The Future of Food

Human beings need some 50g of protein a day. I eat a sandwich for lunch. It may have ham or turkey and a slice of cheese. The meat may weigh 50g but a lot of that is water, so the meat will have some 10g of protein and the cheese 5-7g as well.

The bread of the sandwich a few grams more. My breakfast is oatmeal and some berries (no protein, just vitamins). It will have some 6g of protein in a cup of oatmeal. If I have macaroni and cheese for dinner, I am close to getting my 50g. The point is, I did not need to eat steak or a burger. Most of my dinners have a little chicken, so I am safely in the 50g range. Americans eat an excess of protein, some 80g. The required protein is there for the amino acids that most of our tissue is made of. The additional amount is burned for energy, the same way starch (potatoes etc.) is.

For some people, it is important to eat vegetarian because of the CO2 emissions from raising animals. Live stock accounts for 15% of the CO2 we produce. For others, the concern is the millions eating poor food while we throw half of ours in the dumpster.

We are heading in the less animals more crops direction, since countries such as Japan and China no longer have the land area to feed their people (even if they eat only plants). Japan would have to be several times larger to feed their own. South Korea is in a similar situation, causing both to catch a lot of fish.

I live in a state with a small population and lots of farm land. The usual crops are soy beans and corn. Sandy soil areas are used for ranching, as it makes no sense to grow food crops where the water just drains quickly through the sand. But even there, some sugar beets are grown. Exports from the state are animal feed, meat and processed corn products such as fructose and corn oil. More than a hundred years ago the farmer had to feed himself and the neighboring towns, so wheat was initially grown in the Eastern part, the part that had enough rain. However, with climate change, the areas able to grow wheat will move North.  No plans are in place to replace corn with other crops, and indeed the food and feed industry dictates what the farmer grows. Possibly vast areas of the central states will have drought and some new science will be needed to help grow the crops, with corn moving to the central Midwest states. Beans and vegetables will grow in the winter season as climate warms. No studies on food (not feed) crops have been done for our state.

Processed food has a challenge in coming up with vegetarian dishes. I’ve sampled some at Target, but many seem to be lacking in strong flavor. We are used to salty and fatty foods. Mexican dishes can have more spicy flavor. The main line of processed food is stuck on advertising the product as “made with real…” labels, whether it is butter or cream of meat. Vegetarian foods are seen as a cheap imitation of “real” food. Pizza is a good as we get at making food in such a way, and even there cheese is a dairy product. No tofu-cheese had been invented yet. My skills would let me make food from scratch if I had at least cheese. Olives, peppers and mushrooms make fine toppings. The bread of the pizza still has the chewy taste we like from meat and the like. I look forward to getting at lest a bacon made from plant products, but I’ll pass on so called “veggie burgers.”

So, what are we eating now and the rest of the century? It seems to be stage moving away from beef and pork to chicken and turkey. The birds are fed the corn and soybeans we know so well to grow. Our state has some poultry exports and still the beef to japan. There the meat is eaten in small portions added to a rice dish. The average Japanese eats 2/3 of the calories and American does.

One thing we’ve most recently is that there is no need to take the fat out of food. Food distributors loved the low-fat foods for various reasons. They have longer shelf life, as fat is one part that spoils with time. But vegetable oil does no harm to a normal person, it is calories exactly in the same way starch is. If you eat excess starchy foods, the body converts it to fat for storage anyway.

Politically, the grass roots movement is getting some traction is producing locally and distributing locally. But it is a big fight, and large urban centers need to be fed by the big food corporations. Even growing locally is a challenge in the Trump era:

Trump has almost 100% record of siding with the bigger player, corporation vs faremer etc. in any fight.
A headline claims: Donald Trump Has Sold Out Family Farmers

"Trump claims he’s “fighting for our farmers,” but his policies mainly benefit agribusiness."
https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-has-sold-out-family-farmers/