:00:00. > :00:38.We are in the mood for pink herbs and green motors.
:00:39. > :00:44.This is salad, grown the old-fashioned way.
:00:45. > :00:47.You know, in shipping containers, under LED lights, without soil,
:00:48. > :00:50.in an optimised water and nutrient mix.
:00:51. > :00:53.As Farmer Spock called it, good old hydroponics.
:00:54. > :00:56.In all seriousness, it's been suggested that the type of intense
:00:57. > :01:00.farming going on here at Local Roots in Los Angeles could help
:01:01. > :01:07.solve the world's food problems in years to come.
:01:08. > :01:10.Transport costs can be reduced by growing plants
:01:11. > :01:12.wherever they are needed, even in areas of famine where
:01:13. > :01:20.You get higher volumes and many more crop cycles during the year, too.
:01:21. > :01:23.Lettuce can be grown in 30 days instead of up to 90
:01:24. > :01:25.outdoors, and a new crop can be grown immediately.
:01:26. > :01:29.All in all, one of these containers yields the same as five acres
:01:30. > :01:34.It's very similar to the strawberry farm that we saw in Paris
:01:35. > :01:39.in the spring and in Miyagi in Japan in 2015, where the land had been
:01:40. > :01:46.But this project has much bigger ambitions and this one is also
:01:47. > :01:54.using artificial intelligence to make some quite unusual tweaks.
:01:55. > :01:57.But before we talk about the vegetables of the future,
:01:58. > :02:02.we are off to San Francisco where Kat Hawkins has been looking
:02:03. > :02:09.I've come to this lab in the heart of Silicon Valley
:02:10. > :02:14.They claim to have invented the food of the future -
:02:15. > :02:16.a completely meatless meat made entirely of plants.
:02:17. > :02:23.It's actually remarkably important to get that state of mind
:02:24. > :02:26.perspective but actually it's also useful for interpreting
:02:27. > :02:35.The aim is to reverse engineer the flavour and texture of meat
:02:36. > :02:42.And as someone who very much enjoys their meat tasting like meat,
:02:43. > :02:45.I wanted to find out how they're doing it.
:02:46. > :02:49.What is it about the flavour of meat that makes it so damn delicious?
:02:50. > :02:52.Why is it so agreeable, what is it that triggers your mind
:02:53. > :02:58.There is a lot that goes into that and it turns out that flavour
:02:59. > :03:03.is about 75 or 80% aroma and about 20 or 25% taste.
:03:04. > :03:10.Impossible Foods found that the key ingredient that gives
:03:11. > :03:14.meat its characteristic irony taste is heme, a molecule found
:03:15. > :03:18.in most living things and especially in animal muscle.
:03:19. > :03:26.So this is your magic ingredient, right?
:03:27. > :03:31.And it provides the explosion of flavour you get that makes
:03:32. > :03:37.the difference between white meat chicken with a beefburger.
:03:38. > :03:41.The company has recently flipped the switch on its meatless
:03:42. > :03:45.meat-packing factory as it ramps up production.
:03:46. > :03:47.They will eventually make 4 million burgers a month,
:03:48. > :03:50.and the next aim is to move into chicken, pork and lamb.
:03:51. > :03:56.But it's one thing being a scientist who's enthralled by food tech
:03:57. > :03:59.and another to be a chef, using the ingredients produced
:04:00. > :04:04.I think we eat way too much meat in general.
:04:05. > :04:08.So I think this is a way to be as close as possible to how
:04:09. > :04:16.The Impossible burger is now the only one Rocco has on his menu
:04:17. > :04:22.It seems like at this stage it might be a novelty for Silicon Valley
:04:23. > :04:24.diners with money to spend but of course, as always,
:04:25. > :04:53.It tastes like mushrooms, but I know there's no mushrooms in there.
:04:54. > :04:59.But it doesn't taste quite like meat to me.
:05:00. > :05:04.Yes, it's a little bit leaner, as a meat.
:05:05. > :05:10.But it looks like it - it's got that kind of umami flavour
:05:11. > :05:21.It tasted good as I was eating it but afterwards it left a slightly
:05:22. > :05:24.strange taste in my mouth - very strong, very irony.
