- 3 months ago
The Future of Food: Mariam and Zimal ask experts how science and technology can change the world of food as we know it. Can robots help farms? Can chocolate without cocoa make food more ethical? Can we protect our crops from climate change and environmental disasters?
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00:00Hi, I'm Mariam and I'm Zimel. I'm a scientist and researcher and I'm a
00:04secondary school student. We're here to ask questions like where does our food
00:07come from and how does it get onto our plate? From growing food to waste, from
00:12culture and tradition to cost, science, climate and the future, we'll be
00:17exploring all of this in... Generation Food!
00:30In this episode we're going to look at the future of food. Things like
00:47technology, climate change and science. I visited WB Chambers, a farm in Kent that
00:53specializes in fruit growing. They work with countries all around the world and
00:57grow a third of the raspberries that we eat throughout the entire of the UK.
01:04This is just one of WB Chambers' ginormous farms but has the weather been kind to
01:10them and have they had a fruitful year? All of the crops, everything that we were
01:15prepared for at the beginning of the year, say in June, all of the labour that we had
01:18couldn't happen. Political challenges, September is the wettest month since 1940
01:23or something like that so it's pretty tough. Obviously it's not just us going
01:26through climate change. In southern Morocco they had three to five days of 50
01:31degree heat. 50 degree heat is difficult to live, never mind grow a crop. We do
01:35sometimes have to rely on other countries, right, to fill in the gaps in the country.
01:39Yes, when it gets to winter, yeah. We've got a small office in Mexico where there's
01:42Egyptian grown, the South African grown, there's fruit grown in Kenya and Tanzania
01:46just on raspberries. To make sure that we have raspberries all the time. So I'm
01:51heading somewhere a little bit less windy to chat to Fernando. I want to ask him
01:55about the weather in Portugal and how him and his crops are getting on. So hopefully
01:59he's going to answer my call. Hello Fernando, tell me a little bit about the farm.
02:03I'm today in the southwest part of Portugal, you know, the Mira region, one of the best
02:08regions in the world to produce berries. You can produce for almost nine months.
02:12How are your crops doing? It has been more challenging because the weather is more
02:16unpredictable than ever. And do you guys get enough rain too or is it just quite hot?
02:21It has been more scarce, the rain. When it rains, sometimes it's during a very short period
02:26of time and very, very heavily. Water has been one of the biggest concerns of the growers
02:30nowadays. What are you hoping to do for the future if it gets like really dry? Do you think
02:34that you might be able to use seawater in the future? Yeah, that's one of the possibilities.
02:39What do you think that young people should know about farming? Food is one of the most important
02:43things that we have. And to make sure that all the world have enough food, there is new
02:49scientific tools that need to develop. Thank you so much for showing us your farm.
02:54We then got to see the raspberries up close. They're surprisingly hard to pick. What are
02:59we looking for then with a perfect raspberry? We are looking for flavour. We're looking for
03:04shelf life. We want disease resistance within the plant. To get a robot to pick a raspberry
03:08without breaking it, it's perhaps 10, 20 years away. However, we have robots now on the farm
03:15that can do ultraviolet treatment to disrupt pest and disease issues that might affect the
03:19plant. I think genetics will play a big part in the future of farming. Gene editing, shading
03:24out of certain traits within a plant's makeup, make them more resilient for a warmer or dry
03:30climate. I suppose the world might be changing faster than they can evolve to catch up naturally.
03:35That's exactly it. So we've got to make sure that people can afford to eat the food and
03:40that we treat the environment as best we can using technology to do that.
03:48Climate change can make us feel worried sometimes. One in three young people in Britain are scared,
03:53sad or pessimistic about climate change, with 28% feeling overwhelmed. And what food we eat
03:59is often determined by the weather we have. If we get too much rain and flooding, farmers
04:04can't plant crops. If their harvest is delayed, waiting for the weather to clear up, that can
04:09drastically affect what's grown and when it's ready. But demand is always there. So if our
04:14farmers haven't gotten tomatoes in time, supermarkets import them, which is bad for the environment.
