"Perrito sin perro", one of the dishes included in 'Future Food Today'
A hamburger that, instead of meat, has as protein meal worms ; hot dogs without “perrito”, with green bread, made from spirulina; a mole taco whose main protein is not pork, but perch. These are some of the dishes of the future that he cooks in the present SPACE10 , the IKEA-backed design and research lab whose mission is to create better, more sustainable ways of living.
“In the next 35 years, we will reach 10 billion people in the world, and our demand for food will increase by 70%; today just we do not have enough resources to meet this demand with the diet we eat ”, they sentence from the study. In fact, the UN rapporteur for the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter warned that the current international food production system is not sustainable, not even in the short term.
The reasons? With our way of eating, monocultures of cereals such as corn, soy or wheat have increased, which leads to a loss of agricultural biodiversity, which accelerates soil erosion. Many of these crops, furthermore, are not used to feed us, but rather ranching, a devastating industry for the planet. Thus, according to the FAO, it is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, a higher proportion than that of transport.
Agriculture on such a large scale, moreover, abuses pesticides and fertilizers , guilty of polluting freshwater and oceans and negatively affecting all kinds of terrestrial and marine life, especially algae (essential for oxygenating water and feeding animals).
“When we are faced with the challenge that we will need to produce much more food in a short period of time, we must accept the fact that the way we eat and produce food today is becoming a problem for everyone on the planet”, agree in SPACE10.
Some of the ingredients of the 'bug burger'
For this reason, its experts have spent the last three years discovering alternative ingredients, technological innovations and uncharted gastronomic territories to begin to create "a vision of what will be the most sustainable and prepared food for the future ”, they tell Traveler.es.
The result has been tested in the kitchen of its space in Copenhagen, where anyone who wanted could come to try the new creations. Then, many began to be interested in the recipes of "perrito sin perro" and other preparations already mentioned, in order to copy them at home.
In the end, those responsible for SPACE10 decided to launch the book Future Food Today , whose dishes substitute unsustainable protein sources, such as meat, with algae, insects and other ingredients that can be produced environmentally friendly way and that, according to what they say from the laboratory, "they are delicious".
But we insist: what exactly does a hot dog taste like without sausage and a burger with... bugs? “They taste amazing,” says Katrina Brindle, the company's copywriter and public relations officer. “Obviously they are very different from their original meat-based recipes, but both the dogless dog and the bug burger were designed to be packed with protein and delicious, just in a way that is more resource efficient and better for our planet.”
In fact, insects are very nutritious: according to the FAO, they contain high-quality protein, as well as vitamins and amino acids, with the advantage that they reproduce and grow quickly and are easily reared in a small space, with minimal impact on the environment.
The meatless tagine is another of SPACE10's creations
RECIPES FOR ALL AUDIENCES
Foodies, gourmands, amateur cooks… anyone, Brindle tells us, can prepare these dishes, as long as they are willing to have fun and explore and, of course, have an interest in food sustainability.
“Some have been in the making since the inception of SPACE10 and have therefore been tested and refined over time. Others are based on what our chef and food designer, Simon Perez , consider important to do advance the discussion on a better and more sustainable life ”, tells Traveler.
Now, to what extent is it easy to introduce these ingredients so… particular in our pantry? Answers Brindle: "We don't think any of the ingredients are really that strange, as many are very common staple foods in different dishes around the world ”, they respond from the laboratory.
“We just know that these may not be part of many people's diets these days, but we hope to playfully challenge that question. We encourage people to try microalgae and different substitutions, to grow your own mushrooms on recycled coffee grounds and to slightly push their comfort zones towards a better and more sustainable future”.
In fact, more than becoming authentic chefs of the future, perhaps it is that take us out of our comfort zone ’ the most important mission of this book. “We created Future Food Today to inspire ourselves and others to be curious about cooking, and to motivate us to take action through our food choices,” confirms PR.
"Ultimately, we created this book to challenge our perceptions about food," she explains. “Our goal is to harness the immense power of getting our hands dirty, scraping the bottom of the pot and trying to grow our own ingredients. But we also hope that this book will allow start conversations about food, nutrition, sustainability, and how we would like to live now and in the future ”.
Preparing these recipes will take you out of your comfort zone