Insects, seaweed and lab-grown meat could be the foods of the future

Header image: An Indonesian traditional seaweed farm in Nusa Penuda, Bali. (Shutterstock)

By Alesandros Glaros, University of Guelph; Emily Duncan, University of Guelph; Evan Fraser, University of Guelph, and Lisa Ashton, University of Guelph

The world is facing a major food crisis where both obesity and hunger are rising in the context of rapidly changing environments. The Food and Agriculture Organization has presented alternative food sources — such as seaweed and insects — as possible solutions to this crisis.

These scientists and policy makers think that if only consumers embraced seaweed diets and ate bugs these problems could be solved. But is this the whole story?

As a group of food security researchers from the University of Guelph and the Arrell Food Institute, we approach these claims cautiously, with the available scientific evidence in mind.

The European Commission defines novel foods as those without a history of consumption in a region. Novel foods have emerged with the prospect of meeting both human and planetary health goals through changing diets. Three popular examples — lab-grown meat, insect farming and seaweed aquaculture — have increased in popularity in recent years in the context of shifting Western diets.

Lab-grown protein was popularized in 2013 when Google co-founder Sergey Brin invested 250,000 euros to create a cultured burger. Developed by pharmacologist Mark Post, the burger was made using fetal bovine serum and publicized in a televised tasting event.

Since then, a string of lab-grown meat businesses have propagated across North America and Europe, backed by investors such as Bill Gates and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Most cultured meats are grown in a concoction of amino acids,