04:20And we're back at square one. Although our weather can get quite extreme, we're lucky in the UK
04:24because we get a range of hot, cold, rain, more rain and then some sun. But throughout the world,
04:30natural disasters like cyclones and extreme weather conditions like drought and flooding have
04:36seriously affected farms, water sources, making the price of food go up, which can lead to starvation
04:42and communities really struggling to grow food that gives them the nutrition and health they need.
04:47This can be made worse by geopolitical events like war. So what are we doing about it? Well,
04:53a lot. Collecting rainfall like James does on his farm, then using that to irrigate crops,
04:58is vital to countries who have trouble with their water supply. Vertical farms that use artificial
05:03light to grow vegetables, even tomatoes in winter, have seen a lot of success and don't need pesticides
05:09and it avoids importing. Urban farming. Imagine growing food on the side of a building. The more
05:15green you see, the more CO2 absorbed. Drones are also being used on farms to monitor crops and predict
05:20the weather to yield the best results. There's also genetics. Feels like a lot of pressure. It does,
05:27but if we all do even just a little bit like recycling or shopping more sustainably, that includes food
05:33and clothes, then it will help. I also found out that mushrooms can be the future of food too.
05:38They're easy to grow and super healthy.
05:43We're here at a mushroom farm to find a way to be more environmentally friendly.
05:48We're going to try to find an alternative to meat.
05:50The first thing that we're going to do is get on all of our PPE.
05:56So why are mushrooms so cool?
05:58Fungi are so important to everything with life on earth. So they are nature's decayers,
06:03they break down material. We're growing one of my favourite mushrooms in the whole world,
06:07lion's mane. It can do everything from improve your memory to helping you sleep.
06:11And why do they need this environment to grow specifically?
06:15You might in nature find lion's mane growing in a woodland in autumn. So this room is mimicking
06:21that. Been loads of problems lately for traditional farmers where it's been too hot or too wet.
06:26And that's why I love this form of agriculture and why I think it's the future of agriculture in this
06:30country because we can do it all year round. We don't have a risk of contamination.
06:34I don't usually like to eat mushrooms. Could you do anything to convince me to eat it?
06:40We're all used to seeing horrible poorly cooked mushrooms on a rubbish fry up, aren't we? But these
06:45are completely different. The texture of them, the flavour of them and what you can do.
06:50Whether you're vegan, veggie or not, there are even chefs making mushrooms look and taste like meat.
06:56The meat industry causes 11 to 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So swapping out your
07:03chicken every now and then for mushrooms could make a nice roast dinner and save the world.
07:08You said it's good for the environment.
07:10So we've actually designed this room to be super energy efficient. So that's everything from the
07:15walls to the ceiling using low energy lighting systems. If you compare this to traditional
07:22agriculture we have a very very low energy usage. What's the next step? We take them into our
07:27processing space where we dry them and prepare them to give to our customer. What I'd like to do is
07:32take a look and tell me what you think. Oh wow, it reminds me of like chicken.
07:39And what do you think it smells like? It smells really unique, like it smells like caramel sort of.
07:45What you've got here is a lion's mane mushroom growing kit. Getting to the stage that we have
07:51the block ready is actually a really complex process. So that's why we've done that bit of
07:55the process for you. By the time you get home with your kit all you need to do is set it up,
07:59spray it and give it the right temperature. How can science and farming come together?
08:04They're actually very closely linked. You know if you're a farmer, you're a physicist,
08:07you're a biologist, you're a chemist, all combined and you're an engineer for sure. What you're doing is
08:12you're implementing all of the basic science skills that you learn in school, in class.
08:16So like if you don't have a farm nearby you could grow it at home?
08:19Exactly, yeah. We're called Urban Farm It because the whole point is that we're
08:23enabling people who don't have access to traditional farming the opportunity to grow their own food at home.
08:32Well we've talked about fruit, mushrooms, which is all very healthy.
08:35So we got our reporter Daniel to check out a chocolate factory but with a scientific twist.
08:42Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Daniel. The smell of chocolate when you walk in.
08:52So first off on the tour, how does it all come together to create this cocoa-free chocolate?
