By 2021, hamburgers and nuggets produced from plant proteins and nutriments had become the new norm in most fast-food brands. At the same time, interest in the development of edible insects on an industrial scale seems to be a matter of course. Insect farms emit 4 times less CO2, occupy 14 times less land and demand 50 times less water than beef livestock farms. The pioneering companies in this sector emerged in the 2020s and are now powerful multinationals. Their farms, some of which are urban, produce several million tonnes of edible insects every year, which are praised for their nutritional qualities. In 2038, more

than one half of the proteins consumed in the western world come from insects.

Intensive livestock farming has almost completely disappeared. Less than one quarter of the meat consumed today comes from beef, lamb or goat farms. Several countries have purely and simply banned all animal meat production, as well as imports. 30 years ago, livestock farming was criticised for its water footprint and greenhouse gas emissions that accounted for 15% of emissions due to human activity; today, its environmental impact is almost negligible.

Two trends emerged at the end of the 2010s, which then collided into one another, producing some innovative modes of eating in the decades that followed.

The first involves the future of catering. After the fast-food boom (in 2015, more than one third of restaurant in France are fast-food outlets), we are now thinking of virtual restaurants , without any tables or chairs, sometimes installed in places such as car parks, where frequently personalised meals were made and ordered using mobile applications. The advent of automated delivery tools (self-

driving trolleys and delivery drones) from the 2020s onwards only accentuates the phenomenon... Welcoming establishments serving fine cuisine continued to champion traditions and gastronomy, while other forms of restaurants gradually ceased to be simply venues, where people met to enjoy dishes chosen from a limited menu, to become almost laboratories, preparing increasingly personalised dishes delivered to customers homes.

This second trend was spawned by the latest discoveries in biology, physiology and genetics. After the announcement in 2003 of the complete

Personalised food

SC ENARIO

2

_Marius Robles opinion of this scenario In the next 30 years, we will witness more changes in food than in the 17,000-year history of what we call agriculture. Energy will most definitely be free. Agricultural land will no longer be necessary, and nor will farm animals. Food production will have become independent of the weather conditions. It is probable that the need to import or export food products will no longer exist. Smart farming will take the form of connected and robotic urban farms where cutting-edge technologies will be made available to farmers to meet their needs. The people who operate these smart farms will be reinvented farmers, who have become urban farmer-scientists. Robots will do almost anything, from sowing and harvesting, to selecting, distributing and cooking. To be honest, smallholder farmers will tend to disappear. In fact, it is already the case. Since 2003, the total number of farms in the EU has decreased by more than four million.

72

FORWARD