Unnaturally delicious by Jason Lusk

After reading Jason Lusk's Unnaturally Delicious, I had a mixed feelings about GMOs because as far as possible I want the "native" variety or those which I saw my parents were serving us when we were little, about insisting on cage-free organic eggs and chicken because I hate feeds, about food preservation to cut down food waste because there is also som sense in using "all" animal parts so that they won't go to waste even if it means using allowed chemicals to prolong it. 

After reading this book, I came to realize that science and technology  should be applied in agriculture if we are to sustain feeding the world's population.

Well, this book is about proposing that we (or the US since the book is written addressing the US needs) need to fund science and technology research because it is necessary for feeding the population.

 Fascinating things are being studied by researchers. I can't imagine that a robot (with online recipe resources of what what one wants to eat) can replace humans in the kitchen. As an avid cook myself, I know that some batch of salt is not as salty as the others so I got to taste my cooking which the robot cannot do by itself to judge if it tastes good. Same with powdered peppers, whether a pinch is enough or a need for two is called for, still my tongue alone can judge. But there are creative scientists in robotics who want that and it's a happy thing to know, but so far, they came up with robots which can cook as per istruction but humans still needs to do the marketing, peel and slice the ingredients, put them in the robot's special "hands." And sadly, humans still has to do the cleaning of the pots and pans. Hahahhaha. Really? I think I need a robot who cleans up my kitchen traces when I cook. That would be very useful and efficient.

Gosh, I have to mention that someday, there can also be a 3D printing of food too. Oh no, I can't live with that if you ask me now.

Amazing to know also that instead of killing cows, now scientists can grow lean meat in a petri dish by getting the stem cells of the cow and growing them. They are now studying how to grow fats the same way. Gosh, I can't imagine our food production would be this way. I won't be bothered by my conscience each time I eat animal meat but I think I must be bothered or uneasy too if I knew that my meat is not from a butcher shop as I used to or grow up with but from but some petri dish. 

One strong case, I believe, why we need to embrace GMOs that the author pointed out is the fact that after years of research, a scientist was able to insert beta carotene from a daffodil in the DNA of the usual rice so that the yellow rice can be an option for countries whose people die or go blind because of lack of Vitamin A and beta carotene. The rice seed is available now but the same is not used because of the governmental policies which is anti-GMO. But if we come to deeply think of it, there are cases that where rethinking on GMOs is needed too.

    But the use of science and technology in food is not limited to GMOs alone. It also includes land mapping and how to efficiently apply fertilizers, a test whether an olive oil is rancid or not where tasting it won't help, avoiding food poisoning by making standard procedures monitored in real time via computers through the internet aside from human's spot inspections.

If we come to think of it, after a month of being in a lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, our only activity every day right now is to cook. Now, are we eating healthily or we are just filling our tummies and satisfying our tongue's desire? Eating is very much a part of our lives. Are we ready to embrace unnatrally delicious food? I am open to rethinking things. 

I would rather welcome GMOs and petri dish meats for the future than see more of the softdrinks like Coca Cola and Pepsi, just because we were used to it.    

Unnaturally deicious is a delightful read even for a non-science person like me. It collated all that we need to know to challenge our present struggle between increasing population against food production vis-a-vis taking care of the environment.