08:57We've got some cereals here, so there's things like British barley, oats. This is
09:01carob, quite chocolatey as you can see. We put them through our processes so there's roasting,
09:05fermentation and then we mix them with things like sugar and fat. This is where we put all of our
09:10ingredients in. You can see in there everything is being mixed around and ground.
09:18So Giacomo, you're a chocolatier here. We're going to do some tempering.
09:21We have to start with melted chocolate. Of course.
09:23Precisely at 50 degrees is easy, don't worry.
09:28You want to try? Yeah, sure.
09:29How important is texture in terms of creaminess and meltiness?
09:37It's the most important. Here we just develop the recipe and then our factory produce for the mass.
09:45I'm not quite the professional you are Giacomo, but...
09:47Don't worry. You want to try? Sure, yeah.
09:50That's amazing. It genuinely tastes like it has cocoa in it. Genuinely. That's the power of science.
10:03How does this machine and the graph affect the way the chocolate is made and how it tastes?
10:08From this we can pick out specific flavour compounds that we're looking for. So if we wanted to find a
10:13specific nutty compound, we could take a look at a peek and see whether or not it's in our chocolate
10:19and real chocolate. So will this graph allow you to see what two flavours go well together?
10:24Yeah. For example, it could identify the presence of acids and obviously you don't want too many
10:29acids in your foods, so you need to balance it out. We want there to be more chocolate in the world,
10:36but for it to be made in a way that's fair without using cocoa pods, which is what people use to make
10:42chocolate. There's lots of horror stories. Ethics, environment, you know, cows and pigs being treated
10:47badly. The story of palm oil and the deforestation and the loss of habitat. The way the world is
10:53feeding itself is like killing the planet. Here in the UK, we're a bit immune to it, but actually
11:00lots of the world's food is grown by people in the global south earning, you know, a dollar a day
11:04who are having to make their kids under the ages of seven, like work with them. The chocolate that you
11:09guys make. Is it local? Is it all based in the UK? Two thirds of all the world's cocoa beans comes
11:14from just two countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana. So instead we've tried to use, yeah, ingredients that
11:19we can find locally. We use things like legumes and cereals, so the granola I ate for breakfast. Our
11:26idea is let's use these things that the world already grows lots of. Would you say it's cheaper in
11:31a way? We're aiming to be the same price. If we make something that's amazing, but it's really expensive,
11:36we're not going to change the world. We're not going to have an impact. To be honest,
11:39you haven't got more chocolate in the world.
11:45It sounded like it really could be the future of chocolate, more ethical and less emissions
11:49from importing the cocoa. That's it for now. We'll be discussing what the future of food
11:53will look like in our Generation Food group chat after the break.
11:57Welcome back to Generation Food. In this episode's group chat, we went to Homewood School in Kent.
12:08I spoke to beekeeper Joanne, architect Silvio, scientist and historian Sue and Homewood School's
12:14very own Ella. And I got some questions from our audience. Then the students came up and spoke
12:20about the importance of food and our world. How do you guys feel like climate change is having an
12:34influence on how we're growing and how we're eating at the moment? More people are buying from local
12:39farm shops. They don't want the urban miles of their produce coming from abroad. I think we've become a
12:46lot more aware of like our impact on our planet. I think as a society going forward, we still need
12:52to look at plastic use within food. A recent statistic said that it was 12.5 million tons of
12:58plastic just in food production alone last year, which is a lot of plastic. And this is going to
13:04landfill and contributing to global warming due to the methane release. We actually need to mitigate
13:08the impacts that older generations have created. And as a society, we've realised that actually a lot of
13:14the time we are wasting food. In this country, more than the 30% of food that is produced and sold
13:21is wasted. Yeah. And Sylvia, you try to help, I suppose, with architecture. Climate change is going
13:28to have a radical impact on cities because cities are big storage of heat because of the concrete,
13:34because of the materials, because of the way they're constructed. And a way to mitigate that heat is
13:40through greenery, growing on rooftops, growing in between buildings. My name's Ayla and I'm 13 years
13:46old. And what's your question for the panel today? Is this new genetically modified food good for you?
