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Home » Diets that Work » The future of food – Toronto Life

Consider the banana. When they go extinct, kaput, vamoose, maybe thats when well finally realize weve wrecked things. Even though we regularly hear about freak floods and heat waves and climate refugees, even though the evidence of a profound change is everywhere around us, we still cross fingers, hope its all just a wobble in the Earths rotation, and get on with the daily grind. But what will happen when we lose something so basic to our diets? What will we do when our 49-cents-a-pound bananas spike to $5 per banana or higher? Thats coming soon, certainly in our lifetime. Climate change has exacerbated the spread of black sigatoka, a fungus first spotted in Fiji in the 60s, which thrives in hotter and wetter conditions and is killing off the worlds bananasa fruit already made vulnerable when we reduced them to a bland monoculture crop.

No more banana bread, banana pudding, banana splits or banana cream pie. Im not sure how Ill cope without banana smoothies. And thats just the gut-wrenching start. Experts say well also bid farewell to chocolate, coffee, many varieties of nuts, avocados and even maple syrup. The maple tree has long grown like a weed in this part of the world, but wildly unpredictable springs have messed up their internal sap clocks, and researchers predict that in a few decades, the trees will be unable to adapt to hotter and drier summers and will go extinct. Well need a new national pancake topping as well as a new flag.

Food rationing isnt anything new. As a blundering species, weve managed to survive shortages brought on by nature and by us. The much-revered American food writer M.F.K. Fisher released How to Cook a Wolf in 1942, written for housewives coping with hunger brought on by wartime ration cards. She says theres something noble in finding creative solutions to having nothing, but warns against monotony. And if all else fails, have a good drink before dinner.

These apocalyptic predictions seem especially unfair today, when our food supply is more diverseand sophisticatedthan ever before. As a child in 1970s Canada, my diet consisted almost exclusively of Life cereal, cans of SpaghettiOs and Twinkies. Now Im a parent of a preschooler whos bored if we serve him Korean barbecue more than once a month. When the server at our local pub asks if he wants shaved truffle on his fries, he shrugs a Sure, why not.

How did that happen? How did we arrive at a time when the average No Frills carries a dozen types of lettuce and New Zealand spring lamb chops? (And how is it always spring there?) Globalization, and the resulting web of economies, is one big reason. So is the great advantage of living in this exceptionally diverse city. But I worry every time I contemplate that wall of lettuce, that our appetites will be our undoing. Our hunger for new foodsfor having our vegetables available to us year-round, for flying them in from countries that are burning their rainforests to meet our demandis also to blame for melting glaciers and drowning polar bears. Guilt about the environmental cost of our ravenous diets was what inspired the 100-mile diet and the Slow Food movement. Both have been criticized for their exclusivityonly the wealthy can afford a purely locavore, non-freezer-bagged food supply. But at the rate were going, with our disappearing crops, the fears of peak oil, tariff wars and massive migrations of displaced people fleeing droughts and other climate disasters, we all need to anticipate what a banana-less life will mean.

Some solutions are easy. Ive stopped buying (so much) out-of-season produce. I also put away preserves and canned tomatoes for the winter. (The canning fad of the past couple of years is paying off.) I keep a list of stores that stock local products and avoid restaurants that dont serve Ocean Wise fish. But the harder work is being done by food technologists and researchers, and by start-ups, many of them in the GTA, who are developing protein-rich products that imitate meat, crops that can adapt to whiplash weather patterns, and technologies that, if they work, can stop us from throwing away what food supplies we have (one UN report estimates that 30 per cent of food is wasted).

We have to figure it out, and quick. Rising temperatures are expected to decimate many wine regionsproduction could drop 85 per cent in the next 50 years. So much for that good drink before dinner. Mark Pupo

Part 1: These farming revolutions are changing the way we grow foodLocal start-ups are using drones, AI and even vodka to change the future of agriculture

Part 2: The frozen food aisle is full of credible mock meatsGrocery stores suddenly have faux burgers and meatballs galore. We asked our chief food critic, Mark Pupo, to taste-test some of the Canadian-made options

Part 3: Salted crickets are the new roasted peanutsEvery week, Entomo Farms harvests millions of crickets, all destined for the dinner table

Part 4: Dairy-free cheese is deliciousStokess Vegan Cheese is stinky and sharp in all the right ways

Part 5: Fake meat doesnt have to cost a fortuneA U of T lab is figuring out how to make animal-free meat affordable for everyone

Part 6: This woman wants to make chickenless eggs and cowless milkThe cellular scientist Isha Datar on how scientists will conjure real animal products without any animals

Part 7: This guy is inventing a pulled pork sandwichhold the porkAdrian Pascu, also known as the Alternative Butcher, is creating an organic pork alternative to compete with Beyond Meat

Part 8: Toronto chefs are embracing the gourmet bug crazeHeres where to find ants, crickets and mealworms on the menu

Part 9: this grocery store is a one-stop shop for sustainable diningThe Good Rebel is the citys first all-vegan supermarket

These stories originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Toronto Life magazine. To subscribe, for just $29.95 a year, click here.

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The future of food - Toronto Life

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