Wird diese Nachricht nicht richtig dargestellt, klicken Sie bitte hier.
Dear friends of the Global Food Summit,
Food is actually nothing more than a string of bio-molecules. A steak and a glass of water each consist of about 10 high 24 molecules. These smallest, multi-atomic particles are responsible for what we taste and how food feels in our mouths. Today, we can break down food into its molecules. And we have invented methods to be able to produce many of these molecules. The new methods often produce nature-identical molecules in a less complex way than is the case in nature. For example, Endless West, a U.S. company based in California, blends a copy of a 20-year-old whiskey from a mix of molecules in 24 hours. Since 2020, also Italian wine and high-quality sake.
The sustainability values are significantly better with these methods than in the natural production process. In each case at half the price and with 60% less land use, 75% less water use and 40% less CO2 emissions. And production is in the middle of San Francisco, so it's made regionally.
Molecules are also the focus of the Israeli start-up Bio Milk, which has succeeded in producing breast milk in the laboratory by breaking down the immune-boosting oligosaccharides in breast milk and assembling them in the lab. By 2021, Bio Milk aims to be ready for the market. An opportunity to achieve the UN's SDG 2 goal, Zero Hunger, for babies and young children. The Israelis are getting competition from the USA, Durham, North Carolina. That's home to a biotech startup called Biomilq, which raised $3.5 million in July 2020 to develop breast milk from lab cultures to produce breast milk via female cell cultures.
Estimates are that the infant formula market will be worth nearly $104 billion globally by 2026, up from $45 billion in 2018. If these molecular methods become scalable, it promises to be good business.
In Berlin, we find LegenDairy, which uses milk molecules for cheese production. Solar Foods in Finland makes proteins from molecules in the air, energy and a strain of bacteria. And the topic of growing meat cells has, after all, made its way to the market in Singapore since November 2020 with chicken cell meat.
So biomolecules will be able to be "grown" in the future. This will change some business models and have an impact on the production in the food chain. Industrial production of food molecules will increasingly take place in facilities in cities. And as cities change, rural areas will change. New urban-rural relationships will emerge, with new opportunities for both sides.
The urban habitat should become a livable, natural and sustainable ecosystem. This ecosystem should be as independent and self-sufficient as possible. Also in the area of food production. The latest technical developments make the approach of an "Urban Circular Food Economy" possible.
I look forward to seeing you at the Global Food Summit to discuss these challenges and to explore how the change can take place.
Raffael Wohlgensinger is co-founder and CEO of LegenDairy Foods, a Berlin-based startup that produces a different kind of milk alternative: The company produces milk based on milk proteins. It's a real alternative for those who avoid milk but miss the typical dairy taste that previous alternatives like soy or almond milk can't match. We asked Raffael Wohlgensinger a few questions about his product.
Milk without cow - How do you obtain the raw material from which your dairy products are made?
Purely plant-based foods are not able to perfectly imitate the taste, texture and functionality of animal products. At the same time, we urgently need to reduce the production and consumption of animal foods to minimize the negative impact on our environment. Legendairy Foods uses microorganisms to produce real milk proteins (casein and whey protein), which we then process into cheese by our food design team. Just like a cow converting nutrients from feed into milk components, our microorganisms convert nutrients from a plant fermentation medium - primarily carbohydrate and nitrogen - into milk proteins.
Commentary: The acceptance of alternative proteins
Picture: National Association of the German Meat Industry e.V.
We ask stakeholders from industry, associations and politics: "What impact do you think the Corona pandemic has and had on the development and customer acceptance of alternative proteins, and what is your stance on this?"
In this issue, we ask Thomas Vogelsang, managing director of the German Meat Products Industry Association, for his assessment. He says that the market for alternative proteins in Germany is developing very dynamically, even if the share of these products in the overall market is still small. Whether plant-based food, in vitro meat or insects will be successful as a basis for meat substitute products in the long term, on the other hand, remains to be seen. In Europe at least, the processes are still largely unknown, and people are rather skeptical about this technology.
On April 28 and 29, 2021, the Global Food Summit will take place virtually. For one and a half days, scientists, politicians, representatives of organizations, associations and the media will be able to talk about food innovations and exchange the latest findings. As always, you can find all the information about the Global Food Summit 2021 here, in our monthly newsletter, or on our homepage.
Self-watering soil for plants in response to droughts
Picture: UT Austin
Freshwater is a precious resource. Not only for us humans as drinking water, but above all in agriculture. Without water, food cannot grow in the fields. And access to water also largely determines where food can be planted at all.
But that could now change: Scientists at the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin have developed soil that can irrigate itself. Specifically, the newly developed soil contains super-moisture-absorbing gels. These gels absorb water from the moisture in the air and release it from a certain soil temperature, thus watering the plants. In the process, some of the moisture goes back into the atmosphere, which in turn increases the humidity. This creates a cycle.
In their experiments, the scientists led by Guihua Yu, associate professor of materials science, were able to grow radishes, among other things, in the hydrogel soil on the roof of the institute for two weeks without having to re-water once. Only at the beginning was watering done once to make sure the radishes got a foothold.
The self-watering soil could be a response to the increasingly frequent droughts and ensure that the areas that can be used for agriculture can be expanded, for example in desert areas.
Very special plants grow in the greenhouses "Little Eden" of master gardener Ralf Schmitt in Kleintettau in northern Bavaria. They are exotic fruits like passion fruit, papayas, guavas or jackfruit. The tropical climate with 25 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 70 percent is made possible thanks to the location of the greenhouses: they are located near a glass factory with three large glassworks, whose waste heat is transported to the houses with the help of a 500-meter-long water pipe.
The greenhouses themselves hardly differ from commercially available specimens. Only the roof is made of a special glass, so-called diffuse glass, which refracts light like a prism. Thus, there is a natural greenhouse effect, which heats up the greenhouses quickly. There is no artificial lighting, which was the biggest challenge for the project, because normally tropical plants have twelve hours of daylight. This is not regularly available in Bavaria because of the seasonal differences. But after a year in the greenhouses, the plants have gotten used to it.
As a result, in "Little Siberia," as the region near the Thuringian border is called, fruits that otherwise have to be imported from tropical regions, such as South America, can grow on 3,500 square meters. This especially excites chefs in the area, who are happy to pick up the fruit and integrate it into their menus. In the in-house store, the fruits can be purchased by anyone. In general, visitors are welcome to come and see the little tropical paradise. There are regular guided tours and special exhibitions.
In the meantime, the CO2-neutral project has also attracted the attention of the EU and is receiving financial support to research whether tropical fruits can be grown commercially in Europe. Ralf Schmitt can now grow around ten tons of tropical fruits per year. In Germany alone, there are glasshouse sites in almost every state where such a project could be rolled out. In Europe, there are an estimated 200 sites. So the chances are not bad that one day there will be regional tropical fruits to buy in our stores.
Wenn Sie diese E-Mail (an: unknown@noemail.com) nicht mehr empfangen möchten, können Sie diese hier kostenlos abbestellen.
Stephan Becker-Sonnenschein
Picture: KLEIN EDEN - Tropenhaus am Rennsteig