13:52So far, all the evidence we have is that genetically modifying food doesn't cause any harm to the human
13:57body. The gene that we've decided to add to something is more important. So what are we actually
14:02putting in? What gene are we deciding to put in? Is it to increase the amount of antioxidants a tomato
14:08produces, for example? That has actually been shown to reduce cases of cancer in animals in the
14:13experiments that we've done? It's important that we choose carefully what kind of genes that we're
14:17deciding to put into the DNA of our food and our crops. And that's why it takes a really long time
14:22for us to decide if we're actually going to genetically modify something or not. I think from a
14:26sustainability point of view on genetic engineering is it could be really beneficial, especially with
14:31rice farming being one of the biggest contributors to global warming in the agricultural side of things.
14:38And I think that we could potentially engineer it to make sure that there aren't as many carbon
14:43emissions or maybe possibly combat problems globally. And Sue, tell me about how science is stepping in
14:50in food production. There's a new thing called regenerative farming and the idea is to go back to some of
14:57the older methods of farming, but actually using things such as GPS technology to work out the best
15:03ways of doing that. My name is Barnaby and I'm 12. And what's your question for the experts today?
15:10What effects do energy drinks have on your mood and thoughts and stuff? If you consume a lot of them,
15:17then you run a risk of getting sort of sugar high, sugar lows, which you don't really need. Are they
15:25really necessary? Can't you just get it from water, perhaps fruit juices diluted from a cup of coffee?
15:33Sugar from honey, in actual fact, is better for us, especially if you're a diabetic. The type of
15:39sugar that's in honey is easily digested. My name is James, I'm 13. And what would you like to ask the
15:46panel today? How can we protect the bees without AI taking over? Well, in actual fact, there is a good
15:52place for AI in beekeeping because bees have a mind of their own. They'll do what they want anyway.
15:59But with AI, we can use that technology for humidity, temperature to test inside a hive without us
16:07actually opening it up. Would you see a robot in a bee suit? Probably not, I guess. In actual fact,
16:13I think it will be very beneficial for AI. It will protect the mood of the bees without too much
16:20intervention from us. What about robots and AI and drones? Certainly on the larger farms. Yeah.
16:27But as long as it's used sensibly, then I think that that's not a problem. It's more efficient way of
16:32doing something rather than using workers, if you like. My name is Charlotte and I'm 13. And what would
16:38you like to ask the panel today? I would like to ask is being vegetarian good for your body? Personally,
16:45in my experience, I found that it actually has been beneficial because my spots have gotten better
16:51and it's just not so heavy for you every night before you go to bed, so it can actually increase
16:56your sleep pattern better. Does anyone on the panel like mushrooms at all? Yeah. Love them. They're great.
17:03I love mushrooms when I need to cut out meat from my diet for religious or other reasons. Meat
17:09substitutes are massive at the moment and I wondered what you guys think about this wave of veganism,
17:14vegetarianism. We need to think of our food behaviours and diets because the way we eat
17:20has an impact on the planet. Diet-wise, I mean, meat is quite difficult for us as humans to digest
17:27and in moderation it can be fine, but over long periods of time it's not actually good for us to
17:32break down and the impact it has on our planet as a whole is quite substantial. But also with
17:39vegetarianism, I think that they have some great substitutes. I think it's a really good idea to
17:45make more use of mushrooms because vegan alternatives often, if you have let's say a sort of sausage
17:51alike substitute, you're actually doing an awful lot of ultra processing and with also other substitutes
17:58such as jackfruit. It's not something that naturally grows in this country and I think mushrooms are a
18:04much better alternative. What do you guys think about the future of food? Bees are very important as
18:09pollinators and sadly they are dying out because of pesticides. We extract everything and we don't give
18:17anything to leave the environment as pristine as we can. We've become so reliant on ultra processed foods.
18:25For me the future of food would be to go back a bit more to the much more homegrown and you know home
18:34created, less reliance on pesticides and not wasting food. We're definitely becoming more aware of our
18:41problem and tackling it and so I think if we work together as a society we'll be able to tackle food
18:46poverty as well within that and become more sustainable as a society together. Thank you panel.
