Welcome to dinnertime in the year 2070. Your food鈥攑erfectly tailored to your genome鈥攊s prepared by a . Your kitchen is full of healthy fats and regionally sourced food, and you haven鈥檛 counted calories in decades. You can credit your longer life span to the doctor-prescribed medication in your cabinet: produce. And the majority of your protein comes from听insects.
How we鈥檒l eat听50 years from now is uncertain. But according to leading experts in food policy, agriculture, and nutrition, factors like climate change, individual and societal health trends, and technology will all听change what鈥檚 on our plates. We asked听five leaders in the food industry about what to expect听in the coming decades. From the unsurprising听to the听闯别迟蝉辞苍蝉-esque, here are some of their most compelling predictions.听
Dinner Will Be Served Hot and Fresh Out of the Lab听
Expert: Dr.听Stuart Farrimond
Physician,听food-science writer, and BBC radio host
According to ,听the future of nutrition will have two separate camps: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have one group of people who want 鈥榯he fix,鈥欌 he says. 鈥淭hey will听want processed food that has all the answers.鈥 You鈥檒l find this group of people taking听DNA tests to get , popping听 marketed as 鈥渁dvanced supplements,鈥 biohacking, and eating food that鈥檚 designed for them based on their genetics.
鈥淎nd then you鈥檝e got another group of people who shun all of that,鈥 Farrimond says. 鈥淭hey want natural, uncontaminated, organic, back-to-nature food.鈥澨齌his group will be conscious of the environment, eating food technologically altered for their health and the planet鈥檚.听According to Farrimond, this population will abandon the carbon-intensive meat industry and opt for powdered blends of meat鈥檚 high-protein, low-impact cheap alternative: insects. They鈥檒l also cook with sugar enhanced 听to be sweeter (making it possible to use听less) and听听ingredients into intricate gastronomic masterpieces.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l have the most spectacular dinner parties,鈥 Farrimond says.
We鈥ll Finally Embrace Fat
Expert: Elyse Kopecky
Nutrition coach and New York Times bestselling author
Many experts already think听it鈥檚 time to , and is one of them. The author, who cowrote both 听cookbooks听with four-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan, thinks that the future is simpler than wacky gene blends and technology. Instead, she believes that all athletes will embrace healthy fats听and听eliminate restrictive eating from听the mix.
鈥淏utter is a health food,鈥 says听Kopecky.听鈥淚t鈥檚听more nutrient dense than kale.鈥 She predicts that in a decade or two,听the athlete鈥檚 kitchen听will be filled with calorically dense unrefined oils, butter, and other flavor-packed ingredients. 鈥淲hen you cook with fat, it tastes better,鈥 she says.
As a young runner, Kopecky experienced听amenorrhea听and stress fractures, and looking back, she blames her diet.听鈥淟ow-fat everything and all frozen, prepackaged meals,鈥 she says. When she changed her eating habits听to include ample calories, particularly from fat, her symptoms disappeared. Kopecky hopes that athletes of the future won鈥檛听have to wait until their bodies break down to change their diets.
Don鈥檛 Count on California
Expert: Tom Philpott
Food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones
California is 听state in the country for agricultural production today, boasting a long list of exports including听almonds, pistachios, strawberries, avocados, dairy, walnuts, and more. However,听听says that consumers of the future will have to count the state, and its crops,听out.听California, along with the rest of America, is projected to experience at the hands of climate change, including more wildfires like the one in听Paradise,听severe听drought, and the looming possibility of an overdue听. That鈥檚 bad news for a host of reasons, but, according to Philpott, it will hit the food-supply chain especially hard.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have to engage in what I call decalifornization,鈥 he says. (In other words, avocado toast will no longer听be the brunch food of the moment.)听
Sustainability Will Be Law
Expert: Tim Griffin
Director of the agriculture, food, and environment program at Tufts University听
Griffin, an adviser to the most recent U.S. , thinks sustainability will color the future of food at every stage of听production, shopping, and preparation. Consumers of tomorrow will be hyperaware of how food gets to their plate, he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l need to ask not just, 鈥榃hat am I going to eat for dinner?鈥 but 鈥榃hat am I going to eat for dinner, and how will that impact X, Y, and Z?鈥欌澨
Griffin says that everyday shoppers have the most sway in what happens to our food system,听and she believes that a greater awareness of how our eating habits impact the planet will, eventually, influence听policy.听
鈥淭wenty-five to 40听percent of food grown on [American] farms听is wasted,鈥 he says.听鈥淏ut听in the past,听things have changed because of consumers. Social outcomes are important.鈥 People are taking waste more seriously, he says, and if that continues, sustainability will become part of our new guidelines. He points out that trend-based changes to the guidelines have happened before, but听slowly;听 for physical activity to be written in as an essential balance to our diets.
Your New Medicine Cabinet Is听the Fridge
Expert: Monica Mills
Executive director of Food Policy Action
Americans today have more prescriptions than ever, but they the medication they need. Similarly, fresh fruits and veggies are necessary for your body to function properly鈥攖hey听can even your brain structure鈥攂ut for some people, the high cost of produce means . 鈥淔ood is medicine,鈥 says Mills, whose organization in Washington, D.C.,听 improved access to food, farmers鈥 rights, and reducing the environmental impact of food production. Doctors and governments of the future, according to Mills, will understand听that.
Farmers are currently federally incentivized to grow mass crops like corn and soy, but to fruit and vegetable growers. That makes corn-based food鈥攕oda, fast-food burgers, nutrition bars鈥攃heaper, says Mills, and it gives low-income individuals less access to healthy, fresh foods.听
The future food market, according to Mills, will be saturated with programs like , which helps low-income people buy healthy, local food, and听, which allows doctors to prescribe produce as medicine. Mills acknowledges that the government鈥檚 stance on food production has historically been slow to change.听鈥淏ut 100 years from now,鈥 she says, 鈥淚听hope it will look very, very different.鈥