Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat

Eating a veggie burger used to mean consuming a mushy, flavorless patty that you would never confuse with a beef burger. But now products from companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Eat Just, and others that were once fringe players in the food space are dominating the media, the refrigerated sections of our grocery stores, and, increasingly, the world. With the help of scientists working in futuristic labs--making milk without cows, and eggs without chickens--startups are creating wholly new food categories. Real food is being replaced by high-tech.

These ultra-processed and secretly produced foods are cheered by consumers and investors because many are plant-based--often vegan--and help address societal issues like climate change, animal rights, and our planet's dwindling natural resources. But what of our personal health? What do we give up by embracing a technology-driven food supply?

Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat by investigative reporter Larissa Zimberoff is the first comprehensive survey of the food companies at the forefront of this booming business. Zimberoff pokes holes in the mania behind today's changing food landscape to uncover the origins of these mysterious foods and demystify them. Readers will learn about how:

• New Food startups want us to focus on their technology prowess and world-saving discourse, but they are propped up by the very same highly industrial manufacturing systems, and monocrops, that led to the unhealthy American diet we have today.
• The American demand for protein--which 98% of the country already gets more than the daily recommended amount of--continues unabated, and New Food startups are helping to fan the flames with their creation of egg white proteins, milk proteins, and cultured meat.
• New "hot" proteins--pea, mung bean, canola--are being marketed as healthier because they're plant-based. They do sound healthy, but these new ingredients are fractions of their former selves--stripped of fiber and nutrients and made via multi-step manufacturing processes.
• Bringing new and critical upgrades to our lives is part of the promissory narrative of these New Food companies, but they answer to VCs and Wall Street, which expect to see profits. Can we trust that these startups are looking out for our best interests?

Through news-breaking revelations, TECHNICALLY FOOD examines the trade-offs of replacing real food with technology-driven approximations. Chapters go into detail about algae, fungi, pea protein, cultured milk & eggs, upcycled foods, plant-based burgers, vertical farms, cultured meat, and marketing methods. In the final chapter Zimberoff talks to industry voices--including Dan Barber, Mark Cuban, Marion Nestle, and Paul Shapiro--to learn where they see food in 20 years.

As our food system leaps ahead to a sterilized lab of the future, we think we know more about our food than we ever did. We assume that the FDA and USDA have regulations to protect the millions of Americans eating these newly conceived food analogues. But because so much is happening so rapidly, we actually know less about the food we are eating. Until now.

Eating a veggie burger used to mean consuming a mushy, flavorless patty that you would never confuse with a beef burger. But now products from companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Eat Just, and others that were once fringe players in the food space are dominating the media, menus in restaurants, and the refrigerated sections of our grocery stores. With the help of scientists working in futuristic labs--making milk without cows and eggs without chickens--start-ups are creating wholly new food categories. Real food is being replaced by high-tech.

Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat by investigative reporter Larissa Zimberoff is the first comprehensive survey of the food companies at the forefront of this booming business. Zimberoff pokes holes in the mania behind today's changing food landscape to uncover the origins of these mysterious foods and demystify them. These sometimes ultraprocessed and secretly produced foods are cheered by consumers and investors because many are plant-based--often vegan--and help address societal issues like climate change, animal rights, and our planet's dwindling natural resources. But are these products good for our personal health?

Through news-breaking revelations, Technically Food examines the trade-offs of replacing real food with technology-driven approximations. Chapters go into detail about algae, fungi, pea protein, cultured milk and eggs, upcycled foods, plant-based burgers, vertical farms, cultured meat, and marketing methods. In the final chapter Zimberoff talks to industry voices--including Dan Barber, Mark Cuban, Marion Nestle, and Paul Shapiro--to learn where they see food in 20 years.

As our food system leaps ahead to a sterilized lab of the future, we think we know more about our food than we ever did. But because so much is happening so rapidly, we actually know less about the food we are eating. Until now.