Original subtitles

(delicate music)

Welcome to the restaurant

at the end of the world.

This is Huset.

78 degrees north of the equator, the menu features

local fare, like reindeer, foraged mushrooms,

sea kelp, bearded seal, and blue cheese covered in ash.

The head chef, Philip Gemzel.

For me, it's a lot of wild flavors.

But it's also about simplicity.

It's definitely challenging to be in Svalbard.

When you discover something new, it's always a rush.

I'm doing something to be excited about all the time,

which is fantastic.

We don't have anything here.

Nothing is growing.

There's no trees, there's no vegetables.

There's no farms of any thing.

There's no pigs on the island.

So we gotta deal with the things we have around us.

All the protein we get, we get

from our hunters and trappers here in Svalbard.

All the fish that we use, all the chefs

go fishing together with the fishermen.

It's a different respect to what you do, really.

The lack of resources has served as inspiration

to dream up new tastes, textures and ingredients.

It's about making whatever you have

taste as good as possible and focus on that ingredient.

This is Svalbard reindeer.

It's lightly smoked, served with an onion vinegarette

that we make with Norwegian ice wine.

(gentle piano music)

So this is a mushroom soup

made with local mushrooms here in Svalbard.

There's not many things growing in Svalbard,

and this is one of very, very few.

I wanted to kind of recreate that environment

of where the mushrooms are, where we found them.

It's a very, very earthy flavor.

Finding inspiration in nature,

creating dishes based on seasonality and availability,

modern chefs like Philip are hoping

to inspire a sustainable future.

(stirring music)

The food industry contributes to some

of the greatest challenges facing humanity:

climate change, water scarcity, dwindling resources,

increased chronic disease, and overpopulation.

And the food of the future is going to be

as different as the world itself.

As cooks, scientists, foodies and citizens

begin to look forward, what will be the future of food?

(waves rumbling)

(sentimental string music)

On a remote island of the Svalbard archipelago,

halfway between Norway and the North Pole,

scientists are making plans for the food of the future.

If you fly into Svalbard, the only thing you will see

is ice, ice, ice, and ice.

If you are lucky, you might see one of

the three-and-a-half thousand polar bears.

I'm pretty sure you will see some of the 12,000

funny-looking reindeer that live here.

But except this, there's really nothing much in Svalbard.

Nothing grows here.

Except we then have the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

This seed citadel holds

almost a million samples of plant species

originating from almost every country in the world.

It is our largest and most diverse

collection of crop species.

(laughing)

Marie Haga is head of the Global Crop Trust.

She and her colleagues have made global crop diversity

their mission for a very important reason.

Our food system is in deep trouble.

Our mandate is to safeguard the diversity

of crops around the globe.

As of today, 95% of the food we eat

actually come from 30 species.

60% of calorie intake comes from only three plants:

from rice,

from wheat,

and from maize.

This makes us extremely vulnerable.

We have a desperate need to develop a food system

that is more sustainable and more resilient.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

is one piece in the global puzzle

we are putting together to safeguard crop diversity.

It's more important than ever because of climate change.

Carved 500 feet into the side of a mountain,

standing 436 feet above sea level,

this bastion of hope was built to withstand

rising tides and temperatures.

You walk through a tunnel approximately 120 meters long.

Then when you're past actually four, five doors,

you'll come in through a huge white hall

that I like to call the cathedral.

In there you see an extremely icy door.

Behind that door, with all these beautiful ice crystals,

you will find just boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes of seeds.

We have crops from absolutely all over the world.

It's actually fascinating to think about;

that that is both the history of agriculture

and potentially the future.

(stirring music)

Contained in each of these boxes

are seeds which represent nearly 12,000 years of hard work

by our farming forefathers and mothers.

Though there are more than 1,700 gene banks

storing seeds around the world,

they can be vulnerable to war,

natural disasters and other threats.

Extremely important genetic material has gone lost.

And we in the Crop Trust are concerned

to conserve each one of these.

We desperately need to breed plants

that can stand higher temperature,

higher salinity in the soil.

We know that the plants we are growing today,

they take far too much water, so we need to develop plants

that can give good yields without the same amount of water.

We know we will have to fight new pests

and new diseases as a consequence of climate change.

And we of course always need to be concerned

about nutritional value and taste.

All of these things can be managed

if we are wise enough to safeguard

the diversity that we have, because one of them

might have the trait that we need today or tomorrow,

in 50 years or 200 years, to develop a plant

that can stand new environments.

(gentle piano music)

As we blast into a 21st century

rife with complex challenges,

food diversity is one of humanity's most potent weapons

in the fight against hunger.