:05:25. > :05:26.Still, it's healthier than meat, and has zero cholesterol
:05:27. > :05:31.What comes across talking to Rocco, though, is how important
:05:32. > :05:36.it is for his customers that the flavour is close to meat
:05:37. > :05:40.But what if you could serve actual animal flesh without a single
:05:41. > :05:46.That is what several companies, including this small tech start-up
:05:47. > :05:48.in the heart of Silicon Valley, are working on.
:05:49. > :05:55.They plan to grow actual fish from stem cells.
:05:56. > :05:56.It might sound like an unnerving prospect
:05:57. > :06:04.Fish consumption is demanding, fish demand is rising,
:06:05. > :06:09.52% of all fisheries are fully exploited.
:06:10. > :06:11.25% above that are in collapse, they are overextended.
:06:12. > :06:15.So we only have 23% of the world's fisheries left that we can use
:06:16. > :06:21.So if we still want to eat fish at the rate that we're eating it,
:06:22. > :06:25.Finless Foods takes a small sample of cells from real
:06:26. > :06:30.One cell can theoretically become one tonne of fish meat
:06:31. > :06:35.We'll be on the market in three years with products that
:06:36. > :06:39.are new versions of fish that people haven't had before and in five
:06:40. > :06:42.or six years we'll have steaks and filets like the fish that
:06:43. > :06:45.you currently eat at the supermarket, just like what's
:06:46. > :06:48.inside of the fish that you'd normally see in the ocean.
:06:49. > :06:50.And they're not the only company working on what some
:06:51. > :06:54.Just this week, Hampton Creek claimed they will hit the stores
:06:55. > :07:01.And around the corner at Memphis Meats, they've already
:07:02. > :07:03.produced fried chicken and meatballs from stem cells.
:07:04. > :07:08.But at $18,000 for a pound of beef, there's a long way to go.
:07:09. > :07:11.Scaling up will mean finding a new medium to help
:07:12. > :07:16.Currently, the blood of calf foetuses is used,
:07:17. > :07:20.which is extensive and of course, if you don't want to hurt animals,
:07:21. > :07:32.When I come into a room at a conference, I can see
:07:33. > :07:35.in people's eyes that this is the next big thing,
:07:36. > :07:38.a big evil corporation going to put things in my food that
:07:39. > :07:42.And I think that is justified, in a way.
:07:43. > :07:48.People have been given things into their food supply
:07:49. > :07:52.People have a right to be wary of us.
:07:53. > :07:54.We need to talk to people and really make them
:07:55. > :07:56.understand that we are people, we are environmentalists.
:07:57. > :08:08.We are all trying to do this together.
:08:09. > :08:11.With the population due to increase to 9.7 billion by 2050,
:08:12. > :08:13.many people feel current approaches to food production
:08:14. > :08:16.Cultured meat promises to reduce environmental impacts and meat looks
:08:17. > :08:20.set to be the latest thing to be given the Silicon Valley overhaul.
:08:21. > :08:24.Much like we expect from our phones, from our cars, that it
:08:25. > :08:26.will be better, cheaper, faster, safer, year by year,
:08:27. > :08:30.we should expect the same thing from our food.
:08:31. > :08:34.But once you start thinking about food, a cow, as a pure
:08:35. > :08:38.piece of technology, and you apply those same
:08:39. > :08:41.technological insights we use elsewhere in our lives,
:08:42. > :08:44.you can start really thinking about what food should be,
:08:45. > :08:49.I think I'll stick to the salad for the moment.
:08:50. > :08:53.Which is lucky, because I'm surrounded by the stuff.
:08:54. > :08:55.The thing that really hits you inside one of these
:08:56. > :09:00.It's just lovely, all this concentrated fresh lettuce.
:09:01. > :09:04.And you don't even get this, I don't think, in an open-air field.
:09:05. > :09:14.I'm inside what is called a food computer, where every aspect
:09:15. > :09:19.of the plant's growth cycle - the temperature, nutrient
:09:20. > :09:23.mix, humidity and light is monitored and controlled.
