Vegetables that grow in tower gardens, insect burgers or meat from a test tube: Some groundbreaking ideas were actually developed long ago. An exhibition in Dresden looks into "future foods."
Image: Georgios Angelou
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In past centuries, many people were happy if they had enough food on their plates. They hunted animals and cultivated regional products in the fields. Today, you can find Japanese sushi next to Australian beef and avocados from Peru on supermarket shelves. Never before has the choice been so great, thanks to globalization.
In the 18th century, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French founder of the gastronomic essay genre, came up with the famous aphorism: "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."
Future food: What will we eat tomorrow?
How do global challenges affect the way we eat? The exhibition "Future Food: What will we eat tomorrow?" at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden explores groundbreaking ideas — some of which were developed in the past.
Image: IzumiMiyazaki
Boycotting sugar for freedom
The Sugar Boycott, launched in 1791, is believed to have been the first consumer boycott in history. Sugar had become the symbol of the English slave trade, and campaigners of the Abolitionist Movement smashed "sugar-tainted" tea cups. In the drawing above, the cartoonist Isaac Cruikshank made fun of the nobles of the time who saw themselves as freedom fighters, but mourned their sweet tea.
Image: The Trustees of the British Museum
An unhealthy trend: Cocoivores in 1902
In 1902, the vegetarian August Engelhardt traveled to German New Guinea (part of the German colonial empire at the time) and bought a coconut plantation there. Since the coconut grows high and close to the sun, he was convinced that its consumption made people immortal. He founded a sect of sun worshipers who were cocoivores — a diet based on coconuts only. Many of his disciples quickly died.
Image: Archiv Dieter Klein
Who invented the soy sausage?
More and more people are becoming vegetarians, so the food industry is developing various alternatives to meat. But this is not a new phenomenon. Even during the First World War, the then director of food supplies and later first Federal Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, invented a soy sausage to provide the population with protein-rich food. He even obtained a British patent for the product.
Image: Archiv der Stiftung Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus
A visionary project: The tower greenhouse
At the Vienna International Garden Show in 1964, the Austrian engineer Othmar Ruthner presented his "tower greenhouse." Flowers and vegetables could grow in a 41-meter-high glass tower; irrigation and fertilization were fully automatic. The whole world was fascinated by the innovative project. At that time it did not prevail, but today Ruthner is considered a pioneer of "vertical farming."
Image: Gartenbauschule Langenlois
Against the import of cheap chicken
Ghana's poultry farmers have been struggling ever since Europe and the US started exporting their cheap frozen chicken parts to the African country at dumping prices. Only 5% of the market share is held by domestic poultry producers. A campaign is therefore encouraging people to consume locally-produced chicken instead.
Image: Eat Ghana chicken
For more transparency
Instead of mass-produced meat, more and more consumers are turning to organic food. However, information on the origins of the animal is usually not available. The company Block Bird's aims to provide the "world's most transparent chicken," according to their own slogan. The label records the entire journey of the chicken, from egg to grocery store through blockchain technology.
Image: The Future Market
A farm on water
Cultivation and pasture areas in the city are limited. An alternative has been developed in the Netherlands: The picture above shows a so-called floating farm in the port of Rotterdam. The stable on the water not only saves land, but also enables shorter transport routes for the milk these cows produce.
Image: Floating Farm
A six-legged snack
So far, Europeans are more used to seeing insects in glass displays than on their plates. However, consumption of some insects has been permitted in the EU since 2018. These nocturnal crickets, for example, can easily be mass-produced and processed into protein-rich food for people: as freeze-dried snacks or as a food additive in powder form.
Image: Lothar Sprenger
Aesthetic: Symmetry Breakfast
Eating is way more than the ingestion of food. Photographer Michael Zee has been publishing a picture of the breakfast he has prepared for himself and his partner on his Instagram account since 2013. Each time, their meal is arranged symmetrically. Zee wants to celebrate the details that stand for a caring relationship, the beauty in everyday life and the diversity of food culture.