Diversity of diet also gives us an opportunity

to achieve new levels of health and nutrition

by taking advantage of delicious foods

that are available in our own backyards.

Historically, we have eaten roughly 7,000 types of plants.

And, you know, many of these still exist,

and we should absolutely find

some of these forgotten foods.

Many of them are exciting.

They can have high nutritional value.

And as a chef, a cook,

somebody who cooks dinner for your family every day,

it could give a lot of inspiration.

(ethereal music)

But in the future, humanity will have to tackle

yet another rising challenge: food access.

By 2050, it is projected that 70%

of the world's 9.7 billion people will live in cities.

So who will be growing our food?

Throughout the world, hungry young entrepreneurs

are tackling this problem.

By engineering solutions for the future,

they are blurring the lines between the rural

and urban approach to food.

New York City.

Ask an New Yorker, this is the center of the universe.

(intriguing electronic music)

An archetype of all things metropolitan.

Even weeds struggle to grow in this tough environment.

But a new revolution is blossoming here.

What we hope at Square Roots

is that we're really unleashing this new generation

of entrepreneurs and these amazing farmers.

Square Roots in Brooklyn

is planting the seeds of a big idea,

right here in an industrial parking lot.

Business people, like Tobias, are trying to change

how people get their produce.

People want local food.

And with 70% of the world's population

to live in cities by 2050,

entrepreneurs will need to find a way

to satisfy urban demand.

Square Roots is really an attempt

to bring local, real food to everyone.

Today, most of us are at the mercy

of what we call the industrial food system,

which ships in high-calorie, low-nutrient food

often from thousands of miles away.

We've lost connection with that farmer.

What we want to do as Square Roots is start to grow food

right in the middle of the neighborhood,

next to the people that are gonna eat the food.

We're sat inside of a 320 square foot shipping right now.

It's a standard 40 foot shipping container.

This was probably on a boat to China two years ago.

We've been able to refurbish it and turn it into a farm.

We're growing vertically and that racking

our fields vertically, which means we're essentially

growing food in three dimensions instead of two dimensions.

We're probably growing about the equivalent

of a two-acre farm's worth of food in here.

Right now, Square roots

is a collection of 10 shipping container farms

that house over 50 different products,

including kale, basil, mint, and even strawberries.

And there are companies transforming agriculture

on an even bigger scale.

Industry giant Aerofarms is located

right across the river from Manhattan.

We're standing here in Newark, New Jersey.

This is actually in an old steel factory.

We are actually the largest vertical farm in the world.

We started Aerofarms inspired by

some of the world's challenges in water.

70% of our world's water, fresh water, goes to agriculture.

70% of our water contamination comes from agriculture.

So if one wants to solve water,

one has to solve agriculture.

Aerofarms is applying cutting-edge technology

to the ancient traditions of farming.

They use a form of hydroponics they call aeroponics.

Through clever engineering, the team has built

an indoor farm that uses 95% less water than field farming,

zero pesticides, and they grow 365 days a year.

We grow without sun, without soil.

Instead of sun, we use LEDs, light-emitting diodes.

Plants don't need sun; they need spectrum.

So we study spectrums that optimize photosynthesis.

And then, building on that, we deliver nutrients, minerals

and elements that are in the soil through a spray.

Every one of the million seeds planted per year

provides precise computer-monitored data.

This is product that's about three days old.

We actually know, based on all the information;

there's sensors, there's monitors reflecting

millions of data points every single day

about what's happening with the crop.

We can actually see what's happening

on day two, day five, and then ultimately

what's gonna be happening on day 12 of harvest.

So this really gives us a line of sight in terms of

how do we insure the right quality.

So we think of ourselves as plant whisperers.

You know, thinking about what are the nutrients,

what's the right light, what's the right environment,

and creating the perfect environment for the plant.

This kind of thin out in the field

may take 30 to 45 days to grow,

but we can grow it in 12 to 16 days.

That means up to 30 harvests a year.

It's 390 times more productive per square foot

on an annualized basis.

But data and efficiency will only go so far.

Foodies want their veggies nutritious, crunchy,

and packed with flavor.

From an organoleptic, from a tasting,

from a sensory standpoint, what's exciting

is that we're able to accentuate different flavors.

It's really kinda like a wine flight,

if you will, of flavors.

So our baby kale is sweet.

Our water cress is really zesty.

Our spicy mix has incredibly bold, peppery flavors.

At the end of the day, we're farmers.

We're passionate about food.

And what's exciting is that we now have ways

of using technology to be able to have a better product.

But let's face it.

As delicious and healthy as greens are,

humans crave protein.

And our insatiable taste for one thing

has drastically altered our health and environment.

