26 Dream Factory
Algaculture. The coming food system will consider cultivating and harvesting microalgae not as bioscience but farming at household, urban, and industrial scale. Open ponds and bioreactors are currently used to grow algae for food, bioplastics, pharmaceuticals, and biofuel.
Photobioreactor. Since the 1950s open pond cultivation has been usurped by photobioreactors in which phototrophic microorganisms – those which require a light source to grow, such as plants, algae and purple bacteria – are grown at a high purity level with the efficient outputs of a controlled, closed system.
Vertical Farming. Born from a design proposition that asked if 50,000 people could be fed by farming containing within a skyscraper, vertical farming is the practical of growing crops in a controlled, indoor environment on vertically layered stacks.
Synthetic production. Chemical synthesis, computational biology, and genetic engineering are means of simulating and interpreting biological systems, modifying or recombining DNA, and constructing compounds from petrochemical or natural precursors.
Land restoration. As the amount of land required by agriculture declines, there will be mew opportunities for carbon sequestration, afforestation, and soil management to fill the void.
Automated production. Agricultural robotics incorporating artificial intelligence, cloud sensing, next gen materials, and nanotechnology are set to overcome seasonal harvests, the territorial dispersion of fields, landscape zoning, weather susceptibility, and human handling.
Aquaponics. Circular systems of varying complexity and scope that combine aquaculture (raising small aquatic animals) with hydroponics (plants grown in water) by deploying bacteria which break down ammonia waste products in the water to make usable nitrates.
Cellular Meat Cultivator. Cellular meat is meat grown outside an animal from a biopsy sample in a bioreactor. The cells are fed inside a cultivator then structured using a scaffolding system to produce the type of animal product required. For more information see: cellag.org.
Food-As-Software. The familiar software model of early release and constant iteration based on recurrent feedback will enable platform food to integrate with information technology and distribution means to allow “updates” that can be downloaded and incorporated instantaneously.