Precision Fermentation (PF) and Cellular Agriculture (CA) can be deployed in any populated region, just as breweries are today.

Though PF and CA can be deployed in any populated region, these are energy-intensive technologies, so regions with abundant low-cost clean energy powered by SWB (and especially SWB Superpower) will have an advantage.

It is unlikely that any particular region will adopt only one of these technologies. Current food systems are diverse, and consumers value variety and diversity. Extensive mixing of products is likely to happen by combining technologies to expand what is possible and create new products. Mixing can also help to bring down the cost of these products without sacrificing quality by using relatively small amounts of expensive technologies and larger amounts of cheaper technologies.

Explore the evidence...

• Geography will no longer offer any competitive advantage. We will move from a centralized system dependent on scarce resources to a distributed system based on abundant resources. The future of Food-as-Software technology represents an opportunity for a food system that is distributed, efficient and abundant. 
  • Food-as-Software describes a process where individual molecules engineered by scientists are uploaded to databases.
  • These databases then become molecular cookbooks that food engineers anywhere in the world can use to design products in the same way that software developers design apps.
  • This model ensures constant iteration so that products improve rapidly, with each version superior and cheaper than the last. It also ensures a production system that is completely decentralized and much more stable and resilient than industrial animal agriculture. Learn more about Food-as-Software in our blog post.
• A more decentralized and resilient production model, closer to the consumer, means food production will no longer be at the mercy of geography, or of extreme price, quality and volume fluctuations due to climate, seasons, disease, epidemics, geopolitical restrictions or exchange-rate volatility. Learn more about the improvements in attributes of a modern food system on p21 of our Food & Agriculture report.
• Ultimately, decisions made regarding intellectual property rights and approval processes will determine which system develops where. Learn more about the opportunities and choices available for decision-makers in the new supply chain on p59-63 of our report.

Witness the transformation

We are on the cusp of the deepest, fastest, most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals 10,000 years ago.

Modern alternatives to our industrial livestock model will be up to 100 times more land efficient, up to 25 times more feedstock efficient, 20 times more time efficient and 10 times more water efficient. They will also produce less waste.

These modern technologies can be implemented anywhere in the world. Any nation has the potential to lead the disruption.

Learn more about the disruption and transformation of the food & agriculture sector.

Published on: 12/07/23