world.
What we are here to do is basically share
our research, spark conversations about
what options do we actually have.
And then really engage with chefs around the world.
There have always been vegans,
there have always been vegetarians,
there's always been animal rights activists,
but even though people understand the implications
behind producing meat, they continue to eat meat.
So you kind of have to figure out
another way to solve the issue.
People at the end of the day are going to do what they want.
So we have to give them another solution.
Thanks for watching.
If you like the Future of Food, stay tuned for our new series 'Future of Cities."
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