At south by southwest, and were in the stream. Waj our team has been at south by southwest since last week. They, particularly interested in this whole idea of food tech. Food tech and food science. It seems that soil and green exist lisa. But Charton Heston should not be afraid. And were learning more about food tech and food science. Speaking about innovation. We talked about 3d food being printed. And on facebook. And that might be a question were asking in ten years. What would you print . I would print out a briani shaped in a triangle, and a nom printed out, and eat it. Wow. Our team checked out the interaction portion of the south by southwest conference. Check out how some imagine the future of food. I think foods will be quick, easy, throw it in there, knock it out. Its a going to move towards that. Faster, easier, cheaper, as the population increases we have to figure something out. I want the very best spices from everywhere in the world. I would want to have like personal vegetable garden in the backyard that i do not need to Pay Attention to grow, then i can just grab something that is fresh and put it into my plate. Theres no doubt there is everything from 3d food printing, to taking animals out of animal products are blazing into the marketplace. So what is the likelihood they will become our staples of the future . Here to join us is the director of the food and environmental reporting network, the ceo and founder of food plus tech connect, and the ceo and founder of Hampton Creek foods, a Sustainable Food company. Welcome everyone. Josh, everyone who is talking food tech is generally also talking about world demand. Well, we give the animals we eat more than we do the 1. 3 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. I think if we kind of just step back and are honest about this question about the future of food and maybe one of the reasons why i disagree with one of the panelists thinking that technology can be a way, is we have to figure out how to feed everybody on the planet without destroying the planet. My dad, china, and india, are not going to be buying 6 eggs from farmers markets. So we have to figure out leaps instead of incremental changes. Already. Yeah. First i want to say i am obviously never going to live that headline down. I do endorse the point which is to say, yes, technology is part of the solution, and even in the article i make this point. At the time i was feeling like there was such an enthusiasm to all of the technical aspects of the problem, that it gets in the way of feeding places all over the world, including in the u. S. Where we have many, man many hungry americans. Innovations will always be there, either in Food Production, on the farm, in the store, but i think it has to be a part of it, not the whole. Daniel does it have to be a part or are we talking about sweeping fundamental change . I think its a part of it. I think exactly what tom and josh were talking about, its technology is going to be in the past we had the green revolution based on pesticides, and biotechnology, and now were at the Information Technology revolution. So a lot of the efficiencies we gained before through better seeds and pesticides, were now gaining through more fish ekt information systems, whether maybe we can grow more food by being more strategic, by understanding what the weather patterns are, what the soil and moisture is, so i think it there are going to be lots of Different Solutions and a lot of different approaches, and using technology to best understand what is going to be most successful. Our community is skeptical, lisa. Michelle says. An josh, look there is some real scepticism in our public. People like eating, tasting, and seeing food. I cant imagine having like a soy pot luck party. How do you convince a skeptical public about this food science . Number one the reality of our Food Production process, intensive animal production and even more specifically, take eggs. No one following this conversation would think that thats natural. In fact i would guess that almost every Single Person listening right now would be appalled if they saw what they saw. Its gross, its not efficient, its not old mcdonald had a farm. And i think its important to have a firm grasp on that reality. Food tech has invitro meats, soylent, and some other things. And i think what we practice is k looking at plants around the world. We found 11 plants that when we use them are even better than a caged egg. Were not manipulating them, soylent greening them, were using them and putting them in muffins or cookies or maybe even scrambling them up. If we are going to solve the problem, we have to solve the problem for everyone not just eggs. What does it say when firms are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in these startups . Obviously it means they think there are huge profits. Bill gates has been investing a lot of money in technology that they want to bring to the developing world. The venture capitalists are out to make money, and that is totally okay. We near a capitalist system, and you could have huge amounts of success with technologies or eggreplacement products that dont replace any huge percentage of eggs over all. You see what im saying . The product would be very successful without a huge transformation in the sector its working in. You have to wonder for example with eggs, you are not going to put chickens in battery cages, which are these tiny cages they are put in so they cant attack each other in these enormous farms, when we could be looking at policy solutions that might make the eggproduction industry more humane. Im saying sometimes the Technology Stands in for those kinds of changes within the food system. 