How and where we get our food has been an ever evolving process throughout the centuries. From hunting mastadons with spears in cave times, up through factory farming agriculture, and the recent development of the first lab-grown hamburger.
While a lab-grown beef patty is strange enough, what about the possibility to grow completely new organisms for the sole purpose of devouring them? The idea certainly sounds somewhat futuristic (if not a little unappetizing) , but this idea of “Living Food” is one that robotics student Minsu Kim is exploring.
The idea is for scientist chefs to grow tasty living organisms using synthetic biology. Science already has a hand in much of what we eat with genetically engineered fruits, veggies and meat products, and Minsu sees this as the next step. “We design almost every element of food, such things as a taste, color, smell, texture, and ambience of dining,” Minsu told FastCoDesign. As a designer, I propose an idea on what we could design further in the future.”
Living Food from Min Su Kim on Vimeo.
While engineering food is a growing territory, the idea that your lab grown meal might start to crawl off your plate is a menu item that might take a little getting used to. Minsu hopes this idea will raise questions such as, “Would you eat them? Why not? Do you think of it as a life-form?”
Who knows, in the future if you play with your food it might actually play back.
