Taste the Future

Taste the Future is about what, and how, people will be eating and producing food into the future, and what this means for Australian farmers.

This report aims to: Understand the essence of the critical ingredient of any future menu – tomorrow’s consumer; Highlight the trends and technologies shaping the future of food and farming, referred to within this paper as the 10 ‘P’s disrupting the future of food; and Discuss opportunities and threats for Aussie farmers in the brave new world of tomorrow.

The author chose to investigate the future of food to try to understand the churning and disruption occurring globally in the agrifood industry, and to be able to infuse that when charting a course for the family farm. More broadly, the author believes it is imperative for Australian agriculture, with its strong culture of innovation, to future gaze so it can continue to be at the forefront of change.

This journey was sparked by the world’s first burger grown in a laboratory; not a field or feedlot in sight. The $US325,000 meat patty, set to change the narrative on where food comes from, was put to the taste test in 2013 by its creator Mark Post, food critic Hanni Ruetzler and author Josh Schonwald. When the author met with Dr Post in the Netherlands in 2018, he was optimistic his company, Mosa Meats, could be plating up cell-cultured burgers commercially by 2021.

Cell-cultured meat also dubbed slaughter-free or cultivated meat, is just one of the trends that will shape agrifood sectors in the next two decades and beyond. 

The study is drawn from the author’s travels in 2017 and 2018 to Bhutan, Brazil, India, Denmark, Qatar, the United States, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy. Thrown into the mixing bowl are conversations and interviews with farmers and futurists, restaurateurs, retailers, chefs and consumers, solicitors, start-ups, social media influencers and innovators. It includes time immersed in a world of food-and ag-tech ecosystems, the latter being new to the author and proving to be inspiring and eye-opening.                                                                                                                                       

This report does not seek to predict the future, rather, it aims to set a table for what tastes and technologies are possible – not all will make it out of the melting pot, but they will stir the discussion on the future of food and farming.

It will find that there will be many different plates put forward as part of any future eating experience, as food is part of one’s identity and culture. Even so, future consumers, most likely urban dwelling, will want to know more about their food: where it comes from, how it is grown and whether it is good for them, the planet and for those who produce it, and this must include profit, as it is essential for sustainable production.

There will be greater scrutiny on farming practices and ever higher community expectations about the environment: chemical and fertiliser applications, animal welfare, use of land, energy and water resources, waste and sustainability of production. Farmers will also be equipped with more data, management decisions will be based on algorithms and carried out by autonomous machines. They will have new and real-time insights into every aspect of the business, and this will extend beyond the farm gate to the consumer.

A key finding of this study is that the Australian agriculture community must act now to nurture consumer trust, and to share the incredible story of agriculture with, our consumers, influencers and policymakers. This is not about commodity groups promoting chicken, beef or lettuce, this is about sharing how and why we farm, in a way that resonates with consumers’ food values.  As farmers and food producers, we also need to educate ourselves and really get to understand the consumer of tomorrow.

Food-and ag-tech communities are rewriting how research, products and foods get to market and how these ideas are funded. This is a relatively new but rapidly evolving space for Australian agriculture, and farmers need to have a genuine stake in this space. Many of these agrifood-technologies, including digital and other track-and-trace technologies, will play vital role not only in the story telling but in building consumer trust. There is also need for greater collaboration by all stakeholders if Australian agriculture wants to become a $100+ billion industry by 2030 and a leading force on the global ag-and food-tech stage.

However, in order to realise these flavours foreshadowed by sci-fi, it will be crucial for rural Australia to have high-speed wireless internet connectivity and access to data insights afforded our counterparts in other parts of the globe.  Without this, Australian agriculture will be left in the wake of its global competitors.

The future of food will be full of flavour and disruption, and it will provide huge challenges and mouth-watering opportunities for Australian farmers.