Meat.

59% of American crop land is devoted to corn and soybeans,

the majority of which is used to feed livestock.

It takes 1,800 gallons of fresh water

to produce just one pound of beef.

And the production of meat is responsible

for 14.5% of human-linked greenhouse gases.

Quite simply, meat is an ecological disaster.

Nowadays, the big push, environmentally,

is climate change.

And we've known since 2006 that animal agriculture

causes more greenhouse gases

than all transportation combined.

And yet, something that we can actually do

something about actively, consciously right now

is making food choices that make a difference.

It's a major part of our diet.

Worldwide, we consume 92 pounds of meat per person per year.

But there are pioneers offering

alternatives to our delicious addiction.

Some see meat substitutes as the answer.

We can put the feed that we feed animals in,

and we get very tasty, juicy plant-based meat.

A few innovative scientists

think the solution is so-called clean meat,

grown in Petri dishes.

Others believe that there's an easy

and natural source of protein right under our feet.

Insects.

Though reviled in the West, ants, crickets, grasshoppers

and worms are an important and delicious source of protein

in parts of South America and Asia.

(foreign language)

I kinda love eating insects,

so here are the chapulines; they're grasshoppers.

A really nice nutty, earthy flavor,

and with the salt and the lime they almost come across

like a olive or kind of a caper or something like that,

with a really intense flavor.

If you haven't tried insects,

these are a great one to try first.

These ones have garlic and chile on them.

Look.

Super crunchy.

The inside is a little soft, but really salty.

Yeah, they're really amazing.

I love these things.

I think everyone here has just been programmed

that insects are something you smash

with a shoe when you see them.

I was guilty to that as well, but I did keep an open mind,

and after tasting it, then seeing how intense

these flavors were, that was a whole new,

I guess, flavor palette of things you could use.

It's not only nutritious, it's also really flavorful.

As a chef, you'd be doing yourself

a disjustice to not delve into these ingredients.

So, these are ?gusanos.

They're grubs that grow inside

of the agave that you make mescal from.

It's often served with oranges on the side of mescal.

They're super duper tasty.

I definitely think that eating insects

is part of the future.

Not only because it's fun and exciting and delicious;

I think that, for the green footprint that's left.

There's a whole nother world of flavor there.

If grasshoppers taste this good,

who knows what all the other insects taste like?

I don't know.

And insects are ready to be grown

at an industrial scale.

The key thing is sustainability.

In this crate alone, there's roughly 50,000 little insects.

So, in this area, we have, I would say,

2,000 of these crates, so that's

a whole lot of food in a small area.

At this protein farm in the Netherlands,

farmers are breeding crickets, grasshoppers,

and very juicy buffalo meal worms.

Insect proteins can be ground down into enriched flours

and made into products like bread and pastas.

These are the little creatures.

As said, they're highly nutritious.

What a lot of people talk about, of course, is protein.

This is high quality protein.

Why?

Because it has all nine essential amino acids.

Then, when you look at other micronutrients,

so vitamins, vitamin B12, for example,

is a very interesting one,

because if you're a vegetarian

and you say, "Look, I want to eat less meat,

"or I don't want to eat traditional meat anymore,"

this could be a very good alternative.

Unsaturated fats; that's also a big one

if you compare to traditional meat.

The fats in the insects are healthier.

And then, of course, you have certain minerals.

Think about iron, think about zinc.

We don't use antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides.

Now, really, that's a major one,

because that's a big, big issue with traditional livestock.

And it's not just the nutritional value

of insects which has food entrepreneurs excited.

Insects are a sustainable source of protein,

because they are very efficient in terms of food conversion.

They don't use a lot of feed.

They're very efficient in terms of water.

They don't use a lot of water.

They're very efficient in terms of land use.

They don't use a lot of land.

And they don't produce a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

Insects may sound

like a strange staple of the future.

However, these alternative sources of protein

could have a positive impact

on both our health and environment.

But many pioneers think that taking environmental

and ethical action one step further

is the key to saving the future of food.

Approximately 5% of the U.S.,

or 16 million people, are vegetarian.

About half of those are vegan,

and this number is rapidly growing.

The reasons for going vegan rest on a three-legged stool.

We start with animal compassion.

This was where veganism began.

Then, a low-fat, plant-based diet

is the only way of eating that has ever been shown

to reverse coronary disease, and we know that heart disease

is the number one killer of both women and men

in the United States and much of the developed world.

Then the third is the environment.

(bright music)

A revolution in veganism has exploded

onto the scene, and it's no longer for a select few.

That's the message of 30-year vegan

and author Victoria Moran.

We're not all celebrities.

