A look into the projected future use, sustainability and availability of produce and food.

Introduction
In this case study I will be discussing the projected future use of general food and also talking about how food can be revolutionised by today’s technologies.
Food can be defined as an object which provides nutrients to sustain human life. Besides our physical need for food and the energy it provides, we also have a mental and cultural craving for tastes and cuisines. On the other end of that spectrum are people from underdeveloped countries, where they struggle to eat on a daily basis which leads to starvation and malnutrition.
In an attempt to aid these ‘hungry' countries, food relief is provided by more developed nations in an attempt to provide some relief to famine. This is done in the hope that this temporary relief of hunger can, in the long run, help these impoverished communities to get back onto their feet and have a more constant source of food.
These relief missions are restricted by the amount of food and the transport of food to these nations. In this case study I will discuss alternatives to traditional agricultural food which will hope to find a new and better way of ending world hunger in underdeveloped countries, while reducing the risk of obesity and the convenience of nutrition in developed nations.

An introduction to the history of agricultural food
Food has always been naturally made, through farming and cultivation, but it has been altered, refined and improved by new techniques and methods learned and acquired over the ages, especially through the enlightenment and modern knowledge (Week 2 Lecture). Throughout the last century, mankind has globally made huge advancements in the field of mass cultivation of crops and livestock. Food is viewed differently by everyone. Some people live to taste food and others see it as simply the energy their body requires. These views can be influenced by social standings, wealth and culture amongst other things.
At a base level, food is simply an object that enables us to continue life. It gets digested, absorbed and converted into energy used to sustain the human body. But beyond that rudimentary level of sustenance, food is; history, culture, taste, texture, power and more.
A recommended level of calories (energy) are required for a healthy maintenance of the human body, estimated to be at around 1500 calories per day (FAO pg 8, 3.2.4). Sadly, underdeveloped countries have the highest number of people suffering from undernourishment and famine. Wealth, power and culture has long affected how a person consumes, or doesn’t consume, food. These countries suffering from famine just shows how wealth restricts the amount of food that a person has access to.
Through advances in technology, new methods of farming and cultivation, society as a whole has managed to mass-produce food on a near global scale. The problem with this is that a lot of this produce is going to waste, instead of going to a place where it is more needed such as a famine stricken country. A few of the main reasons behind the waste of this produce are:
The longevity of the food dictates how far the produce can travel from where it came from (farms etc). Supply and demand controls where food is being delivered and what type of food. Delicacies are plentiful in wealthy nations, whereas in poorer countries it is more common to find basic whole foods such as vegetables, rice and meats. There is also massive general wastage of produce in first world countries such as America.

Future use
Currently, the harvesting and cultivation of produce and livestock has a massive negative impact on the environment. This, added with the fact that a lot of this produce is going to waste, just shows how unsustainable the future of naturally harvested agricultural farming is. The direction of the future of food needs to be changed, as a way to improve health and environmental circumstances in developed countries, while aiming to fix issues such as world hunger in impoverished countries.
Mankind has evolved and learned from nature. Food is often viewed as a sacred and unchanging thing, but this viewpoint needs to change. The reasoning behind this is that natural foods are viewed as the healthiest thing you can eat, which just often isn’t the case. A lot of food in the supermarkets right now are pumped full of chemicals and sugars, with the general side effect of harming your body through malnutrition. The future of sustainable food need to be optimized for the sole purpose of accessible levels of healthy daily energy (calorie) levels for all humans across the globe.
Just because something comes from nature, such as crops grown in soil, does not mean it is the best thing. Humans design things to fit their requirements. We design better things to optimize our way of life. We used to ride horses but now we drive cars, what’s to say we can’t do the same thing with the production of mass-produced food?
If people ate the foods they love, that took a lot of resources to produce, just less of it – we could find a nice sustainable level of agricultural farming without such a huge impact on the environment that it currently has, such as deforestation, pollution and waste (Environmental Issues In Animal Agriculture, Charlws W. Abdalla). If this type of thought was added with the sustainability of man-made produce, it would lead to a much healthier, sustainable, cheaper, more economical future.
Rob Rhinehart, CEO of Soylent, has already come up with a type of solution for part of the world hunger and sustainability issue, but from a first world perspective. He has created a chemical cocktail which looks to be a liquid meal replacement. It has all the basic nutrients a human body requires to sustain itself, but it was initially developed as a way to save time and money with regards to eating, seen as a chore by Rob Rhinehart.
“It gets the job done, it’s cheap, and it’s efficient. Eat this to take care of your needs, and eat well on weekends” – Rob Rhinehart.
However, Mr. Rhinehart quickly realised the consequences that this chemical cocktail could hope to achieve; by reducing the need for mass-produced natural produce, allowing for an improvement on the cost of produce, the lessening of environmental impact and the ease of access to this produce.

But what if this ‘meal replacement’ for a first world country turned into an actual meal for a hunger stricken country?
Soylent is a rudimentary chemical cocktail that provides the bare nutrients needed to survive. It is made up of 31 basic ingredients, some of which are: oat flour, rice protein, maltodextrin, canola oil and fibre. It is an optimized meal replacement, however if you were to design it to attempt to ease world hunger you would have to factor in the bioavailability, cost and sustainability.

This meal replacement has proven to be easy to produce with minimal environmental impact. Eventually the CEO of Soylent, Rob Rhinehart, wishes to be independent of agricultural products within the Soylent blend, allowing for the meal replacement to be entirely man-made. This is amazing as it would allow for an alternative to ending world hunger. The benefits of using Soylent, instead of traditional produce, in an attempt to diminish famine is that since it is mostly synthesised, it does not have as fast an expiry date as traditional food. This means that this product can be transported easily across the world in times of urgent food relief aid. It is also cheaper than traditional food.
Nearly one billion people go hungry every year and when people cannot afford to eat, a lot of riots and social unrest happens. By having a more accessible and cheaper source of food, it would help to solve some of this problem.
“When there is social unrest, when people are rioting, behind that is a lot of hunger and a lot of suffering. And there is really no reason from the point of view of the availability of food for that to happen. … It is quite clear by looking at the timing of the riots that they have been impacted or driven by food prices” - Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam
Yaneer Bar-Yam is a complex systems theorist, who has linked the high prices of food to increasing global riots and social unrest. A food replacement such as Soylent could help to improve general social standings by providing a cheap and accessible alternative to traditional food.

In summary, there is an overproduction of produce for the needs of the few in developed countries. The views of the production and consumption of food needs to be changed to allow people to see meal replacements, such as Soylent, as a cheaper and more accessible version of food that can meet their nutritional requirements.
Switching to man-made meal replacements in first world countries will most likely have a positive effect on general health, the improvement of environmental impact from the reduced requirements needed for agricultural production, and the convenience and accessibility of food and it’s consumption.
By introducing these meal replacements in third world countries, it will allow a more realistic approach to hunger relief aid provided by developed countries by improving the longevity of food that has to be transported. It will also be something accessible that is cheap and will provide nutritional requirements, as opposed to other process products which are full of sugars.
‘Food’ is not only a physical requirement, but also a mental indulgence. That is why man-made produce will never completely replace natural produce. However, by becoming more open to the future direction of the availability and sustainability of the way natural or man-made food is produced and consumed it will allow for a more environmentally friendlier, healthier and sustainable future for both the planet and the people who live on it.
Bibliography

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