Today, Future of Food, a major new exhibition examining how science can help us find more sustainable ways to grow and produce, purchase and cook, eat and enjoy food, opened at the Science Museum. It features over 100 historic and contemporary objects that highlight major food milestones, from 3,500-year-old fermented sourdough bread to the first beef steak grown outside a cow.
The free exhibition invites visitors to discover how our complex and interconnected food practices impact the climate, nature, and society. It explores how our everyday consumption can lead to more sustainable food production and showcases stories of farmers, scientists and community leaders driving positive change across the globe.
On entering Future of Food, visitors will discover how science enabled growing populations to be better fed in the 20th century, delving into the ideas and technologies that transformed farming and also the challenging environmental legacy they left. On display is a fragile potato leaf, one of the few surviving specimens collected during the Irish potato famine. The blight disease rampaged through Ireland’s farmlands because they were planted as a monoculture: the same variety of crop grown on the same land. Also on display is Fritz Haber’s sample of liquid ammonia; one of the most significant scientific inventions of the 20th century, it helped feed billions through the creation of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Human ingenuity and our quest to feed more people led not just to the invention of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and increasing yields, but also to the exploitation of the sea, intensive factory farming and monoculture crops.
L: Visitor looking at a McNugget® in Future of Food at the Science Museum © Science Museum Group; R: Visitor looking at the growth chamber in Future of Food at the Science Museum © Science Museum Group
After setting the scene with the stories and histories behind everyday foods, including margarine, potatoes, corn and McNuggets®, the exhibition invites visitors to explore potential routes to a more sustainable future of food. It reveals some of the scientific ideas, from cellular agriculture to agroecology, that could support sustainable food production.
An ancient Egyptian loaf of bread introduces humanity’s oldest biotechnology: fermentation. The sourdough loaf was found in the tomb of an Egyptian queen and appears alongside the first Quorn burger, a meat substitute which also relies on fermentation that was made in 1981. Today fermentation technology is being used to create a sustainable version of palm oil, with visitors able to see both the process in action as the yeast ferments food waste into ‘palm’ oil, and chocolate, peanut butter and other food products made with the oil.
Visitors can explore how exciting developments in biotechnology could transform how food is produced, creating more planet-friendly and climate-adapted alternatives to animal products and crops. Fermentation is also being used to make dairy from microbes. Prototype products on display offer a glimpse into the near future where the taste and texture are indistinguishable from animal-derived dairy with a fraction of the environmental footprint. Cell-grown meat and fish, including the first beef steak grown outside a cow, are also on display alongside genetically engineered animals and crops such as a bird flu-resistant chicken and live potato and wheat plants, which are developing inside a working growth chamber.
Visitors can discover the history and future of ecological food production, with the exhibition exploring how ecology can be applied so we can farm and fish while supporting the natural world. Buoys, ropes and net used for growing seaweed and shellfish are on display, helping tell the story of a community-led farm in Pembrokeshire, whose vertical underwater ‘gardens’ regenerate the ecosystem. Visitors can also see the deep roots of perennial grass which can access more water and nutrients, and absorb more carbon, than grass which must be replanted each year.
The exhibition uncovers inspiring stories of agroecology across the globe. It highlights a pioneering method of controlling pests with plants. Planting certain grasses that attract pests for egg-laying, but which stop larvae from developing, means that farmers are able to protect their crops and fertilise the soil with the grasses which can also be harvested to feed livestock. Developed in Kenya, this push-pull technology is now being used by over 400,000 farmers across Africa.
Future of Food also peers into the hidden world of life beneath our feet. On display will be two soil samples taken 178 years apart in one of the world’s longest running scientific experiments. By studying this soil, scientists recently found that synthetic fertilisers reduce the amount of bacteria that are helpful to plants. Alongside this will be objects from Norway’s ice-cold seed vaults, which protects our food supply from future threats, to seed-swapping ceremonies in the Amazon, which are regenerating the rainforest and providing food for indigenous communities. These stories spotlight both scientific and community efforts to conserve the genetic diversity of foods.
The exhibition invites visitors to consider the impact of the food we buy, cook and eat, and delves into debates around local food systems and global food trade. Visitors can see how blockchain technology could help shopping become more transparent by allowing access to a secure digital record that traces your food’s journey to the supermarket shelf. On display will be packaging for a prototype cricket burger, in development in Europe, which invites discussion around sustainable protein. The exhibition spotlights a trial in Cardiff, Planet Card, which aims to encourage the purchasing of organic food from small-scale producers to support seasonal cooking and shorter supply chains.
L: Visitors playing on the Feeding the Future interactive in Future of Food at the Science Museum © Science Museum Group; R: Visitors playing with the Engineer a Plant interactive in Future of Food at the Science Museum © Science Museum Group
The exhibition has been designed with children in mind, with playful and interactive moments dotted throughout. Bringing together ideas from both biotechnology and ecology, a large multiplayer interactive game invites visitors to play together and create their own future for food. Selecting from a variety of food production methods explored in the exhibition, visitors’ choices are projected onto a colourful land and seascape to reveal how their decisions impact climate, nature and food production. Visitors can then watch as the choices of all those playing shape the imagined world in front of them.
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘Our Future of Food exhibition is not just about what we eat, but also about how we produce, consume and connect with food. Our food systems need to change if we are to better nourish people and the planet, and the Science Museum is uniquely placed to engage audiences with this complex topic and showcase potential scientific innovations and solutions to the challenges we face.’
Rupert Cole, Lead Curator of Future of Food, said: ‘This timely exhibition examines potential sustainable routes for the future of food: the exciting scientific innovations shaping a new, positive future for people, nature and the climate. I hope the exhibition will inspire visitors to engage with new ideas and technologies that could transform our food system and encourage them to consider what future we want for our food and the planet.’
