When you think about innovation and creativity you likely
immediately think about electronic gadgets, automobiles, architecture and
infrastructure maybe even advances in medicine. But think about food for a minute. Many of the foods in our
pantries and refrigerators would have been scoffed at had they been available
just ten years ago. What would you have thought about milk with algae in
it? Yes, you can buy milk that has
been fortified with algae to boost its omega-3 fatty acid content. What about gluten free pasta made out
of banana chips? Do you remember those weird Chia Pet things? Now chia seeds
are widely available and are considered a super healthy food. Have you ever
seen a sprouted Chia Pet? Chances
are you weren’t all that tempted to take a bite out if it. Over time new forms
of food are thrown into the product cycle and eventually they are adopted and
we don’t even give it a second thought.
Where do we get our food? For the sake of brevity, we get
food from animals and plants. Biotech companies are constantly engineering
different forms of crops such as corn to make them more resistant to drought.
North American cattle are also being breed with their African cousins to combat
heat and drought in order to provide a more reliable source of meat. In America, 88% of corn, 94% of
soybeans, 93% of canola, and 95% of sugar beets (50% of the sugar consumed in
the U.S. comes from GM sugar beets) are genetically modified (GM).
So needless to say innovation plays a huge role in the food
that we eat on a daily basis. So what does the food science industry have in
the pipeline?
The following foods are being tested as we speak and are no
longer mere thoughts in the minds of scientists/marketers.
Everyone by now has heard that omega-3’s are extremely
beneficial for our health. And the
food industry wants to capitalize on this “opportunity.” How do hot dogs and ice cream fortified
with fish oil sound? A type of fish gelatin is being tested that will be
immersed into ice cream and hot dogs. They are just working to perfect the
taste, texture and mouth feel once that is accomplished expect this stuff to be
available next year.
GM pigs are also ready to roll just waiting for a brave soul
to take a leap of faith. It seems investing in GM pigs is a little taboo.
What about stem cell beef grown in a test tube? Said to be 2
years away.
What about milk with the flu vaccine? If you won’t get your
flu shot they’ll just stick it in your milk.
Mini livestock… I am not talking small cows here but
insects! They were good enough for
Indiana Jones. Did you know that bugs have more protein, calcium and iron than
beef?
Algae in the omega-3 fortified milk may soon come from giant
algae farms. Originally researched by NASA, algae can be grown in the ocean and
is rich in omega-3, plant protein, and even vitamin B-12.
In 2003 Chinese scientists created a GM cow that can make
human breast milk. They took human genes and inserted them into a cow embryo
and artificially inseminated a cow with them. Just like that they had milk that was 80% the equivalent of
human breast milk. Why? The population in China is exploding and women can’t
always breast feed and they have a huge population of orphans in China. Breast
milk is better for children than formula so science intervened to solve a
cultural “problem.”
And that gets to the source of much of this innovation it is
fueled by the needs of society with rapidly growing populations in concert with
ever dwindling resources.
Climate change and drought are the #1 limiting factor in
food production. It has been estimated that 30% of the arable land in the world
is consumed by livestock when you take into account the whole operation
including crops for feed and pasture for roaming. Consider that just one 4
ounce burger requires as much water as running your bathroom sink for 24 hours a
day for an entire week.
We need to find alternatives to the current food production
system. And as much as I advocate
for eating local, organically raised/grown foods it’s likely insufficient to
feed the world.
What about GM foods, are they ok for human consumption?
Unfortunately no one really knows. There has been no published data to date on
the safety of GM foods! Many independent scientists refute claims that GM foods
are safe largely because the evidence is not there, it’s never been published.
That seems to be the biggest issue with GM foods is the lack of transparency.
The companies that make them don’t want them labeled and are unwilling to
publish data about them. It seems
like they have something to hide. All we can do is continue to push for more
transparency so we can make informed decisions in relation to GM foods.
GM foods may be a lifesaver for some nations. The biotech
industry has engineered “golden rice” that is fortified with vitamin A to
combat death and blindness for people in Africa. But it has been blocked for 12
years by global anti-GMO activists who have lobbied against it largely out of
belief that Africa is nothing but a testing ground for Big Pharma and that it
could also open “Pandora’s Box” to unregulated GM crops.
When it comes to food nothing it seems is black and white.
In my mind we shouldn’t label foods as good or bad for us, it really depends on
the circumstances involved. Do we
need GM “golden rice” in the U.S.? We likely do not but it makes sense in a
region of the globe with little water, extreme heat and poverty.
Also consider that genetic modifications to food and plants
have been going on for hundreds if not thousands of years. Have you ever tried
a honey crisp apple? Delicious right, it seems to have all the best qualities
of the other apples. It didn’t exist twenty years ago! I don’t see anyone
boycotting the apple orchard over these apples.
So the question you have to ask yourself is this do we need
these things?
The banana chip pasta is fine, that surely isn’t going to
harm our health. Honey crisp apples are awesome we have to keep those! The
flu-fighting milk, human breast milk from cows, and stem cell beef is another
story, that all sounds a little scary to me. The omega-3 fortified ice cream
and hot dogs just sounds gross; I don’t think we need that. You’re better off having sockeye salmon
for dinner and ice cream for dessert and saving your hot dog for the annual
pilgrimage to a Tiger game.
The best strategy is to keep it simple. Avoid adversarial
relationships with food. A bowl of ice cream or a few slices of pizza here and
there are not going to be the limiting factor in your goal to improve your
health and fitness. It’s what you do consistently that matters the most. Make
it a habit to be consistent with whole foods, locally grown and raised when
possible (we are fortunate in this regard) and inconsistent with the treats,
but enjoy them when you do have them.
Interesting new book that examines the future of food:
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