3d printing for everything from cakes to cocktails is either in use or being invented. And speaking of new Technology Check out our new app. Tv is no longer one way with the stream secondscreen app. Share thoughts. Disagree with one of our guests . Great, tell us. Interact with other app users in real time. You can be our third cohost, vote, tweet, record video comments, and well feature them on air. Use the app and drive our communities discussions on live tv. This literally puts you in the control room. Download it now. Twenty five years ago, pan am flight 103 exploded in the skys above lockerbie. Only one man was convicted of the attack the major difficulty for the prosecution, that there was no evidence. Now a three year al jazeera investigation, reveals a very different story about who was responsible they refuse to look into this. So many people at such a high level had a stake in al megrahis guilt. Lockerbie what really happened . On Al Jazeera America hello, my name is john jacobs, and im james jacobs, and were here at south by southwest. And were in the stream. Joining us now is a man who uses drones to make Food Production more efficient, and a 3d maker for pastries. Farming . Here in japan, 40 of the ice crop has been dusted with drones. And thats going to happen fairly soon in the u. S. Drones will give farmers eyes why they dont have eyes now. And down the road they will provide more automation and more distinct access to individual parts of the field and individual plants even in the future, so you can do more with less and apply pesticides and fertilizers exactly where they are needed in exactly the right amount, so farming can become smarter in the sense that an industrial operation turns into a more help as needed operation. Our community tweeted in. It takes a gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of gas, lisa, did not make this stuff up. And kyle what innovations are currently needed right now to really have food science and tech address Food Sustainability and growth . Thats a good question, and i think some of the other guests can answer a bit more eloquently, but i can tell you with 3d printing foods specifically, the advancements that well see that are needed for new tradition and health will come from biology and doctors. But being able to track what people are eating and through lets say Wearable Technologies and make sure that the food is dialed in exactly for them will be left up to those folks from biology. Josh its such a big conversation, and were talking about so many things here. You know, i think about an article that mother jones did on you guys and Hampton Creek foods, and they said you want to change food the way apple changed phones, the way google changed how we get information. That is a huge vision, but it takes an enormous amount of money. How hard is it to break into this and have the funds to back you so you can try to achieve the dreams you are trying to achieve . We have been around for about two years and four months. I think the least difficult has been convincing some of the worlds billionaires to put their capitol and energy and money behind us. When you show them what is the reality of the world right now, and have them on a small space, these folks who have been wildly successful look at that and say that is crazy, and we have got to be smarter about it, and i think you know, when we think about what a transformation means, i think at its heart we can think about technology, and i think we can get caught up too much in 3d printing, but the reality is how do we make healthier food more affordable for everyone everywhere. And i think its simple, but its a big challenge. And the companies that exist today focusing on answering that question, i think the better the world will be. Where do you think its headed tom . I think about alternative products like egg and meat replacement products. We have said a lot about invitro, but there is a lot on the marketplace now thats right. They are mostly using soy or a mix of soy, wheat, and pea, the problem is they are using not the whole food themselves. They are using, for example, soy protein soy protein isolate. And that is something that is a highly processed product. So were talking about taking a whole food like a peace of meat or a legume, and replacing it with a highly processed food. And we have to question whether we understand the metabolism enough to say we can create a fully processed diet that can do the same for you as eating whole foods. But at the same time you have to wonder if there are other Health Concerns with some of these products that are really that that arent an issue, because we dont eat that much of them. Americans eat a lot of soy, soy protein isolate, even though they dont realize it, because it is in a lot of processed foods, what if we replace a chicken with a chicken alternative, suddenly radially increasing the amount of soy in your diet, there may be some implications there. And there is research that suggests that this particular part of the soy plant is annest again mimic. We have christian who is still skeptical. I can see you nodding your head. Is this future food healthy . And will people buy into