False. Because modern products are built from the ground up and not broken down from a predetermined set, the possibilities for end products are unlimited.
Precision Fermentation is an incredibly versatile technology, where genetically engineering microorganisms are programmed to produce any molecules we want. Typically, this is done by taking the protein-building genes from an organism that naturally produces the protein we want and inserting it into the microorganism. The microorganism now creates the product in the same way that the natural organism does.
There are endless combinations of protein functions, fats, flavours, aromas and nutrition profiles that can be conceived of and produced.
On top of this, relatively recent advances in genetic sequencing, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies have expanded what is possible in the realm of protein design, cataloguing and production. This means that researchers and companies can create completely new proteins with new functions that do not resemble anything we have in nature, at a reasonable cost.
At the beginning stages of the disruption of food and agriculture, we do expect to mostly see replications of the animal foods we already have because it provides companies a clear goal and because such products may be more appealing to consumers initially. Eventually, however, we fully expect to see much more creativity and a wide variety of new and never-seen-before offerings.
Explore the evidence...
- The kinds of products and foods we can create from modern food technology will be infinite.
- Domestication of microorganisms, therefore, allows us simply to bypass the macroorganisms we currently grow to produce food and access the individual nutrients directly. By doing this, we can build up food from these nutrients to the exact specifications we need, rather than breaking down macroorganisms to access them. More than that, by moving production to the molecular level, the number of nutrients we can produce is no longer constrained by the plant or animal kingdoms. While nature provides us with millions of unique proteins, for example, we consume just a fraction of these because they are too difficult or too expensive to extract from macro-organisms. In the new system of production, these proteins become instantly accessible along with millions more that do not even exist today. Learn more about the domestication of microorganisms, and the infinite protein universe to come on p13-16 of our Rethinking Food & Agriculture report.
- The future of Food-as-Software will allow for an infinite number of new microorganisms to be engineered and created. The potential is limitless! Learn more about Food-as-Software.
- The future of Food-as-Software technology represents an opportunity for a food system that is abundant, diverse and distributed.
- 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.
- The potential for the molecules created are mathematically infinite. The Food-as-Software model ensures constant iteration so that products improve rapidly, with each version superior and cheaper than the last.
- Learn more about Food-as-Software in our blog post.
- Read more about the infinite potential of PF proteins.
- Explore the phenominal range of products created using precision fermentation today by exploring our Periodic Table of Precision Fermentation.
- Learn more about the future of Food-as-Software.
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.
This 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.
Learn more about the disruption and transformation of the food & agriculture sector.
Published on: 12/07/23
