Synthetic biology

This is the third installment in my effort to share some photos associated Unnaturally Delicious (by the way, I noticed today that the book was reviewed by Nadia Berenstein for Popular Science).

In the fourth chapter, I talk about synthetic biology.

“If yeast can convert sugar to alcohol, what else can it do? As it turns out, yeast is more than just an alcohol factory. Yeasts can eat up sugars to make flavors, fats, and fuels. And more. Yeast can make whatever its instructions tell it to make. By instructions, I mean the yeast’s genetic code, or DNA.”

When people think about biotechnology and "GMOs" they tend to think about big chemical and pharmaceutical companies, but as I reveal, even teenagers and young adults are getting in on the action.  

“Some of the most exciting developments in food bioengineering aren’t even among the Silicon Valley–like start-ups. They’re being conceived by kids who haven’t even finished high school or college. For more than a decade students around the globe have been assembling for an annual competition once hosted by MIT but now put on by the nonprofit International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation. iGEM has become the premier competition in synthetic biology for graduate, undergraduate, and high school students”

I talked to a team from the City University of Hong Kong who made a pro-biotic to fight obesity (the modified bacteria "eats" undesirable fat and turns it into more desirable omega 3 fatty acid).  I also talked to the prize winning team from UC Davis who created a bacteria to test for rancid olive oil.  

“According to Ritz, as much as 70 percent of the olive oil imported into the United States is rancid by the time it reaches the consumer. Rancid oil has gone stale. It isn’t necessarily harmful or even bad tasting to the average consumer. In fact, the UC Davis team conducted some blind tastes with consumers and found that many people actually preferred the rancid oil to fresh oil—perhaps because it is what they have become so accustomed to eating. Ritz said that fresh olive oil creates a tingling feeling in the throat—a phenomenon unfamiliar to many American consumers. Being habituated to blander, stale oil has its costs. Rancid oil does not have the same healthy compounds—like antioxidants—that are associated with fresh olive oil.”

Here are some photos of that taste test and the entire UC Davis team.  

Coming to a kitchen near you

The 3rd chapter in Unnaturally Delicious is "Hewlett Packard with a Side of Fries", and it illustrates some of the ways food technologies are changing the kitchen - namely 3D food printers and robotic cooks.   

“For about a thousand bucks, it is already possible to buy a kit that can print food, according to Hod Lipson, a robotics and engineering professor at Columbia University; he heads up a project that makes Fab@home, a 3-D printer.2 It isn’t exactly the food replicator used by Captain Kirk, but 3-D food printing and robotic chefs are moving us a few small steps in that direction.”

Here's an image of a commercial model from a company called Natural Machines which sells the so-called Foodini. 

You can find some really cool photos of printed foods from this article at Nature News or check out these awesome candy creations.

Want to hand the cooking duties completely over to someone (or something) else?

“Mark Oleynik and his company, Moley Robotics, unveiled a prototype robot cook at the world’s largest industrial fair in the spring of 2015. The robot turned out perfectly prepared crab bisque. Perfect because the robotic arms were programmed to follow—in every way—the movements of a celebrity chef, Tim Anderson, who had won the British version of the reality television cooking competition Master Chef.”

Here it is in action (for more see here).

Choosing to cook - or not

Salon just published a piece I wrote on how technology has changed our farms and kitchens.

Here are a few excerpts:

“According to a new Netflix series based on Michael Pollan’s book “Cooked,” we should all head back to the kitchen and relish in the joys of home cooking. It’s not necessarily bad advice. There is an inherent dignity in seeing the fruits of one’s labor immediately enjoyed by friends and family. But good advice for one doesn’t always make good advice for all, particularly when it comes to food policy, which Pollan has attempted to change. That cooking, and in a particular manner and philosophy, should be a pressing issue for most households is presumptive at best.

Amid the lofty goals of the leaders of the so-called food movement runs an undercurrent of food philosophy and politics that undermines our food freedoms and prosperity. While recognizing that our modern foodstuffs, from wheat to corn, are unnatural human creations, there is a sense in which our more modern innovations – from microwaves to biotechnology – are nefarious plots of Big Food that are to blame for current problems as diverse as obesity and soil runoff.”

and

“Often missed in the discussion of food futures is an accurate depiction of what’s actually happening today on the farm. Rural entrepreneurship and technological adoption are having profound impacts on farmers’ fields and on our dinner plates. A closer look reveals a fundamentally different view of the future of food based on the idea that innovation and technological advancement are not opposed to sustainability but rather are the key ingredients.”

