TTWASTE NOT
Researchers are
currently working on ways
to convert human waste into
nutrients. Whether you’re
eating on Earth or during a
space vacation, in the future
some of your food will
likely have recycled
ingredients.FOOD-IN-A-BOX
Some of the lettuce in this
kitchen is sad. Or rather, one of
the lettuce emojis on the giant
computer screens is frowning.
That’s because the chef didn’t
use the right recipe of sun-
light, water, and nutrients to
get the real-life leafy plant
inside a box behind the screen
to grow. So she taps the touch
screen to make the tempera-
ture cooler, and the lettuce’s frown turns upside down on the fridge-shaped “box farm.” Without
planting seeds in soil, this restaurant can grow all the fruits and vegetables it needs. “Anybody can
be a farmer,” says Hildreth England, assistant director of the Open Agriculture Initiative at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If you live in Iceland, you can grow strawberries that taste
as if they’re from Mexico.”HUNGRY? PRESS PRINT
A quick finger scan at your
table shows that you’re low on
certain nutrients. Just press a
button, and a 3-D printer uses
pureed food cartridges to
“print” lasagna that’s packed
with specific vitamins that
your body needs. “Healthy food
isn’t one size fits all,” Takhistov
says. “We have different bodies,
so we need different nutri-
ents.” These printers will also
increase efficiency, allowing
chefs to quickly print personal-
ized food for large crowds.W
hat will restaurants
be like decades
from now? “You
can expect a lot
of changes in terms of using
technology to grow and order
our meals,” says Paul Takhistov,
a food scientist at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick,
New Jersey. “We’ll also be able
to personalize our food more.”
Check out what’s cooking at
this restaurant of the future.BY KAREN DE SEVE
ART BY MONDOLITHIC STUDIOSD
24 AUGUST 2017