preface

1.
birds
Future food, which has always been the food of the future

2.
fungi
Steak substitutes and… seasonings?

3.
pea protein
The candidate who will finally bring down the giant soybean market

4.
milk and eggs
Is it completely vegan if you don't have anything to do with animals?

5.
food upcycling
Gather the ingredients that are still edible… and make more food?

6.
Veggie Burger
Can plants replace red meat?

7.
vertical farming
Could robot-harvested, high-quality leafy greens feed the world?

8.
cell-cultured meat
Can fake animal products expand beyond niche markets?

9.
Are consumers just people who buy when they are sold?

10.
What will we be eating in 20 years?

About the sources of writing references and information
Acknowledgements

'Alternative food technology' that promises zero carbon, zero harmful ingredients, food equality and animal liberation
Can we save ourselves from the climate, food, and health crises?

With the limitations of the existing food industry becoming increasingly apparent, with more than 80 percent of the world's arable land being used to grow "feed crops" for livestock, more than 90 percent of the animals on Earth being raised for human consumption, and the greenhouse gases emitted from raising livestock exceeding the combined greenhouse gases emitted from all road transportation, a consensus is emerging that the Earth cannot be sustainable unless we reduce our consumption of animal products, including meat.
Adding to this the prospect of a food crisis due to population growth, the global high-tech industry, including Silicon Valley, is constantly introducing various alternative foods, suggesting food technology as a solution to the coming crisis.
Right now, we can easily find foods on our tables with labels like 'eco-friendly,' 'animal welfare,' 'plant-based,' and 'vegan,' as well as 'healthier' foods such as 'zero sugar.' Furthermore, a variety of future foods await us, including protein made from fungi, plant-based meat, and cell-cultured meat.

But can we truly trust these "lab-grown foods"? How are all these lab-grown foods, now becoming a reality, created? How does the global environment improve throughout the entire process of "lab-grown foods"—production, distribution, consumption, and disposal? Is there even the slightest chance of unintended consequences occurring? How much trust should we have in those who create new foods?

As a type 1 diabetic who has analyzed all food ingredients since childhood and has covered a wide range of cutting-edge food technologies as a food and technology journalist, author Larissa Zimberoff has meticulously and transparently revealed the process by which promising 'laboratory foods' are developed, produced, processed, stored, distributed, and consumed based on her medical history and background.
As we increasingly lose track of where and how our food comes from, and rely on food companies' marketing to shape our meals, we examine the essential questions we must address for the health of ourselves and the planet.

The promising future foods that will take over our tables are:
How is it made and what is its taste and nutrition?
Questions You Must Ask to Avoid Becoming a "Buy-What-You-Want"

When we think of "future food," we think of pills containing all the nutrients for the day, protein cookies filled with mealworms or grasshoppers, and even the cockroach jelly from "Snowpiercer."
But the foods of our future, being created in laboratories, are more familiar alternatives.

Chapter 1 focuses on the potential of seaweed.
Algae can grow anywhere as long as there is water, so it is inexpensive to cultivate and can be supplied in unlimited quantities. It is also rich in nutrients essential to humans, so it is attracting attention as a promising food ingredient.
However, this is also a field that still faces the difficult task of implementing an appropriate form or function that will dispel consumers' vague resistance.
This chapter analyzes the future of algae farming technology by examining what the most realistic algae foods that will occupy a corner of our tables in 10 to 20 years will look like.


Chapter 2 covers foods made with mold.
Fungi are attracting attention as an excellent alternative to animal protein, with excellent sustainability and infinite potential for use. However, they have the disadvantage of inevitably requiring processing to be turned into food.
This chapter explores and investigates the question, "Do the good properties of raw materials remain after processing?"


Chapter 3 covers soy protein, a representative plant-based protein.
Legumes have been studied as an alternative to meat for the longest time, and are the food that most closely resembles the texture and shape of regular meat.
However, the author says that the process of producing alternative foods using soybeans for the taste and texture of the products inevitably involves a 'separation and processing' process, and it is easily overlooked that these processed foods are quite different from the harmless image that comes to mind when we think of 'soybeans'.
To address these questions, this chapter delves into the manufacturing process and includes in-depth interviews with nutrition experts.


Chapter 4 explores the future of food, which has become an essential commodity for humanity, from eggs, of which one trillion are consumed worldwide each year, to milk, which is equally beloved.
We explore how far we've come in developing technologies that make chicken-free eggs and cow-free milk possible, and how closely these technologies replicate the texture and flavor of eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. We also examine the safety of these technologies and the legitimacy of their management and supervision procedures.


Chapter 5 covers the field of food upcycling.
From margarine, the first waste-recycled food, to the familiar Asian food of bean curds, to foods made from leftover grains after beer brewing, and even burgers made from the leftovers of fruit juice, the exhibition highlights a diverse world of upcycled foods.
While the idea of ​​food upcycling is an innovative approach that could mitigate the negative impact of food waste on the environment, the process of repurposing waste into food requires a high degree of processing, making it difficult to trace the source of each raw material. This article delves into the nutritional implications of this type of food.