We're not all people who look like we could be

on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

We're also not leftover hippies

and leftover punk rockers.

We are all kinds of people.

As a health educator and vegan coach and author,

I advocate a high green, high raw,

high energy kind of lifestyle.

It means that we're having lots of beautiful, colorful food.

And we know that the antioxidants,

those great phytochemicals that are

supposed to ward off degenerative disease

are found in the colors of the fruits and vegetables.

Your shopping cart and your plate

should look like a Christmas tree:

mostly green with splashes of other bright colors.

So you want to have lots of raw foods, lots of fruit,

and beans, beans are amazing.

And interestingly enough, dark leafy greens

pack a nutritional wallop, actually have,

per calorie, as much protein as beef.

Evidence of the importance

of the plant-based diet goes back decades.

The China study was called by the New York Times

the Grand Prix of epidemiology,

because it was the biggest look

at human nutrition ever taken.

It was a 20-year study that started in the lab at Cornell

with Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

The takeaway from the China study

that even the researchers did not expect

was that the more animal food consumed, the mores disease;

the more plant foods consumed, the more health.

Based on this scientific evidence,

Dr. Campbell proposed a golden rule for eating.

The term whole food plant-based diet

was coined by Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

It means a diet based entirely on whole foods

from the plant kingdom: vegetables, fruits,

whole grains, legumes, beans, and some nuts and seeds.

The benefits of this diet

are evident in some of the world's longevity hotspots,

places like Greece, Costa Rica, Sardinia, and Japan.

In rural China, many 70-year-olds

have the same blood pressure, 110 on 70,

as the average 16-year-old American.

In rural Kenya, where the population

only feasts on meat on very rare occasions,

blood pressure actually goes down with age instead of up.

Each of the longest living people in these areas

enjoy a diet largely made up of whole grains,

vegetables, soy products and aquatic protein.

These diets are simple and are linked to our past.

A move back towards a predominantly plant-based diet

and away from a meat-focused industrial system

would be huge step in alleviating

many of the health and environmental problems

we are battling today.

This is just one of the many lessons

we can learn from the history of food.

And to understand our food is to understand

our shared story.

The reason I like studying the history of food

is the ability to food to take you back in time.

It transports you in a way that very few other things can.

You can experience a meal that might have been eaten by

Henry VIII, Marco Polo.

You can put yourself there

in a way that you can't in other ways.

It's a fragment of the past that we can put in out mouths,

that we can smell,

we can touch.

I just don't know any other way that time travel

can be so immediate and so physical.

For two million years,

food has been so much more than sustenance.

We eat some 80,000 meals in a lifetime.

Humans have evolved to see much more in food

than mere survival; it's cultural, it's social,

it's oftentimes a ritual in a religious way

or simply in how we structure out day.

So much is built around meals, around eating,

so I think it's important, as we go forward

making some of these changes that are absolutely necessary,

that we keep these ritual aspects

and the social aspects intact.

We need them.

And while the histories of food

have been written, the battles for its future

are just beginning.

In everyday society, food seems like a pleasure,

something that is just part of life and we can enjoy it.

But if you live in nature, food is the necessity.

It is important to reflect that, in the end,

survival depends on food.

In the West we've almost forgotten that.

Nowadays, more people have nutritional problems

from being overfed than being underfed.

But nevertheless, there's something like

a billion people in the world

for whom food security is always a problem,

and they are the ones that are in closer touch

with the reality of us as a species

than we are in the West.

The decisions we make

will dictate the future of the planet and our species.

The future of food is going back to our roots,

back to eating the simple, natural foods

that grow up out of the ground.

When this happens, I think that we just might

save this planet and people's health besides.

There are lots of policy changes we need to make.

But then there's the individual consumer, individual eater.

You know, what do I do at home

to make food more sustainable, to increase the odds

that we have enough food in a hundred years?

(moving music)

One scenario that people tend to talk about

is diversifying all of our food.

We need resilience in our food system.

We need to all eat local.

But if we realistically think about the future,

nobody really imagines that we're gonna convert

to a system where all food is local.

And so I think what a more reasonable argument is

that we need to increase the ability

of local food to be part of our story.

If you can afford it, buy more local food.

Buy more varieties of the food you eat.

Ask for varieties you've not seen before,

especially if those are native

to the region in which you live.

The future of humankind

is intrinsically linked to the future of our food.

Vertical farming, seed vaults, and edible insects

cannot save us on their own.

We are at the beginning of a new age

where we must reinvent to food systems of the last century.

The revolution is already underway,

so grab a plate, load it up.

But whatever you choose, consider the past,

present, and future of food.

(intriguing electronic music)