Foods of the Future?
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18813075#TWEET180269

"
"In the West many of us have grown up with cheap, abundant meat," says food futurologist Morgaine Gaye.
"Rising prices mean we are now starting to see the return of meat as a luxury. As a result we are looking for new ways to fill the meat gap."
So what will fill such gaps and our stomachs - and how will we eat it?"

oops. I have been aware for a while of how the fish we eat are not the ones of a generation ago, but rather what were once considered not good enough to eat.

I wonder if the same is happening in other fields; ie changes driven by depleted stocks.

Across the board.

Keep an eye on your pet http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png



... that doesn't mean while salivating.

I suggest that by selecting foods that grow faster and cheaper for the last 50 odd years we have narrowed the gene base of our food sources for those genes, which we then consume. Now we are faced with an obesity epidemic. Is our food source even slightly overloaded with hi growth hormones or genes which then affect us similarly. I don't believe the two are utterly divorcable.

We are actually making some rather interesting/scary choices on meat production that are driving up the cost of production (and thus, eventually, the retail price) or simply choosing the wrong fork in the road to take (and they generally fly in the face of the (scientific) evidence.

In no particular order.

1.) We, well westerners anyway, are abandoning the efficiencies that we have made in production and reverting to 19th Century practices through some of the restrictions of the Organic movement. The simplest one is the prohibition of the use of synthetic amino acids. Methionine is the rate-limiting amino acid in chicken production, ie doesn't matter if every other AA is in abundance without enough methionine they cannot be utilised efficiently. So how does an organic producer (following the industry standards) get enough methionine into the diet without using synthetic AA? There are two real options - use a heritage breed that has a lower methionine requirement but doesn't grow as fast or as efficiently (like uses twice the amount of feed) or feed the birds an excess amount of protein to meet the methionine need (a dietary crude protein content of 26% versus a normal diet of 14%) with the excess protein (and thus nitrogen) passing out of the rear end.

2.) Due to misinformation being presented to consumers and a reaction regulatory authority we are increasingly being restricted in the utilisation of by-products. Europe has completely banned the use of meat (and other animal) meals in monogastrics, so we've now got substantial issues with waste disposal. Our dairy industry in Australia dumps large quantities of close to use by date products returned by retailers and let's not even mention permeate. Abattoir by-products, dairy by-products, baking and vegetable processing by-products are all valuable sources of nutrients for monogastrics if treated properly. Utilisation of these waste-streams is being restricted.

3.) Our choices of what we eat are having an impact. It is going to take a substantial amount of time to convince the vast majority of consumers to eat a mealworm burger, why don't these groups actually advocate steps that can be taken right now to improve efficiency. If you look at the efficiency of production (and GHG emissions) we as consumers can make a substantial impact on our impact by swapping a steak for a piece of pork (or chicken, but I've chosen pork because the cuts are similar). At worse you would reduce by half the amount of feed consumed to produce that piece of meat and cut your meals GHG emissions by at least 60%.

I think that jumping a large barrier in consumer behaviour is a distraction from the simple hurdles that we can do right now to have an impact.

I've deliberately ignored the animal 'welfare' aspect as that is a completely different kettle of fish that can have it's own argument.

I couldn't help think of Soylent Green as well.
:?

We know that diet does impact on health (okay obviously, but stay with me), with meat and dairy intake leading to higher levels of circultaing IGF-1 and it's likely correlation with prostate cancer for instance, but the obesity epidemic is a result of the easy access to cheap food and a reduction in the overall rate of exercise that we get, I don't think we need to look for anythign more sinister than that...

I agree. Not that I have any qualifications other than that.

"and let's not even mention permeate."

Why not?
I picked up a cheap bottle of milk the other day from the supermarket, marked down to a stupid level because its use by date runs out in two days. (perfectly good BTW) "Permeate free" in large type all over the label. What the hell's Permeate????
Thank god for the internet I found out far more than I needed to know from all sorts of woo sites and the big supermarkets who seem to be driving this permeate band wagon.
After reading it all I figured I couldn't care less if milk has it in, it seems the big supermarkets are attempting to create some sort of controversy about it to increase their own sales.

The Permeate issue was raised by Today Tonight and then A Current Affair in a woowoo segment on what is being added to our milk. The supermarkets and brands are merely responding to the "outrage" that flowed from the TV reports.

The "Permeate free" push was led by the two major branded milk lines to differentiate themselves from the cheaper lines, with both Coles and Woolworths homebrand labels following a few months afterwards.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/con...2/s3547413.htm

Permeate voluntarily phased out of Aussie milk


ASHLEY HALL: Analysts say the dairy industry will be the loser in a marketing battle that's forcing producers to phase out permeate from milk.

Permeate is a by-product of milk production which the industry says it was adding to milk to ensure the consistency of the product.

Critics argued it was simply a cost cutting measure, and since customers are demanding fewer additives in their milk, it's got to go.

But the advocacy group Choice says consumers may have been misinformed about permeate.

Analysts say the change will push up production costs, but retail competition is so fierce that shelf prices are unlikely to rise.

Although there are no known health risks associated with consumption of permeate,[1] further consumer concerns in 2012 over its addition to milk resulted in several milk brands and dairy processors in Australia declaring their products as "permeate-free".[3]




What consumer concerns are these. Not sure if wikis any good, but it seems like you're adding a byproduct of milk production back into milk.

I watched a show on ABC with a fellow who made a meal from a fish they had caught, little shellfish, some different sorts of seaweed and other weeds and some mushrooms they found. Cooked it up and it looked nice. I imagine if you know where to look and lived the life food is all around us. Though I guess if there was a settlement nearby then those weeds and mushrooms might become a bit scarce.

I wonder what miracle fruits and crops lay undiscovered (by the larger world) in rainforests? Gene technology is an ace, or maybe a joker in the pack as well.

Those that Today Tonight tell me to have...

I'm scared of pensioners and people who rip off pensioners. I'm scared of Aussie fast food shops that have health problems and I'm scared for Aussie fast food shops who are battling for business. I'm scared of speed cameras and scared of speeding drivers. I'm scared of tenants and I'm scared of landlords.

I watched a show on ABC with a fellow who made a meal from a fish they had caught, little shellfish, some different sorts of seaweed and other weeds and some mushrooms they found. River Cottage with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's

Are you a thoroughbred? haha. Happy Birthday for tomorrow.

Anyway, instead of us eating insects - yuck, ugh, spew, shudder.
How about letting loose lots of chickens in the wild to eat the insects, then we eat the chooks.
I suppose we should control the wild cats and foxes first so they don't get 'em first and proliferate.

We let a lot of these go to waste

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7...a9ebf4f6_z.jpg
LBM by roughbarked, on Flickr

http://www.areanews.com.au/news/loca...s/2638169.aspx