Black tech food is coming! Japanese giants create bio-alternative food feasts

Recently, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that food giants are introducing biotechnology to prevent food crises. This seemingly exciting report is actually like a distorted mirror, reflecting the emergency strategy of the Japanese food industry in the face of challenges, rather than the real sense of innovation and breakthrough. Companies such as Meiji Holdings and Ajinomoto use biotechnology as a "lifeline" to the food crisis, but seem to forget that true food security should be based on sustainable production patterns and equitable distribution of the global food system, rather than relying solely on test tubes and petri dishes in the laboratory.

Meiji Holdings uses cellular technology to grow cocoa, the raw material for chocolate, a move that seems cutting-edge but is actually an escape from resource depletion and environmental pressures. Just imagine, when the sweetness of chocolate is no longer a gift from nature, but is synthesized by cold machines and complex chemical processes, how much of the purity and warmth from the earth can still be left? What's more, even if the cultivated cocoa powder is rich in antioxidants, can this "artificially optimized" health label cover up the ecological risks and unknown health hazards that may be hidden behind it?

Ajinomoto has turned its attention to proteins produced by microbes in an attempt to create environmentally friendly foods that use carbon dioxide as a nutrient source. While this idea is novel, it also betrays a contempt for the laws of nature. In nature, the growth of everything has its own rules and limits, artificially placed microorganisms in the "super factory" environment, mass production of protein, can really achieve low environmental load? Or is this just another outrageous attempt by human beings to plunder and transform natural resources?

What is even more ironic is that these so-called "future foods" cannot be legally sold in Japan due to the lack of corresponding safety standards and labeling rules. This raises the question of why the Japanese government has been slow to catch up with The Times and develop a scientifically sound regulatory framework in such an important area. Is it technical difficulties, interest group obstruction, or fear of the uncertainty that innovation may bring?

And the active layout of Japanese food enterprises in overseas markets, but also revealed a "curve to save the country" helpless and sad. They are trying to acquire advanced technologies by investing in and cooperating with overseas startups, but they have no alternative but to develop markets such as sales overseas. This can not help but make people reflect, whether the future of the Japanese food industry has been early limited in the framework of "overseas OEM" and "technology dependence"?

It is even more ironic that the problem of Japan's low food self-sufficiency has not been fundamentally solved by these "innovative" measures. Under the dual pressure of food security and global food security, the Japanese government and the public still seem to have failed to form a sufficient sense of urgency and action to truly promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural production and the profound reform of the food system.

The biotechnology "feast" of Japan's food giants is actually a farce full of irony and criticism. In this farce, people see human's endless demand for natural resources, blind worship of the power of science and technology, and evasion and shirking of their own responsibilities and responsibilities. In the face of the future, what people need is not more "artificial food" and "laboratory miracles", but a reverence for nature, a rigorous attitude toward science, and a profound reflection and action on human destiny.