RethinkX | 6 May 2024
Modern food production methods like Precision Fermentation and Cellular Agriculture are very energy intensive processes. To produce the molecules we will need, these technologies require the use of bioreactors inside of manufacturing facilities that can maintain the ideal environmental conditions needed by the microorganisms. This process along with other energy intensive steps, such as drying, will certainly create energy demand.
Fortunately, the disruption of food and energy is not happening in a vacuum. The disruption of energy is currently proceeding rapidly as fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are replaced by a cheaper, cleaner and more efficient system based on solar, wind and batteries (SWB). Due to the nature of this energy system, which will be built to accommodate the times of the year that have the least amount of sun and wind resource, there will be periods across most of the year where enormous amounts of surplus electricity are generated. The energy demanded by the new modern food system will be in the form of electricity and will therefore be met by this new energy system where electricity is nearly free, clean and superabundant.
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. The new system is inevitable and ensures a production system that is completely decentralized and much more stable and resilient than industrial animal agriculture, with fermentation farms located in or close to towns and cities.
Learn more about the disruption and transformation of the food and agriculture sector.
Published on: 12/07/23
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