it . Well, thats the question. Its an opportunity and risk. Technology can be used to essentially make food more str more industrialized, which has been happening lately. What can be used as an opportunity to bring us closer to a food and put us more in control of our food, but the decisions around it are not really technology decisions. They are cultural decisions that we need to make together, and to be able to make those decisions and influence them, theres an opportunity now and a time window to learn about those technologies. Josh, i know you wanted to jump in. Yeah, i think its important to realize what were talking about and, you know, take what the couple of points that tom made there, so, again, Food Technology is very brood. It can be good or bad. And again, he is focusing back on what we do at Hampton Creek, we realized this world got pretty addicted to soy and corn. We feed soy and corn to lots of animals and lace it with antibiot antibiotics, so that is really important to recognize what reality is. That reality is not a freerange egg. The second point is we realize that 92 of the worlds plants havent even been explored for their [ inaudible ] in food. Take the yellow pea which is the whole yellow pea. Its a process very akin to milling a yellow pea. They are grown in canada. Our farmers are stoked about growing it. We put it through a flour milling process and use it instead of the conventional way. I would be hard pressed at anyplace in the world to look at a battery caged egg, and look at the process we used to make a plant mimic an egg, and not go for that direction. And when it is 40 more Cost Effective maybe thats a better to. A box that makes just about everything you want, including candy. Tweet us what you think a meal will look like in 2050. Well be right back. When you look at 2050, what im really excited about. Im going to be older than, so maybe eating less like my mom, but i want healthier foods, and i want to know that thats what my kids or grandkids are eating as well. Were looking at how technology can have a profend impact on how and what we eat. Waj i have a feeling when we look back at this 60 or 70 previous years and it will be anomaly. Yeah, we will. Mikey says. Lisa . No. No. Shawn says. Well, bone appatie. If we continue on our current course, what does the future of food look like for america . I think its a lot brighter than people are saying right now. So i think it will be more collaborative. I think it will be decentralized. I think it will be smarter, and i think that it is going to be a lot of companies that are more interested in the supporting their customers rather than catering to the interests of their shareholders, and i think that its just going to be a lot smarter. How does that happen, danielle, when you are essentially dismantling the industrial food complex . Well, it is already starting to happen. Its not just technology, but the ethoses behind technology. If you look at pink slime as example, you had a blogger in texas who completely changed the way that schools and mcdonalds were thinking about their meat. So thats very powerful for consumers, and companies are saying okay. We need to have more traceability. We have to answer questions. There you have a whole public arena where you are taking your decision, and also because food has been very slow and intentionive to do innovation, that is changing. The internet is allows things to happen much faster. And from the agricultural perspective, farmers will have more information. Small and mediumsized farms dont have as much technology. So as the Technology Becomes less expensive, you have more mobile adoption on farms, once the early part of the supply chain is digitized and the farmers are making more money, the whole rest of the supply chain will change. Im going to pause you there. Josh does tech have the ability to disrupt the industry as we currently know it . In some ways, but we work with presently seven of the largest food manufacturers on the planet, and when we go to them and say we have something that is a little bit healthier, more sustainable, it works the same or better and its more sustainable, they all say bring it on. They are not fighting it. And i realized these are good people working these good companies, and they all have a burden called the bottom line. And right now cheap and convenient is the way the world rolls, and if we can make cheap and convenient work for the world, then i think technology has a real force to make the world better, but the future is a combination of brand new innovative ways of thinking about food, but i also think there are really effective ways to work in the current frekture, and make it better by applies to the interest and heart of some companies. We have some hope here. [ laughter ] seconds. America spends Something Like half a trillion dollars a year at the Grocery Store and probably more than half of that is at the center of the store where the packaged food is, so i think as we go out towards 2050, my question is what happens . Do they stay there or move out to the periphery where they are on . All right. Thanks everyone for a great discussion. Widening the search. Malaysia steps up efforts to find a missing passenger plane. We are live from kuala lumpur. This is Al Jazeera America, live from doha. Also ahead on the program. A moment of silence in japan. Marking the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that killed 18,000 people