How will the modern food disruption work in poorer regions and nations around the world?

As with many other disruptions throughout history, any region, nation, or even city or local community can reap the rewards of early adoption of Precision Fermentation (PF) and Cellular Agriculture (CA).

This will translate into higher-quality foods that are more affordable. There will be direct social and economic benefits, as well as indirect benefits from the reduction of environmental and human health impacts associated with animal agriculture.

In the case of PF and CA, both the technologies and the disruption they cause have the potential to be economic and geopolitical equalizers. This is because there are no major geographic or economic barriers to the food disruption, and the technologies themselves are inherently amenable to decentralization. Poorer regions, nations, cities and local communities can choose to lead the disruption of food (and energy and transportation), leapfrogging over the older, dirtier technologies. Moreover, history shows that established centers of power typically struggle to embrace disruptions, and instead resist them. The incentives and mindsets of their stakeholders and institutions are focused on protecting the status quo from which they benefit.

Explore the evidence...

The economics of modern food technologies are such that the disruption will play out regardless of the actions taken by decision-makers in any single country, but these decision-makers do have the power to speed up or slow down adoption of the new technologies. We believe the opportunities for businesses and investors to create wealth, for consumers to buy cheaper, healthier food, and for policymakers to enable extraordinary economic, health, social and environmental benefits mean each group will embrace these technologies far quicker than the current mainstream narrative suggests. Read more about the choices and planning for these agents of change on p59-63 of our Rethinking Food & Agriculture report.
Geography will no longer offer any competitive advantage. We will move from a centralized system dependent on scarce resources to a distributed system based on abundant resources. Learn more about the disruption by reading a summary of our key findings on p7 of our Food & Agriculture Report
The future of Food-as-Software technology represents an opportunity for a food system that is distributed, efficient and abundant.
- Food-as-Software describes a process whereby where individual molecules engineered by scientists are uploaded to databases.
- These databases then become molecular cookbooks that food engineers anywhere in the world can use to design products in the same way that software developers design apps.
- This model ensures constant iteration so that products improve rapidly, with each version superior and cheaper than the last. It also ensures a production system that is completely decentralized and much more stable and resilient than industrial animal agriculture.
  - Learn more about Food-as-Software in our blog post
  - Explore the future of Precision Fermentation and learn more about the impacts
A more decentralized and resilient production model, closer to the consumer, means food production will no longer be at the mercy of geography, or of extreme price, quality and volume fluctuations due to climate, seasons, disease, epidemics, geopolitical restrictions or exchange-rate volatility. Learn more about the improvements in attributes of a modern food system on p21 of our report
Ultimately, decisions made regarding intellectual property rights and approval processes will determine which system develops where. Learn more about the opportunities and choices available for decision-makers in the new supply chain on p45-47 of our report

Witness the transformation

We are on the cusp of the deepest, fastest, most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals 10,000 years ago. The impact of this disruption will be profound, and affect nations all over the world.

Decision-makers must also recognize there are no geographical barriers to the food and agriculture disruption, so if the U.S. resists or fails to support the modern food industry, other countries such as China will capture the health, wealth and jobs that accrue to those leading the way. Policymakers must, therefore, start planning for the modern food disruption now in order to capture the extraordinary economic, social and environmental benefits it has to offer.

Learn more about the disruption of food & agriculture.

Published on: 12/07/23