The way we grow, cook, and consume food is constantly evolving.

From selective breeding of crops during the late Neolithic to modern agricultural biotechnology, we’ve tinkered with the living systems that generate our foodstuffs for millennia. With increasingly precise bioengineering and a newfound appreciation for how microbes help make—and then digest—the things we eat, some new projects are dramatically changing our very concept of food.

That said, the juncture of food and biotechnology has been hotly—sometimes violently— contested, pitting contemporary business practices against historical modes of food production. Global policy questions persist about what modes of engineering should be regulated, what crop traits are safe and healthy, what traits are desirable, if at all.

Cow-free milk products

Muufri and Real Vegan Cheese

Using genetically engineered yeast to produce milk proteins, these companies are removing the animal from animal products and replacing them with microbes that supply similar proteins for milk and cheeses with a fraction of the environmental footprint. Future applications may push our flavor boundaries. Using genes from the narwhal, Real Vegan Cheese hopes to make cheese from yeast-derived narwhal milk. LEARN MORE ABOUT MUUFRI • LEARN MORE ABOUT REAL VEGAN CHEESE

Susy Morris

Cultured meat

Modern Meadow

Rather than growing meat from a cow, Modern Meadow is growing meat from cow muscle cells. The hope is that one day we’ll be able to enjoy our steaks without them having come from an animal. Until then, however, the company has focused on steak chips. LEARN MORE

USDA

Bistro In Vitro,Submarine Channel and Next Nature Network

Bistro In Vitro is a fictitious restaurant with a menu of futuristic meals derived from biotechnology. These include steaks grown from cell cultures in a synthesizer, teppanyaki made directly from fish muscle tissue, and oysters grown in bioreactors. LEARN MORE

Submarine Channel/Next Nature Network

Just Mayo and Just Cookies, Hampton Creek

Using proteins found in plants such as yellow peas, Hampton Creek has created egg replacements that have similar proteins to eggs but don’t require chicken farming. LEARN MORE

16:9clue

Cultured ingredients

Evolva and Ginkgo Bioworks

Scents and flavors derived from the natural world, such as rose and vanilla, can be costly and are subject to crop fluctuations. Companies such as Evolva and Ginkgo Bioworks have analyzed the genes responsible for these ingredients and inserted them into strains of yeast. These engineered yeasts then produce the scent molecules. One day soon, these companies may produce scents and flavors totally unknown to the natural world. LEARN MORE ABOUT EVOLVA • LEARN MORE ABOUT GINGKO BIOWORKS

Nitrogen fixing crops

Modern crops require a tremendous amount of fertilizer, largely made up of nitrogen. One of the holy grails of agriculture has been to bioengineer plants to capture their own nitrogen from the air. Legumes—the exception—already do so through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in the nodules of their roots. Scientists are exploring how staples such as corn can do the same through a variety of means, including creating new symbiotic relationships with bacteria and engineering nitrogen fixation into plant leaves. LEARN MORE

USDA

Food processing and packaging

Bacteriophage diagnostic system, Sample6

A company called Sample6 has developed a pathogen diagnostic system which takes advantage of the natural properties of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). These phages are bioengineered to find specific pathogenic bacteria and force them to express a bioluminescent protein, luciferase. This system has the potential to significantly reduces the cost and time involved in testing food to make sure it contains safe levels of common germs that make us sick. LEARN MORE

British Columbia

Growth Assembly,Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Sascha Pohflepp

The artists envision an herbicide sprayer whose components are grown within the the fruit of bioengineered plants. The sprayer is an object from a future in which only the wealthy can afford traditional, mass-produced commodities. The poor must grow their goods from bioengineered seeds. The pieces play on our ideas of industrial standards. LEARN MORE

Sion Ap Tomos

WikiPearl, WikiFoods

WikiPearl was inspired by the protective peels of fruits and vegetables. It protects food in an edible skin of electrostatic gel formed by harnessing interactions among natural food particles, nutritive ions, and a polysaccharide. Products include edible skins for ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. LEARN MORE