The Future of Food

September 27, 2017
by LIOR ZOREF
@lior

A few days ago I returned from San Francisco following a lecture I gave at one of the most interesting companies in the food industry. The company is called Hampton Creek and they are trying to reinvent the world of industrial food.
Here are a few things I learned about the food we buy today compared to the food that will be available in the future.
The main purpose of food manufacturers (like any business company) is to maximize profits. The easiest way is to produce as much cheap food as possible.
Therefore, industrial food products are full of sugar, fat and other unhealthy substances, which are relatively cheap to purchase. In addition, many products are based on animals and involve cruelty.
Large food companies brag about being innovative as they launch new products and following public pressure, act too slowly reducing the damage their food causes to the human body and the environment.
But real innovation is found elsewhere, in companies like Hampton Creek. They collect seeds and plants from all over the world, isolate their food molecules and re-assemble healthy, tasty and environmentally friendly food products. This is not a genetic modified process (GMO) as there is no change in the DNA of the components rather a complex scientific process of understanding the properties of different plants and experiments to incorporate new materials in the production of food products that we all eat.
Here’s a short video I took in their laboratory (in Hebrew):
During the lecture, I tasted a new product they are about to launch called Scramble. An Omelette without eggs. Although it does not have a glut of protein or egg yolk, it had the precise taste of an omelet. For me it even was better than the one I ate that morning at the hotel.
Here’s a video from the tasting I did:
Their vision is to produce tasty, healthy and environmentally friendly food. Here is a very nice video that shows their vision of clean meat, real meat that is not based on cruelty to animals
They are an exceptional company with great people who work in a unique working environment. For example, hosting employees’ dogs is commonplace. They work in a huge loft, surrounded by laboratories. A totally different atmosphere from the high-tech many of us know. For me, this was the first lecture I gave also to dogs ..
At the end of my visit I felt inspired about the future.
After the lecture, I had a few free hours and went on a behind the scenes tour at Alcatraz prison. A fascinating tour in which I went down to the dark prison dungeons, I entered a small crack through which a daring escape from prison was carried out and much more.
I tried to imagine how prisoners felt deprived of freedom as they could look at the magnificent view that represented freedom in all its glory as they could see San Francisco skyline across from the island.
During the short visit, I managed to meet my childhood friend Ori Eisen. The post I wrote following this meeting became the most read post I ever wrote. For those who have not read, here is a link to read.