Ultra-realistic images created by AI show what our dinner could look like in 30 years, as we are forced to eat “sustainably.”
Experts have used AI tool Midjourney to bring 2054’s menu to life, which includes bizarre dishes like cricket salad and lab-grown steaks.
There’s even green spaghetti and “meat” balls made from an aquatic plant, which look like they came straight from the kitchen of another galaxy.
Scientists believe these unusual creations could replace family favorites such as the traditional Sunday roast or fish and chips.
They have a smaller carbon footprint than these classics, meaning they could help in the battle against climate change, but would you eat them?
Would you like a cricket salad? Insects are said to be packed with protein and offer a more sustainable alternative to red meat and poultry. Pictured is an AI-generated image of what this might look like.
Extensive plant breeding will welcome new varieties, currently little known, such as the fast-growing freshwater fern azolla, used for soups, salads and even hamburgers. In the photo, azolla spaghetti and ‘meatballs’ imagined by AI
The images were created with Midjourney by a team of experts from FixOurFood, a research program run by the University of York and British retailer Co-op.
“Over the last 30 years we have seen scientific advances towards more sustainable products that were unimaginable to most in 1994,” said Bob Doherty, director of FixOurFood.
“From lab-grown meat to vertical farming, the future of food will revolutionize the way we eat.”
INSECTS
As studies show that red meat and dairy are responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, experts believe insects will be a good alternative.
Crickets, worms and ants are environmentally friendly because they consume fewer natural resources than livestock farming and are also a healthy alternative to meat.
They have already been touted as the next “superfood” because they are packed with protein, nutrients, potassium, magnesium and three times more fatty acids than the omega-3 in salmon.
Alternative insect proteins, including locusts, grasshoppers and crickets, can form part of our daily diet, either as snacks or as a protein element of a main meal (pictured, cicadas in the file photo).
In addition to crickets, FixOurFood experts suggest we’ll feast on locusts, grasshoppers, and even termites, known for the damage they cause to buildings.
Meanwhile, in the United States, restaurants have been serving cicadas, the noisy insect currently swarming the southern states.
“By 2054, Brits will have edible insects on their plate and we may see crickets shredded faster than whole grains,” Doherty said.
LABORATORY GROWN MEAT
Lab-grown meat still faces legal and regulatory hurdles, but by 2054 the team believes it will be available for free purchase.
Also known as “cultured” meat, this futuristic method offers an alternative to meat from real animals that tastes more or less the same.
A sample of cells is taken from a live animal and then grown or “cultured” in the laboratory to create a fleshy mass, using fewer resources and less space.
We may even see the introduction of 3D printed food by 2054. Pictured is a 3D printed steak, imagined by AI
Although lab-grown meat is yet to hit the shelves, British scientists are among those growing meat products in a lab with a view to marketing them.
MailOnline tested one of the first lab-grown meat products earlier this year: a mini pork sausage, made by Dutch company Meatable.
There’s even a chance that a 3D food printer could assemble lab-grown meat into realistic burger or steak shapes.
Some industry experts believe that 3D food printers will soon be common kitchen equipment, along with the toaster, microwave and deep fryer.
‘WATER PLANT’ SPAG BOL
Although fruits and vegetables have lower emissions than meat, the team is concerned that climate change will reduce the availability of popular options like avocado.
Therefore, they hope that unusual plant species will offer an alternative, including the little-known azolla aquatic fern.
Azolla can capture carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air, Yale University experts said, and may be more climate-resilient than typical vegetables.
The Regeneration Project has described it as having a “crisp texture” and an “earthy and forest-like” flavor.
Azolla could be 3D printed in shapes we know, from spaghetti and “meat” meatballs to burgers (pictured, AI-made azolla burger)
Does it look appetizing? Fresh azolla has been described as having a “crunchy texture” and an “earthy, forest-like” flavor (pictured, AI-imagined azolla soup)
Azolla could also be 3D printed into shapes we know, from spaghetti and meatballs to hamburgers, and even blended into soup, the AI images show.
AI images are part of Co-op. new report which explores the nation’s “changing views on food ethics and sustainability” over the past 30 years.
It states that 72 percent of consumers have become more concerned about ethical and sustainable foods than in recent years (up from 54 percent in 1994).
And over the next 30 years, the retailer expects this figure to increase.
“The cooperative is committed to inspiring healthy and sustainable diets,” the report reads.
“As the global climate crisis continues, consumers are becoming more passionate about taking action.”
Never mind the veggie burgers! Could lab-grown red meat save the environment?
Lab-grown meat will become more ubiquitous this decade, transforming from a niche concept to a common refrigerator staple.
In 2013, Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University (The Netherlands) presented the world’s first hamburger grown in the laboratory from cow muscle cells.
Now he’s pioneering a “kinder, cleaner” way of making beef with his company, Mosa Meat, which created the world’s first hamburger without slaughtering an animal.
The company extracts muscle cells from an animal, such as a beef cow, when the animal is under anesthesia.
The cooked Mosa Meat burger resembles conventionally made beef burgers. The company says it tastes “like meat”
The cells are then placed in a dish containing nutrients and natural growth factors and allowed to proliferate just as they would inside an animal, until there are billions of cells from a small sample.
These cells then form muscle cells, which naturally fuse to form primitive muscle fibers and edible tissue.
From a sample of one cow, the company can produce 800 million strands of muscle tissue, which is enough to produce 80,000 quarter-pounders.
Mosa Meat has also created cultured fat that it adds to its tissue to form the final product, which simply tastes “like meat,” the company says.
Professor Post believes this product will be so popular among animal welfare activists and burger fans that it will eventually displace plant-based substitutes, such as soy burgers, which are increasingly common in supermarkets in the Kingdom. United.
“New technologies, such as those developed in cellular agriculture, are part of the solution, as well as reducing food waste and changing consumer behaviour,” Professor Post told MailOnline.
‘A good example of a strong trend in consumer behavior is the increase in vegetarianism among the younger generations to unprecedented numbers.
“This trend will most likely continue and spread to other age groups and eventually lead to the demise of plant-based meat substitutes.”
Mosa Meat received $55 million in 2021 to increase cultured meat production.
The funding will help expand the company’s current pilot production facility in the Dutch city of Maastricht and develop an industrial-sized production line.