:09:24. > :09:25.This kind of computer-controlled hydroponics is allowing food
:09:26. > :09:28.scientists to not just replicate but improve on Mother
:09:29. > :09:37.So every plant that we grow has a finely-tuned growing algorithm
:09:38. > :09:40.to optimise its growth, its yield and its flavour profiles
:09:41. > :09:48.And that doesn't just mean more or bigger plants, but that experts
:09:49. > :09:57.in Artificial Intelligence can tweak plants in ways nature can't.
:09:58. > :10:03.By doing so we can surely improve on plants without messing with the DNA.
:10:04. > :10:06.We are not changing the genetic make up of the plant.
:10:07. > :10:15.Up in San Francisco, this man has been using AI
:10:16. > :10:25.And he has worked out how to improve the herb basil.
:10:26. > :10:29.During a certain period of growth, if we show them a spectrum of light
:10:30. > :10:41.24/7, then the volatiles for taste in the plant will go up.
:10:42. > :10:44.Did a chef really come and say that he wants his basil
:10:45. > :10:49.We had a couple of chefs come in and sample basil
:10:50. > :10:55.And it increases the spiciness, blue light applied to basil.
:10:56. > :10:59.So you can say, what kind of basil would you like to buy, and how spicy
:11:00. > :11:08.It's exciting to ask these questions that even a 30-year veteran
:11:09. > :11:10.of the culinary industry has not been asked before.
:11:11. > :11:13.Not only does each variety get its own unique growing
:11:14. > :11:15.conditions but artificial intelligence and computer vision
:11:16. > :11:17.are monitoring the plants, looking out for and treating any
:11:18. > :11:24.Local Roots hopes to place between 20 and 50 of its so-called
:11:25. > :11:27.'terrafarms' right next to supermarkets' local
:11:28. > :11:32.It means the veg won't have to travel so far and it will be
:11:33. > :11:40.I've always needed a dressing on my salad because I thought it
:11:41. > :11:43.tasted quite bland without it, but this is really full of flavour.
:11:44. > :11:50.I could even eat an entire bowl of this without any dressing.
:11:51. > :11:55.But some researchers don't like the idea
:11:56. > :12:00.of individual companies doing research by themselves.
:12:01. > :12:02.Putting life in a box is incredibly complex.
:12:03. > :12:06.It requires biology as much as chemistry, as much as plant
:12:07. > :12:19.And so right now it's being tackled by a lot of start-ups and it's hard
:12:20. > :12:22.for those start-ups to have such a multidisciplinary approach.
:12:23. > :12:25.This is why all of our work is open sourced -
:12:26. > :12:28.the hardware, software - so we can get people thinking
:12:29. > :12:31.on the issues and we can ask them for advice.
:12:32. > :12:35.And we are not stymied by intellectual property.
:12:36. > :12:37.At MIT's media lab, the Open Agricultural Initiative,
:12:38. > :12:40.or OpenAg, wants to create a worldwide collection
:12:41. > :12:45.One of the things that we've invented here we call the personal
:12:46. > :12:48.food computer and it's like a hacker kit for plants.
:12:49. > :12:52.What we've done is distributed all the plans, all the materials,
:12:53. > :13:03.We now have a community of over 40 countries, over 1000 people.
:13:04. > :13:05.The great thing is that their experiences are being
:13:06. > :13:11.Because to use any of our advanced tools, like machine learning or AI,
:13:12. > :13:17.Artificial intelligence can look for patterns among these data points
:13:18. > :13:20.which are the results of thousands of experiments and the more
:13:21. > :13:25.wide-ranging those experiments, the better.
:13:26. > :13:28.We might learn inside of a food computer what set of climate
:13:29. > :13:32.attributes causes the best expression of protein in a snow pea.
:13:33. > :13:35.Now we might say, hey, where in the world are these collections
:13:36. > :13:39.And then we should plant that genetics, those
:13:40. > :13:48.So not only might food computers improve on nature
:13:49. > :13:52.but they could also teach us more about how to get the best out
:13:53. > :14:06.It has been a week when suspicions were raised a global cyber attack
:14:07. > :14:12.may have been caused by accountancy software.
