The food revolution burst into the open in the early 2030s. Microbial processes were developed that allowed us to brew all the proteins we needed for our food without using animals, on a tiny fraction of the land, for less money. Such a disruptive technology hadn鈥檛 been seen since the industrial revolution.
The dairy industry was the first to collapse. Milk is mostly water, sugar and a bit of fat. Two kinds of proteins, casein and whey, make up just 3.3 per cent of it. When these proteins were made on an industrial scale by genetically modified yeast, there was no need to devote land and infrastructure to farming cows, no need to clear rainforest to grow soya beans to feed cows, and no need to exploit our fellow mammals. Any dairy product could be made for a fraction of the cost.
Microbial production had begun, in the 20th century, with the churning out of vitamins such as (vitamin B2). The tech matured and, by 2023, were made with engineered yeast. Many other proteins were made by engineered microbes, and when the processes were scaled up, they soon undercut their animal-derived equivalent. Leather, fish, eggs, meat could all be made far more efficiently.
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Plant products were transformed too 鈥� even marijuana was better grown in vats. But the most important was palm oil. It had already been made by microbes and been used in beauty products by 2023, but as bioreactors improved and grew in output, industrial quantities were produced. The destruction caused by our appetite for palm oil was slowly dialled down: forests in Asia were restored and the orangutan saved from extinction. While environmental and ethical arguments had pushed for changes in farming for decades, it was the financial savings that drove this revolution.
Three main obstacles needed to be overcome to microbial food to the masses. Two were technical. First, food derived from microorganisms can have a high level of nucleic acids, especially RNA, which can pose a health risk. To get around this, microbes were engineered to self-purify. Second, the process of growing, fermenting and harvesting the microbes and their proteins had to be made to work on an industrial scale. A landmark moment was the opening in Finland of the producing microbial protein, in April 2024. Many others soon followed.
The new food replicators allowed people to create previously unimagined flavour combinations
The third obstacle was consumer acceptance. But microbially derived food products let consumers eat meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk that tasted just like the real thing. This, plus the cheaper price, won over most sceptics.
Singapore was the first nation to approve microbial protein for food, in 2024. The US followed soon after and, by the end of 2025, the UK and the European Union had done the same. The revolution had begun.
Swapping meat from cows for proteins made by microbes was the single most important factor in saving the Amazon rainforest from destruction. Mathematical models had shown that swapping just a fifth of animal protein for that from microbes could halve deforestation rates, but by the early 2040s, more than half of the protein we consumed came from microbes. Vast areas of previously ranched and farmed land were allowed to rewild.
, involving lasers and microbially derived ingredients, enabled the development of food replicators. Initially designed for astronauts living for extended periods on the moon or Mars, the replicators soon found their way into homes. While not quite up to the standard imagined in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a TV show from the late 20th century (鈥渢ea, Earl Grey, hot鈥�), the new replicators allowed people to create previously unimagined foods and flavour combinations.
This technology, used alongside artificial intelligence, ushered in a golden era of delicious, plentiful, healthy food. Researchers in Cornwall, UK, developed what they called the Universal Pasty: a 3D-printed package containing a starter, main course and pudding in one pastry-wrapped delight. An Italian team created Tortellini Roulette: packages of pasta, each bursting with a delicious surprise ingredient. There was even a craze for Dodo Pie 鈥� which used proteins derived from the extinct flightless bird. Same with T. rex jerky. Meals could be customised for personal taste and health requirements.
The sci-fi replicators of Star Trek had been a metaphor for the endpoint of the industrial revolution. The food replicators in fact ended the hegemony of industrial farming, the destruction it had been inflicting on our ecosystems, the suffering of billions of animals and the release of greenhouse gases from farming that had been driving the climate crisis. What it started was a food revolution that, just in time, saved the world.
听
Invention
Star Trek-style food replicators
Timestamp
2030s
Tagline
The revolution that fed the world 鈥� and saved the planet
Future Chronicles explores听an听imagined history听of听inventions and听developments yet to come.听Rowan Hooper is the听podcast editor at New Scientist and author of How to Spend a Trillion Dollars: The 10 global problems we听can actually fix. You can follow him on X @rowhoop
