Why countries must invest in tech and innovation to combat global food crisis

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

An Israeli company has made the question redundant by achieving something remarkable. 'SuperMeat' has grown chicken in a laboratory, and they now plan to expand the process to a 'commercial scale'.

SuperMeat is holding test meals for customers in a small restaurant in the Israeli town of Ness Ziona, the restaurant is aptly called the 'Chicken'. Diners here can devour the laboratory-grown chicken, produced without using genetic engineering or antibiotics.

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Can it be considered 'vegetarian' since the meat is grown in a lab? That remains disputed; however, the process is cruelty-free and doesn't require any slaughtering of animals. People who left eating meat because of moral reasons are now flocking to the 'Chicken'. "One of the reasons that I became vegetarian originally was because it's not ethical, it's not sustainable. To get meat minus the cruelty is just amazing, it's perfect, I could eat this every single day,"says Annabelle Silver who tried out SuperMeat's 'cultured chicken'.

SuperMeat is not the first company to master the process. Last year, a Singaporean company became the first to produce 'lab grown chicken'. However, SuperMeat aims to be at the forefront of'food revolution' and help combat global hunger. "Meat demand is supposed to double itself over the next couple of decades, and we are going to need more technologies, more infrastructure to produce more and more meat. Additionally, this is a very sustainable production process, as you can see this is a very small area, and we're able to produce hundreds of kilogrammes on a weekly basis here. This way we'll be able to reduce the amount of land, water use and so many other resources," says Ido Savir, the CEO of SuperMeat. The company is now hopeful of earning regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The process involves cultivating cells taken from a fertilised chicken egg. Cell cultures are fed a plant-based liquid including proteins, fats, sugars, minerals and vitamins. With all the feed going directly into production, it grows rapidly, with the mass doubling within a matter of hours, the company says.

SuperMeat is the latest company to try and answer another key question of our time: can tech and innovation be used to combat the global food crisis?

Global meat production is projected to rise 15 per cent by 2027, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. This comes at a time when the global hunger crisis is also compounding. COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, impact on supply chains, global conflicts and extreme weather events have contributed to accelerating the global hunger crisis in 2020 and the catastrophe is expected to worsen this year.

According to the World Food Programme, "the global goal of achieving zero hunger by 2030 seemed increasingly out of reach. This follows another annual rise in the numbers of acutely food-insecure people in need of urgent food, nutrition and livelihood assistance."

World Food Programme reveals, "at least 155 million people in 55 countries/territories were in crisis or worse in 2020, an increase of around 20 million people from 2019". Around 28 million people globally were in a state of food emergency or worse and required urgent action to save lives and livelihoods.

Three of the four worst-affectedcountries are in conflict-hit West Asia:

• 13.5 millionpeople or 45 per centof Yemen's population faced food crisis in 2020.
• 13.2 million people or 42per cent of Afghanistan's population faced food consumption gaps.
• 12.4 millionpeople or 60per cent of Syria's population faced food crisis with an acute risk of malnutrition.

The biggest global food crisis, however, is in the African nation of Congo, where 21.8 million people face a food emergency. The armed insurgency has also forced millions of people to flee their homes.

The global food crisis is accelerating in almost every region of our planet. Inflation, accessibility, migration and conflicts will only worsen the crisis. In such a situation, it is imperative that countries and companies invest time and energy into new technologies that can make food production and distribution more accessible and economical.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)