Image: Michael Zee
Multisensory utensil
The spoons of the South Korean designer Jinhyun Jeon are said to enhance the taste experience through synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense also awakes other senses at the same time. To intensify the taste experience, the designer works with spoons that have different temperatures, colors, surface textures, sizes and shapes.
Image: Jinhyun Jeon
Food as lifestyle
Take a seat at a lush table and indulge in culinary delights. Will that still be possible in the future? The German Hygiene Museum in Dresden deals with this question in its exhibition "Future Food: What will we eat tomorrow?" which runs until February 21, 2021.
Image: Oliver Killig
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Food as a lifestyle
Every culture and every generation has a different understanding of what good food means. Twenty years ago, meat was an almost indispensable part of every German meal and a sign of prosperity.
Today, more and more people eat no meat at all in protest against industrial farming or for health reasons. Office canteens in Germany have developed their offer beyond the currywurst sausage. Discount supermarkets sell organic muesli and almond milk. At a packed restaurant table, it's rare not to have at least one guest who is vegetarian or vegan or needs gluten or lactose-free food.
Eating habits have become an expression of individual lifestyles, at least in wealthy industrial nations. But can and will this remain the case?
The number of vegetarians is growing in Germany, but meat remains extremely popular in the countryImage: picture-alliance
Consumption is a global responsibility
The Earth is currently populated by 7 billion people, 900 million of whom are starving. According to United Nations estimates, the planet's population will reach about 10 billion people in 2050. To feed them all, agricultural yields would have to be increased by at least 50%.
But usable arable land is scarce, and climate change is adding to the problem. In particular in the poorer regions of the world, droughts and plagues of locusts are causing increasingly dramatic crop failures.
The UN has long called for more global responsibility on the part of the rich industrial nations because consumption there has an impact on the rest of the world.
Global meat production, for instance, has more than tripled in the last 50 years. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it will grow by another 85% by 2050. But excessive meat consumption is not only harmful to health, it is bad for the climate. According to the Federal Environment Agency, one kilo of beef causes between seven and 28 kilos of greenhouse gas emissions, while fruit or vegetables cause less than one kilo.
While vegetarians often rely on tofu products made from soy, they're not the ones to blame for the fact that rainforests in regions such as the Amazon are cut down to cultivate the the crop — with devastating consequences for the environment. The world's soybeans are actually predominantly used to feed global livestock.
Brazil's appetite for beef eats into rainforest
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Not only biologists and nutritionists are aware that something urgently needs to be done about eating habits — many consumers are also rethinking their eating habits. Regional organic products are en vogue.
Vertical farming, lab-grown meat
For decades, researchers have been working to secure food supplies for humanity in the long term. They are trying to develop seeds that can withstand climatic change and pests. Vertical farming, where plants do not grow next to each other, but in a tower on top of each other, was developed to compensate for the lack of cultivable land.
In order to counteract intensive animal farming and the poor CO2 balance that goes along with it, biotechnology companies are developing meat products from the test tube. However, the lab-grown meat from stem cells is not likely to be very popular with critics of genetic engineering.
Vegan steak from a 3D printer
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Nutritional insects
Insects are used as an alternative to meat. Today, the bugs long eaten in Asia and Africa can be found in some German supermarkets. They are easy to breed and produce almost no greenhouse gases. In addition, according to food technologists, mealworms, grasshoppers, caterpillars etc. have many healthy proteins, and are available in a wide variety of flavors.
Astronaut food, enriched with all important nutrients and supplied in powder form as shakes or as a paste from a tube, is another option. but what will really land on our plates in the future is anyone's guess.
'Germany's first insect burger'Image: Imago Images/photothek
Exhibition: History of food
An overview of the exciting history of nutrition, including a peek at the future, is showcased in the exhibition "Future Food: What will we eat tomorrow?" at the German Hygiene Museum Dresden.
In Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's words, "The fate of the nation depends on the way it eats." That's certainly true for the whole world.