:14:13. > :14:15.Security researchers suspect that a corrupted update to some Ukrainian
:14:16. > :14:18.accountancy software may have been the cause of the global infection,
:14:19. > :14:23.although the company behind the software denies these claims.
:14:24. > :14:31.Plus: A team at MIT has created drones that can drive and fly.
:14:32. > :14:33.Although these drones are diminutive, one day
:14:34. > :14:36.they could be the foundation for technology which facilitates
:14:37. > :14:43.And it was the week that researchers at a university in Madrid revealed
:14:44. > :14:48.they have been teaching a robot to iron clothes.
:14:49. > :14:51.Teo's designers hope that eventually it will be able to perform a whole
:14:52. > :15:01.Hopefully a bit quicker than this, though.
:15:02. > :15:04.Famously, they say dedication is what you need if you want
:15:05. > :15:09.It is also what you need if you want to recreate that teaser
:15:10. > :15:12.trailer for the next Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, on a 30-year-old
:15:13. > :15:16.That is exactly what New York artist Wahyu Ichwandardi has done,
:15:17. > :15:18.hand-drawing each frame with an old-school touch tablet,
:15:19. > :15:24.saving them all on 48 floppy disks - remember them?
:15:25. > :15:26.And then transferring them to a contemporary computer
:15:27. > :15:44.Despite our quest for new ways of creating more food,
:15:45. > :15:50.we do actually have a huge issue with food waste.
:15:51. > :15:53.In the UK alone, in 2015, consumers threw away ?13 billion
:15:54. > :16:03.worth of food that could have been eaten.
:16:04. > :16:06.But we are getting more creative with ways to solve the problem.
:16:07. > :16:08.This community fridge in London's Brixton allows
:16:09. > :16:11.businesses, or indeed anyone, to drop off or help themselves
:16:12. > :16:25.But big companies like Sainsbury's are taking on the challenge as well.
:16:26. > :16:28.This week, various stores are trialling some new packaging
:16:29. > :16:31.With 1.9 million slices thrown away each day,
:16:32. > :16:34.the supermarket want to find a way of being able to reassure customers
:16:35. > :16:44.once they are at home and they have opened the product.
:16:45. > :16:46.Because sometimes people throw it away, not remembering
:16:47. > :16:50.when they opened it, so they don't know whether it is fresh or not.
:16:51. > :16:53.But the underneath of this piece of smart plastic is sensitive to air
:16:54. > :16:57.and temperature, so it will start to react as soon as the package
:16:58. > :17:01.It will turn from yellow round to purple when it is telling
:17:02. > :17:03.you the meat is not good to eat anymore.
:17:04. > :17:06.Some other companies have focused on preserving food longer.
:17:07. > :17:08.Edipeel is an invisible, natural, plant-based coating that aims
:17:09. > :17:13.It has recently been trialled by some farmers in the US.
:17:14. > :17:16.This is also this fresh filter paper, which aims to limit the gas
:17:17. > :17:20.It has progressed to consumer packaging in supply chains,
:17:21. > :17:24.and is now even being used in restaurants.
:17:25. > :17:27.Of course, for eateries, buying the exact amount of produce
:17:28. > :17:31.So, while it won't help for financial loss, there are some
:17:32. > :17:41.It is late afternoon in the office, and I am feeling a bit peckish,
:17:42. > :17:44.so I sneaked out to get something to eat.
:17:45. > :17:52.Too Good To Go will put restaurant leftovers to good use,
:17:53. > :17:54.while also giving you takeaway for as little as ?2.
:17:55. > :17:56.What could I go for now, mid-afternoon?
:17:57. > :18:04.The one issue here is that you can't actually be fussy
:18:05. > :18:08.You don't know what you are going to be getting.
:18:09. > :18:11.So going for juice, well, in my view it can't really
:18:12. > :18:17.OK, I get it may not be easy to see the bargain factor with a juice,
:18:18. > :18:22.I am just here to collect my juice, please.
:18:23. > :18:26.But, of course, it is not just restaurants who can end up with more
:18:27. > :18:30.If you have food in your house that you want to avoid wasting,
:18:31. > :18:33.or you want to claim some from the neighbours,
:18:34. > :18:38.Olio searches your local area to find food being given away,
:18:39. > :18:40.and you can post what you have to offer.
