One of the most basic definitions of technology is “the practical application of knowledge”. That’s why a lot of historians point to the introduction of farming as one of the first and most significant technologies to revolutionise human life. Jared Diamond, in Guns, Germs, and Steel points to the key role of farming in allowing surplus effort to be made available within tribes communities for specialisation in almost every other endeavour including weapons, social customs, and tools. Today, eleven thousand years later, another huge revolution in food production might be under way. 

There is, of course, a somewhat larger issue here—we have a planet to save, and finding substitutes to meat is one of the critical associated problems to solve. 24% of all green house gases are connected to land use and agriculture. And 5% is accounted for by farm animals. Because of this, as well as the health implications of eating meat, there’s a lot of focus on alternative and synthesised food, and plant based meat substitutes. You may or may not have tried the impossible burger, but here’s a informative video from the company behind it, Impossible Foods, which is using soybeans, potato extracts and other natural vegetable based inputs to get as close to real meat as possible. You might think this is a niche product for vegans, but there are reasons to believe this is more than a fad.

Yet, this excellent report by RethinkX, a disruption think tank, suggests that this is going to become the “deepest, fastest, most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals ten thousand years ago.” They argue that by 2030, the cost of these artificial proteins will be 5x cheaper than real meat, and by 2035, it will be 10x cheaper. Oh and they will be better on every attribute – more nutritious, healthier, better tasting, and more convenient, with almost unimaginable variety. Here’s a simple summary of the proposition—driven by advancements in software, synthetic biology, and computing, we can now design food from the molecule upwards, rather than starting with live animals and plants. Coupled with precision fermentation which also allows us to harness yeast and bacteria to create the food factories of the future. 

Do you know what the last significant change in agriculture was? It came a hundred or so years ago, with the arrival of the automobile, because at the time, a huge part of agriculture was for feeding horses uses for transport. This time, the impact will be bigger. Here’s an excellent example of 80 Acres farms, so called because it can produce the equivalent of 80 acres of farmland, from a quarter acre farm. Because of the size and control of these indoor farms, they can be located close to markets, and so don’t have to worry about produce over a long journey. Consequently they can be picked and packed more efficiently. This kind of productivity also allows us to reach the ‘food abundance’ levels which will be required to meet global food demand levels that are expected to be 70% higher than today. 

So while all the VC excitement is around food delivery, via Uber, or Just Eat, or the next cool food app, or perhaps robots delivering from your favourite restaurant, you should probably bear in mind that the real revolution is taking place even before the kitchen got involved. Sure there are any number of questions—from acceptability, to ethics, and from economic viability to labelling. And then there are all the unintended consequences. For starters, up to 60% of land used for livestock and feed production may be freed up for other uses, in the US, this represents a quarter of the country, that will need to be re-imagined. How’s that for a challenge?