“THE NUTRITION OF THE FUTURE LOOKS A LOT LESS FUTURISTIC THAN MANY OF US TODAY LIKE TO IMAGINE”

MS WUNDER, WHAT WILL WE BE EATING 30 YEARS FROM NOW

Stephanie Wunder: First and foremost, people across the globe are going to be eating… more. That’s because the world’s population is growing rapidly. Currently, there are around seven billion people on earth, but forecasts predict that this number is likely to rise to ten billion by 2050. This will increase the demand for food, feed and other raw materials to produce clothing, energy, and the like. This, in turn, will pose a major challenge, because the available natural resources don’t just grow with the population.

THIS SOUNDS EXTREMELY PROBLEMATIC.

Wunder: On top of that, we’re not using the available resources in a sustainable way. About one third of the food produced worldwide isn’t actually consumed, but instead gets spoilt on its way to the consumer or simply ends up being thrown away. The way the consumption of meat and other animal products is rising worldwide is also unsustainable, because these products consume considerably more resources than plant foods. From a health perspective, too, the amount of animal-based food consumed in industrialised countries – including Germany – is far too high. And other countries are catching up here: with a growing middle class throughout the world, particularly in the emerging markets, the demand for animal products is growing proportionally, partly because these products are still considered a sign of prosperity.

DOES THIS MAKE THE CONSUMPTION OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS A STATUS SYMBOL?

Wunder: Many factors play a role in shaping our eating habits. The expression of wealth and status is not dominant in this regard, but it does have an influence. For example, it’s noticeable that the demand for dairy products is increasing in Asia, even though many Asians are lactose intolerant – that is, by eating dairy products they’re actually harming their health.

SO, MORE AND MORE PEOPLE WANT MORE AND MORE ANIMAL PRODUCTS...

Wunder: Precisely – and this trend is highly problematic. That’s because, compared to plant products, for instance, the production of animal products uses up much more resources. The production of the equivalent number of calories or amount of proteins from animal sources consumes – when you look at the production of the necessary animal feed – many times more land, water and energy and leads to more greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Wunder: We can reduce our consumption of animal products. A more plant-based diet is also an important contribution to securing enough food for the entire world population and combating the climate crisis: currently, statistically speaking, each and every German eats around 60 kilograms of meat per year. Even health experts agree that this is far too much. For example, the German Nutrition Society (DGE) suggests that – if we really have to eat meat in the first place – we should eat half as much as we do. In the 2019 EAT Lancet study, which got worldwide attention, international scientists calculated that each person on earth ought to be eating no more than 15kg of meat to ensure a healthy and environmentally friendly diet.

HOW CAN WE CHANGE THAT?

Wunder: If we want to start changing eating habits, we don’t need prohibitions so much as perseverance, lots of incentives and different framework conditions. On the one hand, the societal costs arising from the production and consumption of animal products need to be factored in when we purchase meat so that the real price based on the true costs is reflected. At the moment, our cheap meat prices are costing us dearly: for instance, through high costs in the health system, nitrate in the groundwater, greenhouse gas emissions and antibiotic resistance – not to mention the suffering of the animals, which is never reflected in any price tag. Furthermore, alternatives to meat need to be promoted more actively. This would allow canteens to expand and improve their menus with more plant-based meals. More research should be conducted into finding alternatives to meat, and the latter should be promoted wherever appropriate. Schools can have a beneficial influence when it comes to teaching even the youngest schoolchildren healthy eating habits, for example by means of school gardens and concepts for developing nutritional competence.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES TO MEAT?

Wunder: Nowadays, we’ve got a wide range of alternatives to choose from – from a varied vegan or vegetarian diet to meat alternatives that are derived from plants or insects and which increasingly imitate meat’s smell, taste and appearance and can be prepared for cooking in the same way as meat. From an environmental point of view, vegetable-based meat alternatives, especially, come off best here – as do tofu or seitan. From a health point of view, preference should be given to products that are minimally processed. Insects too are a good alternative source of protein. Since insects consume slightly fewer resources in production than meat from beef, pork and chicken, they’re also interesting from an environmental perspective. However, at the moment, I don’t see insect consumption playing a major role in Europe as a meat alternative in the near future, because its overall acceptance is low, with the “disgust factor” continuing to remain dominant, and also because meat is still much cheaper.

WHAT ABOUT MEAT FROM THE LAB?

Wunder: Many small companies are already cultivating meat cells in the laboratory, that is, “in vitro” in the Petri dish. However, these are small-scale endeavours still at the testing stage and these products are not yet available on the market. For this reason, life cycle assessments are not yet known, even though there are many indications that production is highly energy-intensive. Another great challenge is to develop a serum-free – meaning animal-free – culture medium in which the cells can grow. For now, fetal calf serum, obtained from the blood of unborn calves, is being used for this purpose – and this is neither animal-friendly, nor cost-efficient.

TALKING ABOUT FUTURISTIC FOOD: WHAT OTHER FOODS WILL BE AWAITING US IN THE FUTURE?

Wunder: The most important task for the future is to feed a growing world population in a healthy way and within planetary limits – in other words, in an environmentally friendly way. We don’t need a futuristic world of new food to do this. Of course, digitalisation, progress in breeding methods and new technologies can help bring us closer to this goal. And of course, there’ll be people drinking powder shakes instead of cooking meals, using 3D printers to print their food, growing vegetables and mushrooms underground, developing personalised nutrition with tracking apps or breeding their insects at home. In many respects, however, the media attention directed towards these new ideas distracts us from the fact that we can also tackle the challenges of the future with tried-and-tested solutions for food production and consumption.