Here the message to which I am answering :
"I really enjoyed
the topics we learned and was fascinated where the direction of food is currently going.
Given
how unsustainable factory farming is and with the development of
synthetic food, I wondered if you personally visualize a mostly vegan
world in the near future? There
was a photo of a dish you posted of meat next to a fake meat, and you
surprisingly seemed to indicate your preference for the fake meat
(perhaps I misunderstood which one you preferred). However,
as a vegan myself, I have to say it truly gave me hope of a meatless world being a reality somewhat soon.
I look forward to hopefully hearing your views on this subject either in class or by email if you have a chance."
And this is my answer
Indeed, as you could see, I try avoiding having ideas, and rather stick to facts (and I have no crystal ball for divination):
1. there is a slow decline in meat consumption
2. the issue of proteins is difficult, because the human body being made of 20 % proteins, we need the building blocks...
3.
but also because the iron of meat is much more bioavailable than for
plants (and beware, population are sub deficient in iron, and we should
not expose them to serious conditions such as iron deficiency
4. we can learn to synthesize new forms of iron that would be more available (such as artificial heme groups)
5.
2016 was made the international year of pulses for good reasons: these
plants synthesize proteins, among other advantages, and there are big
industries now extracting these proteins
6. the remnants, after extraction, can be given to insects... which can make proteins
7.
about the picture of the real, ugly, meat and the "fibrés" (I insist that we don't
speak of artificial meat, or fake meat, or in vitro meat, because words
have to be loyal; as for plant based liquids instead of "milks", yes,
the result was very interesting
8. but I did not had time to discuss what I called "diracs", except with the picture of the blue thing served in Montreal
9.
more generally, as you could hear, I try to avoid "reproduction",
because this is useless, and the copy is always poorly appreciated, or
lets's say less appreciated than the original
10. by the way, why meat? I don't discuss here moral ideas, but only meat consumption ?
11.
and note by note is much more interesting for creating new food, than
sticking lazoly to the reproduction of old stuff, such as meat.
12. here the real question: which consistencies are "interesting", and why?
13. and also: when people change their diet, they need to know very well how to do, otherwise they can be very ill
14.
and finally, about your first question of a future without meat, I
would say no, but a redistribution (for example, mountains are best for
raising cattle, because no agriculture is easy (hence the cheese such as
reblochon, munster, and so many others) ; anyway, changes are slowly on
the way... but they are slow : it took me 15 years before molecular
cooking was accepted, and remember that I proposed NbN cooking in 1994 !
