Yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting article on Steve Demos—the man who brought soy milk into millions of homes. The article primarily concentrated on Demos’ latest product—GoodBelly, which is a probotic product that uses bacteria to aid consumers digestion.
The aspect of the article that caught my attention, however, was Demos’ response to the question of “Where is the future competitive advantage for food companies?” His answer was simple: “It’s going to be with science.”
Let me repeat that—it’s going to be with science. It is critical that every food company embrace this notion very soon. If they don’t, they will risk becoming irrelevant.
Over the past few months, I have discussed how nanotechnology will revolutionize the food industry and I recently discussed how the field of genomics will impact the agricultural sector, but for a quick overview of where the food industry is headed I would encourage interested parties to read this article entitled ”Your Burger on Biotech.” For folks interested in a slightly more in-depth look into the future of food are encouraged to read this Popular Science article called ”The Science of Yummy.”
Lastly, as further proof of food companies need to get serious about embracing science, I’d recommend this short but informative article discussing how Nestle is applying quantum mechanics to optimize food taste, texture and nutrition.
The bottom-line is that if food companies want to innovate in the future they will need to understand nanotechnology, genomics, biotechnology, synthetic biology and, yes, even quantum mechanics.
Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, robotics, RFID, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
