Scrambled egg whites, a vegetable smoothie
or wholegrain cereal with low fat milk.
That’s how pop megastar Beyoncé
described a bootylicious breakfast a few years ago.
However eating cereal has declined by over 11% over the past five years,
with 40% of millennials dismissing it as inconvenient
because it involves washing up.
Meanwhile the kind of farming that produces bacon and sausages
is criticised for contributing to climate change
through the carbon emissions it produces.
So by the year 2039
meat, cereal and even dairy may be much harder to find
on the breakfast menu.
Instead, you might be tucking into a plate of...
According to researchers in the Netherlands,
insects cost less to raise than cattle,
consume less water and don’t really leave a carbon footprint.
Plus in many cultures around the world,
in fact 30% of the planet’s population,
they’re already considered pretty tasty.
Robyn Shapiro, founder of Seek Food says...
So, while a rasher of bacon may become an illicit luxury
only available in a fancy restaurant,
crunchy nut cricket flakes
could mean starting the day with a bowl of creepy crawlies
from your garden biosphere.
Probably not if you’re vegan or vegetarian
like one in eight Britons now are.
Or how about lab meat grown from animal stem cells,
with no need for real-life pigs or chickens to become dead ones.
A guilt free slice of black pudding where there’s blood on the plate
but not on your hands.
Maybe the thought of this has you desperately reaching
for that one cup of coffee you’re allowed per year
thanks to climate change rationing.
Researchers and chefs including Heston Blumenthal,
have discovered that what you hear can affect what you taste.
So in 2039, your coffee might seem like its full of sugar
even though there isn’t anything sweet in it
apart from the sound of music.
With immersive dining experiences on the rise,
from medieval banquets to murder mystery stories,
or even a gastro physics journey through space,
could breakfast of the future be less about traditional taste
and more about living out your culinary dreams
in a flavour-filled fantasy land?
By 2039 it looks like most of us, 70% in fact, will live in cities.
To cut transport costs, maybe we’ll want to grow the onions
to go with our stem cell sausages more locally.
However, if the current housing crisis continues
and luxury flats fill in every remaining space,
where would we plant our greens?
Perhaps the answer is underground.
In cities around the world, this is already happening.
Urban farmers swap sunlight for LED light
and use a system called hydroponics where plants are grown in water,
so there’s no need for soil, despite being surrounded by it.
Perfect for farming seaweed,
widely considered a sustainable superfood of the future.
With cities increasingly full of people and traffic by 2039,
we may need new ways to transport the ingredients
that end up in our breakfasts.
Could this be where drones fly in?
Following the rise of takeaway delivery services,
a company in China has been trialling drones
as a way of getting food to customers.
If this takes off, maybe delivery drivers will be a thing of the past.
However, would you be happy to have a drone rather than a person
popping by with your music-infused coffee or seaweed sandwich spread?
With increasing numbers of us working flexibly,
perhaps the need for a quick breakfast before dashing off to work
will no longer be necessary.
Maybe instead we’ll start to actually treat breakfast
as the most important meal of the day
rather than just talking about it.
But whatever’s on your wheat bran plate,
you probably won’t have to wash it up afterwards
because you’ll be able to eat it.
Great news for if you’re a 57-year-old millennial.
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