Tech to Table: 25 Innovators Reimagining Food

Imagine eating a burger grown in a laboratory, a strawberry picked by a robot, or a pastry created with a 3-D printer. You would never taste the difference, but these technologies might just save your health and the planet’s. Today, landmark advances in computing, engineering, and medicine are driving solutions to the biggest problems created by industrialized food. Tech to Table introduces readers to twenty-five of the most creative entrepreneurs advancing these solutions. They come from various places and professions, identities and backgrounds. But they share an outsider’s perspective and an idealistic, sometimes aggressive, ambition to rethink the food system. Reinvention is desperately needed. Under Big Ag, pollution, climate change, animal cruelty, hunger, and obesity have festered, and despite decades of effort, organic farming accounts for less than one percent of US croplands. Entrepreneurs represent a new path, one where disruptive technology helps people and the environment. These innovations include supplements to lower the methane in cattle belches, drones that monitor irrigation levels in crops, urban warehouses that grow produce year-round, and more. The pace and breadth of change is astonishing, as investors pump billions of dollars into ag-innovation. Startups are attracting capital and building markets, with the potential to upend conventional agribusiness’s stranglehold on the food system. Not every invention will prosper long-term, but each marks a fundamental change in our approach to feeding a growing population—sustainably. A revolution in how we grow and eat food is brewing. Munson’s deftly crafted profiles offer a fascinating preview of the coming future of food.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. The Rise of Disruptors Part 1. Deliver Proteins Chapter 1. Josh Tetrick, JUST—Rethinking the Chicken and the Egg Chapter 2. Uma Valeti, Memphis Meats—Avoiding Animal Slaughter Chapter 3. Patrick Brown, Impossible Foods—Making Burgers from Plants Chapter 4. James Corwell, Ocean Hugger Foods—Turning Tomatoes into Tuna Chapter 5. Virginia Emery, Beta Hatch—Farming Insects Chapter 6. Leonard Lerer, Back of the Yards Algae Sciences—Growing Algae and Mycelia Part 2. Reduce Food Waste Chapter 7. Irving Fain, Bowery Farming—Bringing Crops Closer to Consumers Chapter 8. James Rogers and Jenny Du, Apeel Sciences—Coating Foods Chapter 9. Bob Pitzer, Harvest CROO—Picking Strawberries Robotically Chapter 10. Raja Ramachandran, ripe.io—Tracking Food with Blockchain Chapter 11. Lynette Kucma and Emilio Sepulveda, Foodini—Printing 3D Meals Chapter 12. Daphna Nissenbaum, Tipa—Cutting Plastic Packaging Part 3. Curtail Poisons Chapter 13. Sebastian Boyer and Thomas Palomares, FarmWise—Plucking Weeds Robotically Chapter 14. Jorge Heraud and Lee Redden, Blue River Technology—Spraying Precisely Chapter 15. Irina Borodina, BioPhero—Messing with Pest Sex Part 4. Nourish Plants Chapter 16. Diane Wu and Poornima Paramswaran, Trace Genomics—Mapping Soils Chapter 17. Eric Taipale, Sentera—Analyzing Fields from Above Chapter 18. David Perry, Indigo Ag—Providing Probiotics to the Soil Chapter 19. Karsten Temme and Alvin Tamsir, Pivot Bio—Feeding Nitrogen to Crop Roots Chapter 20. Tony Alvarez, WaterBit—Watering Precisely Part 5. Cut Carbon Chapter 21. Rachel Haurwitz, Caribou Biosciences, and Federico Tripodi, Calyxt—Editing Genes Chapter 22. Lee DeHaan, Land Institute—Planting Perennials Chapter 23. Joshua Goldman, Australis Aquaculture—Blocking Burps Chapter 24. Julia Collins, Planet FWD—Creating a Climate-Friendly Food Platform Chapter 25. Stafford Sheehan and Gregory Constantine, Air Co.—Cutting Carbon with Vodka Conclusion. The Role of Innovation Acknowledgments Notes About the Author Index

About the Author :
Richard Munson is the author of several books, including Tesla: Inventor of the Modern. He also has written a biography of Jacques Cousteau, a history of electricity, and a behind-the-scenes look at how congressional appropriators spend taxpayer money. Now based in Chicago, Munson has worked on environmental and clean-energy issues at non-profits, within universities, in the private sector, and on Capitol Hill.

Review :
"This book provides hope to an industry and society replete with despair, giving positive perspectives on technological advancements and their potential for social improvement." -- "Donovan's Literary Services"