As we are in the early stages of the disruption, modern food products are understandably expensive. But part of what makes a technology disruptive is the fact that the technology, as well as the technologies that underpin it, are all steadily decreasing in cost. In the case of Precision Fermentation, some of the technologies that underpin it include artificial intelligence, machine learning, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, bioinformatics and computational biology, many of which have been and are continually declining in cost.
Once the industry infrastructure has been built and multiple companies have scaled up, the cost of producing foods using Precision Fermentation will trend toward zero because so many of the variable costs associated with production will trend toward zero. This includes variable costs such as energy, water, transportation, labor and feedstock. These will all be affected by disruptions in other sectors including transportation, energy, information/automation, as well as further innovation in the food and agriculture sector.
The disruption of food and agriculture is primarily a protein disruption driven by economics. The cost of modern proteins will be five times cheaper than existing animal proteins by 2030 and 10 times cheaper by 2035. Eventually, they will be nearly as cheap as sugar. They will also be superior in every key attribute–more nutritious, healthier, better tasting and more convenient, with almost unimaginable variety. This means that by 2030 modern food products will be higher quality and cost less than half as much to produce as the animal-derived products they replace.
Learn more about the disruption and transformation of the food & agriculture sector.
Published on: 12/07/23