The Uncanny Valley of Future Food

Naama Nicotra, Ram Shalom, Maya Margolin, Or Rosen, Noam Sol, Or Ben Dov, Ofri Shapira, Inbal Abramson, Noa Zeevi, Shaked Schwartzberg, Imri Dromi

Lab-grown food can look and feel like anything—but what will that “anything” be?
As novel proteins become increasingly common, we are rapidly approaching a time when most of our food no longer comes from fields, chicken coops, or dairy barns. Today, when food tech companies (many of which were founded in Israel and continue to operate here), approach the task of designing their food products, they usually try to imitate well-known foods.
However, lab-grown proteins hold endless possibilities in terms of their form and the aesthetic and sensory experience they can offer. They really can be just about anything. The main barrier to making novel foods accessible is consumer acceptance. The public’s concerns about unfamiliar food are bad enough without it taking on entirely new forms.
For this project, eleven young designers joined together to redesign four lab-grown foods: eggs, dairy, meat, and fish.
We are here to ask you: What would you be willing to eat, and what doesn’t look like food to you anymore? Where do you draw the line?

This project was developed in partnership with Stratasys and with support from Asif Culinary Institute of Israel and the Israeli food-tech companies Aleph Farms, Yo!Egg, Wilk, andSea2Cell.