:18:41. > :18:43.OK, I get that this isn't everybody's cup of tea,
:18:44. > :18:46.but this location-based app will show you everyone around
:18:47. > :18:50.you who is trying to donate unwanted food.
:18:51. > :18:53.So, on my way home from work, there is some hummus,
:18:54. > :18:57.That seems to be left over from a shop, actually.
:18:58. > :19:00.Somebody is offering a frozen banana, which does kind of seem
:19:01. > :19:10.And of course, in true sharing-economy fashion,
:19:11. > :19:18.The most important factor here is that we learn
:19:19. > :19:26.But of course, the easier that is made for us to do,
:19:27. > :19:41.So, throughout the programme, we have been looking at technology
:19:42. > :19:48.But how about food that creates technology?
:19:49. > :19:52.Sounds crazy, I know, but Dan Simmons has been to Holland
:19:53. > :20:03.This is a small twist on a classical Dutch dish.
:20:04. > :20:40.Yes, this year's Dutch MasterChef winner has baked a car.
:20:41. > :20:43.This is sports steering wheel, firm suspension on the seats?
:20:44. > :20:46.Is it right to say that nobody has driven this car before?
:20:47. > :20:51.I will take good care of it, I will take good care of it.
:20:52. > :20:53.Most of Lina is organic, including these almost-edible panels
:20:54. > :20:55.made from sugar beet, sandwiched between coatings
:20:56. > :21:06.of natural flax, mixed with bio-plastic.
:21:07. > :21:10.So we are just going to reverse this back down the track.
:21:11. > :21:12.I have got my foot fully to the floor now.
:21:13. > :21:16.It is about four times more efficient with its energy
:21:17. > :21:31.I knew there was a reason to pick this car.
:21:32. > :21:34.We cooked up the flax ourselves, and then we just started trialling.
:21:35. > :21:38.And we had to do a lot of tests, fresh material, find the boundaries
:21:39. > :21:41.and the limits to the material, and eventually we came up with -
:21:42. > :21:51.And that is what we have used in Lina.
:21:52. > :22:09.In fairness, it is a different kind of performance that Lina offers.
:22:10. > :22:13.The team says cooking this car uses about 20% of the energy that
:22:14. > :22:15.aluminium or carbon fibre panels take to produce,
:22:16. > :22:17.and this week, Lina passed a road safety test.
:22:18. > :22:25.She is expected out on public roads by the end of July.
:22:26. > :22:29.So I would not make a statement that currently the automotive industry
:22:30. > :22:31.is thinking about the portfolio of making biodegradable cars,
:22:32. > :22:34.but I'm sure they are thinking about the circular economy.
:22:35. > :22:37.They are thinking about how can they take apart the current cars
:22:38. > :22:40.and the future cars, and to reuse them to build new cars,
:22:41. > :22:45.so to really make a circular, green economy.
:22:46. > :22:48.To make Lina a lean machine, the team have taken a sort
:22:49. > :22:58.OK, we don't have the modern-day luxuries, like maybe a glove
:22:59. > :23:01.compartment, or somewhere to place my coffee.
:23:02. > :23:08.So I can't wind down the windows in this model?
:23:09. > :23:27.And the key advantage of it is not just in driving,
:23:28. > :23:30.but when you park it for the last time, a lot of this car
:23:31. > :23:37.Now, the electric engine, batteries and suspension are not
:23:38. > :23:40.organic, but the team hope Lina will inspire carmakers to think
:23:41. > :23:51.beyond electric, to make our cars even more eco-friendly.
:23:52. > :23:55.That was Dan, in the Netherlands, and that is it from my
:23:56. > :23:57.You can follow us on Twitter, @BBCClick.
:23:58. > :24:25.Thanks for watching, and we will see you soon.
:24:26. > :24:31.We've got more of that hot and humid weather coming up
:24:32. > :24:35.Yesterday we had temperatures of 30 degrees in both Heathrow and Wisley
:24:36. > :24:38.in Surrey, and we're going to see temperatures again getting to those
:24:39. > :24:41.kind of levels later in the afternoon.