What is ‘Food Tech’?: Silicon Valley's attempt to overthrow the traditional food industry
Our global food ecosystem is fragile.
Major transnational issues such as the ongoing Ukrainian War and the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed the shaky foundations of the traditional food industry. These events have raised a number of concerns regarding our current food system: the risks associated with an interconnected international supply chain, possibilities of zoonotic disease and the difficulty in feeding nearly 8 billion people around the globe. Current anxiety regarding climate change further underlines the need for change and innovation in the food sector. In this context, the budding Food Tech market promises an alternative way to think about the food industry.
The Food Tech market is essentially a group of Silicon Valley-connected start-ups ‘hacking’ the traditional food industry with innovative food-related technologies. Food Tech companies have positioned themselves as the solution to addressing contemporary challenges. Their goals include ‘improving human health, positively impacting climate change, conserving natural resources and respecting animal welfare'. The start-ups’ use of scientific and engineering principles foreshadow a novel-food industry, challenging longstanding cultural perceptions of food.
Technological and biochemical innovations guide this new industry. The development of alternative protein sources is one of the primary areas in which Silicon Valley is making significant progress. The meat industry accounts for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gases emissions. As such, innovations such as lab-grown meat or plant-based proteins are crucial to reducing the food industry’s ecological footprint.
Mark Prost, a specialist in tissues engineering, produced the first lab-grown hamburger in 2013 in a process now coined ‘bio-fabrication’. Bio-fabrication consists of cells growing biological components, like tissues and organs, by themselves.
Impossible Foods, a company which aims to create sustainable alternatives to meat-based products, also explores cellular agriculture. This start-up notably produces real blood from a molecule of vegetal origin named ‘heme’. Heme is a biological substance which contains iron and is able to mimic both the taste and texture of meat. Impossible Foods claim its products replicate the sensory experience of consuming meat, offering those seeking alternatives to traditional meat products a more convincing replacement.
Similarly, Beyond Meat, a start-up backed by Bill Gates and Leonardo di Caprio, offers consumers plant-based meat substitutes. Its products range from burgers to chicken nuggets and are appealing to those looking to reduce the environmental impact of their diet.
As well as producing high quality food, Food Techs support economic growth, reduce environmental impact and heighten food security.
Venture capital investments and Silicon Valley’s expertise in innovation contribute to this market’s sudden boom. The Foodtech market, now worth US$260 billion, is growing exponentially and expected to reach a value of US$360 billion in 2028. Ventures capital firms in the Silicon Valley have played a significant role in Food Tech companies’ success and invested over US$30 billion in the market in 2022. Investors consider food-related start-ups an extension of their sustainability portfolios, like solar energy or electric vehicles, as they possess the capacity to positively impact our planet. Moreover, Silicon Valley has pioneered computing and cutting-edge technology since the start of the 21st Century, making it an ideal base from which to revolutionize the food industry. Silicon Valley’s venture into food tech is an audacious attempt to rethink the ways in which we grow, prepare, and eat food.
Nonetheless, this market is faced with significant challenges and controversies.
Scientific studies have yet to comprehensively evaluate the environmental cost of these new chains of production and their long-term consequences on consumers’ health. Although Food Techs preach the environmental virtues of their products, the industry’s carbon footprint seems much higher than originally anticipated. Factors like construction of infrastructure as well as lengthy processes of fabrication and transformation must be taken into account when calculating environmental costs of production. Results so far show a more controversial picture of Food Tech’s environmental impact than anticipated.
Similarly, no research has assessed the long-term effects of ultra-transformed products on consumers’ health. New chemical methods of production could, indeed, be more dangerous for human health in the long run. The effects of food tech innovations like genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not fully understood and could lead to unintended consequences for our wellbeing. Consequently, consumers are skeptical of breaking away from traditional methods of food production. Addressing concerns regarding the long-term health impacts of their new products is arguably the biggest hurdle the Food Tech industry faces. Nonetheless, if Food Tech start-ups can guarantee consumer acceptance, the possible benefits of this industry are boundless.
Despite these challenges, Silicon Valley’s entry into the food industry signals a radical shift in the ways in which we approach food production and consumption. Considerable investments paired with gradual shifts in consumers’ behavior towards sustainable products drive significant advances in food-related innovations. In the context of climate change and resource scarcity, Food Techs will play a key role in shaping the food sector for years to come.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
