Foods of the Future

By Nora Doyle-Burr, "The Menu for the Future," November/December 2012

Learn about 3 innovations in food sustainability.

The Deep Green Sea

As a source of protein and omega-3s, algae is a popular nutritional supplement, but now researchers at Cornell University are hoping to develop ways to use it for animal feed. They have found that it has an “extremely bright future” as a possible replacement for up to one-third of the soy in today’s animal feed, according to researcher Ricardo Ekmay, Ph.D.

Possible Impact: The U.N.’s FAO reports that approximately one-third of the world’s arable land is dedicated to animal feed production. Since algae grows in saltwater, it has the potential to free up acreage for crops that feed humans directly.

Expect It: This is still in early testing, so its impact is years away.