Chapter 6, which covers the vegan burger market, visits various animal-free burger manufacturers, including Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger, and reveals the cutting-edge technologies being used to create meat that rivals or surpasses conventional meat in terms of taste and nutrition.
Along with this, we examine the food industry structure, where the more exclusive technology a company possesses, the more advantageous it is to attract investment, and hear from industry insiders about the transparency of the production process.


Chapter 7 explores the world of vertical farming.
We will examine the advantages of this method, such as being able to supply fresher vegetables by shortening the distance between the production site and the delivery site, reducing land use, not requiring pesticides, and being able to grow crops tailored to individual characteristics depending on the cultivation environment. We will also examine whether vegetables grown without ‘soil’ and ‘microorganisms’ can also provide all the nutrients our bodies need, whether reducing land use or increasing the use of artificial lighting (electricity) is more beneficial in reducing environmental costs, and the impact on food inequality of the situation where farms are mainly established in urban areas, as it is a technology-intensive industry operated by algorithms.


Chapter 8 explores cultured meat made from animal cells.
While the cultured meat industry offers the significant advantage of providing "real meat" while avoiding the negative environmental impacts of large-scale livestock farming, it also faces the challenge of a lack of transparency in its production process.
The industry does not provide clear data on what chemicals stimulate the proliferation of cultured cells, what technologies are used to do so, and how the safety of the entire process is managed.
Through extensive research and expert interviews, the author approaches this veiled information, seeking answers to questions such as, "Is it truly safe?", "Are there any other harms caused by the resources needed to mass-produce cultured meat?", and "Which alternative meat is better for people and the environment: plant-based or cultured?"


Chapter 9, “Are Consumers Just Buyers of Food?” addresses the pervasive lack of transparency in the food industry’s production processes, the loopholes in regulatory oversight, the debates between alternative food products and the traditional food industry, and the industry-wide marketing strategy of calling “non-meat and non-dairy processed foods” “plant-based foods.” The book also points out the reality that consumers are not given the freedom to make autonomous choices in the food system.
This is a chapter that makes you think about what it takes to avoid becoming a person who 'buys whatever they are told to buy.'


Chapter 10 contains the wishes of the author and various food experts he interviewed.
We examine our current food system, which is malnourishing hundreds of millions of people, destroying vast swathes of forest (where people and wild animals live), killing 70 billion terrestrial animals and a trillion marine creatures every year, increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases, and contributing to countless chronic diseases and antibiotic resistance problems. We also hear candid predictions for the future from industry experts.

Not entrepreneurs and investors,
Redefining the "Harmless Table" from the Eater's Perspective

“This book is not intended to suggest ways to improve our food system or to oppose industrialized food in general.
Rather, it was written to raise awareness about the fact that new food startups are following the path of the big food companies, accepting investment from large companies, and even being absorbed by old, established brands (a common occurrence in all technology fields).
“My frustration is that while these startups make consumers feel like they’re making a smart choice, they’re actually directing them to the same shelves of convenience foods and cheap, low-quality, high-calorie snacks as the big companies.” (Page 158)

One expert featured in the book says, "Food is a whole greater than the sum of its parts."
No matter how good the raw materials are, food made by separating and processing the ingredients can never be the same as existing foods.
It also points out that the more processed a food is, the higher its blood sugar load on our bodies, and because the starch is made to be digested quickly, eating these foods makes us feel hungrier faster, which in turn leads to eating more food.
The book also reveals that the environmental costs and food inequality issues caused by producing highly processed foods cannot be overlooked.

Reducing processing would solve the problem, but it's easier said than done.
In a market where existing foods are already established, alternative foods must be produced more cheaply, in larger quantities, and faster to be competitive, thereby increasing their share of the food supply chain, even if only slightly.
In other words, the application of ‘processing’ and ‘transformation’ and ‘technology’ for the efficiency of food supply is inevitable.
The author analyzes that, combined with investors' preference for "exclusive technology," companies are unable to find an incentive to improve the opacity and irrationality of the processing process, ultimately narrowing consumers' options to "less processed foods" or "natural foods."

As a diabetic who must be meticulous about what she eats, and as a journalist who has specialized in the field of cutting-edge food technology, the author emphasizes that only when consumers' positions and rights are reflected throughout the entire food system, from development and production to processing, storage, distribution, and consumption, can we truly achieve a "harmless dining table."
As the food industry becomes more technology-intensive, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know where and how the food we eat is made. However, the more we accept this without question, the more the practice of keeping ingredients and technologies secret under the guise of “patents” or “proprietary technologies” will intensify.
This book, which contains the results of tasting and researching numerous 'future foods', analyzing related data, and interviewing industry insiders, tells us what questions we must ask ourselves before unquestioningly accepting the 'harmless table' proposed by the food industry, and guides us on how to envision a sustainable table from the perspective of the 'eater'.