Re-Engineering What We Eat

This article explores the need and ways to re-engineer plants and animals to provide a growing population with enough to eat. Some researchers have taken beef production inside the walls of a laboratory. One area that researchers are still working on with lab-grown meat is the taste—a complex combination of proteins, glycosylated proteins, and other compounds in the fat. Other researchers suggest the best way to produce animals and plants faster while using fewer resources is to embrace genetically modified and genetically edited foods. Researchers also are currently working on incorporating infrared cookers that cook the food as it prints, which would give users very precise control over the process. While countertop food printers may take the home cook one step further from the farm, it could also have some unexpected environmental benefits. Whether through tinkering with genes, growing foods in laboratories, or preparing them through printers or robots, technologies revolving around food are undergoing rapid research and development.