18:56Can you guys tell me one thing that you've learnt today that you didn't know before Josh? Probably
19:00about the energy drinks and what's inside of them. I didn't know about modifying food genetically. Yeah
19:06do you think you'd try it? Yeah I think I probably would. It's better for like the diabetic to like have
19:11sugar from the bees than from obviously other sugars yeah. What about climate change did you guys
19:16know anything about climate change before have you learned anything new? We live in the UK it's cold
19:21and wet and obviously here it can be like hard to like grow some things where maybe like out in like
19:26you know tropical like Africa and stuff like that obviously it's it's hard for them as well because
19:30yeah it's hot they can grow other things that we can't but also because of like drought and stuff
19:36it's hard for them as well. I didn't really know that food and climate change could have such an impact
19:41on each other. Yeah yeah. We met someone who's actually making cocoa less chocolate so chocolate
19:45without cocoa. What do you guys think about being ethical with our food because the whole point was
19:50to prevent us taking cocoa from farmers unethically you know you have like fair trade bananas. Do you
19:56guys think it's important to be ethical with your food choices? Yeah I think it is important but you
20:02also have to think about how long you're going to be able to source things that way. What do you guys feel
20:07about us using science in food? Do you think it's cool? Do you think it's a bad thing? I think it's
20:13cool because they use loads of different machines to work out what's inside of it and how make how to
20:18make it. I think it is important that we do it for the sustainability of our food but we need to make
20:24sure that we research it well to make sure it all works before we eat it. I do think that like cooking
20:30to do with food it already does include science and I do think that like science could help find
20:37alternatives for like vegans and vegetarians. What do you guys think about meat alternatives? Are
20:42you interested in them or are you happy eating meat? I'm happy eating meat because with meat
20:48alternatives I'm not really sure what's in it and like just the thought of it being vegetables makes
20:54me a bit like crazy so yeah. Because I think obviously the transition from meat and then making it
21:01like plant-based it's some things you know they'll be fine and they'll be like okay that's pretty
21:06similar to meat then other things you try it and you're just a bit like oh. Since I was a kid I've
21:11been trying meat so I wouldn't know anything different and I wouldn't know how to change straight away.
21:16It's hard to change things that we've been doing our whole life right but maybe we've been learning
21:20about how meat is producing more methane in the environment stuff about how when we're transporting all this
21:27meat across the world it's releasing so much carbon into the atmosphere so maybe looking more about
21:32reducing our meat consumption. Do you guys have any vegan or vegetarian options here at school
21:37in school meals? Yeah I've seen it in the cafeteria where we'll have like vegan on the containers and
21:44stuff. And I've got friends she's pescetarian and obviously because I eat meat obviously the sausage
21:48rolls which is what's available in our school canteen. I have tried some of hers and also you can tell
21:53when you're tasting it that it's different but obviously it's not far off and it's not bad.
21:58Are you guys willing to make any changes in what you eat right now? Do you think you took away
22:03anything today that made you think maybe I'll do this different or do that different? I'd probably
22:08be willing to try but I don't know if you would be able to switch me completely. Yeah. Do you think
22:13you could do one veggie meal a week? Yeah I think I could yeah. No I probably couldn't. Fair enough. Maybe like Maisie
22:21said maybe like once a week once in a while you could do that like one veggie meal probably. Yeah.
22:28And if you even like start to like it you could make it like two days a week three days a week.
22:34How would you feel if I told you to eat a bug? I don't think I would but they can be full of
22:39protein and things like that so. No I wouldn't. No. If I was in the nature and like I didn't have any food
22:46situation. So yeah life or death then I would eat it but. How would you guys feel about if it was the
22:50future of food? We have to eat insects because they're easier to get. I mean if it's the future
22:55then just gonna have to you know I mean if that's like the last thing. What do you think the future
23:01of food is going to be like? Maybe like AI will be like involved. Do you think there will be more
23:06alternatives as well? Less energy in it and more like carbohydrates and stuff like that. People will
23:12definitely try and get across to us the message about healthy eating and things like that and
23:16try and improve our diets. Thank you so much to my student panel and thank you to our audience for
23:21our questions.
23:51We'll see you next time.
23:56We'll see you next time.