In conclusion:

“Change is scary. But what’s the alternative? Eating like our grandparents? We can aspire to something more.”

Innovations in Hen Housing

With the release of Unnaturally Delicious today, I thought I'd initiate a series of posts on the book over the next week or two.  

One of the main purposes of the posts is to share some pictures associated with the chapter contents. Originally the publishers planned to include the photos in the book, but decided to pull them at the last minute.  The upside is that I have clearance to reproduce a variety of interesting pictures associated with the book content, and I plan to do that here on the blog.  

The second chapter of the book talks about some innovative housing systems for egg laying hens.  What can be done to improve the welfare of laying hens which typically live in a crowded wire cage.  Why not just go cage free? 

“Typical cage-free systems (often called barn or aviary systems) provide hens with much more space than do the cage systems. The barns allow the birds to exhibit natural behaviors like scratching and dust bathing, and they provide nesting areas for laying eggs. But they are far from the paradise many people envision. As Silva put it, “Cage-free isn’t what most people think it is.””

No hen housing system is superior to another in all respects, and there are tradeoffs and costs with each.  A really nice illustration of this is via the results of the research project that goes by the name Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply.  I highly recommend their visuals that compare how different systems rate along dimensions related to food safety, animal welfare, environment, etc.   

In any event, one relatively new system in the U.S. is the so-called enriched colony cage system that attempt to provide some of the benefits of cage free without some of the downsides. I write:

“Unlike the barren environment in the battery cages, the enriched colony cages have the mat area that allows the hens to exercise their natural urge to scratch. Also available are perches that allow the hens to get up off the wire floor. In addition to the nests, the perches are a popular sleeping area for the hens. Running underneath the colony cage is a conveyor belt that removes the manure and keeps it away from the birds. The enriched colony cages aren’t perfect, and some animal advocacy groups think they don’t go far enough. But they’re an innovative compromise.”

Here's a picture of the housing system from the cage manufacturer Big Dutchman.

Of course, we can go even further still.  One group of Dutch researchers has been working to create a system—the Roundel (the eggs are sold in a circular, biodegradable carton under the name Rondeel).  As I write:

“The Roundel is the Ritz Carlton of hen living. Hens have virtually all the freedoms and amenities they’d want from the wild but with ample feed and without any of the dangers from predators or hardships from adverse weather. The Roundel also comes with a luxury hotel price.”

Here's a cool image of the Roundel system from the Wageningen UR Livestock Research group.  

The chapter also discusses some animal welfare trading schemes that might also offer innovative ways to improve farm animal living conditions at a price we're willing to pay. To find out more, you'll have to see the book.

Unnaturally Delicious

My new book is set for release tomorrow - Tuesday March 22nd.

It should be a fun few weeks of media rounds from Brian Lehrer's radio show on WNYC tomorrow morning to Stuart Varney's TV show on the Fox Business Network on Friday to Russ Robert's podcast EconTalk set for release next week.

To give a sense of the book's contents, here's an excerpt from the introduction.

“This is the story of the innovators and innovations shaping the future of food. I’ll introduce you to David Waits, the farmer turned-entrepreneur whose software is now being used on more than 100 million acres in twenty-three countries to help farmers increase yields and reduce nutrient runoff. You’ll meet Tom Silva, who helped his employer build a new hen-housing system that improves animal welfare at an affordable price. Mark Post is a scientist whose work may lead us away from eating animal products altogether. He’s growing meat in his lab. Without the cow. I’ll take you behind the scenes of a student competition at which Sarah Ritz and Aaron Cohen coaxed bacteria to signal when olive oil is stale and Paul Tse and Marco So engineered a probiotic to fight obesity. I’ll take you to South Dakota, where Eldon Roth created a new way to fight food waste. You’ll learn about work by my former student Abdul Naico and the German scientist Ingo Potrykus that aims to fight malnutrition in the developing world with nutrient-enhanced rice and sweet potatoes. My plant science colleagues at Oklahoma State University reveal how they’re helping wheat farmers sustainably grow more with less. And the engineering professor Hod Lipson discusses how to get fresh, tasty, 3-D printed food at the touch of a button, perhaps even delivered to us by Mark Oleynik’s robotic chef.”

The introduction ends as follows:

“Life—particularly in the realm of eating—is substantially better today than it was in our great grandparents’ time. And, if history is our guide, it will become better still. Let me tell you how.”