Food

The majority of the population eats food derived from high-calorie vegetables, grains, legumes and super-algaes, often created via cellular agriculture and tended in gigantic domed farms by automated systems. These staples are supplemented by a wide variety of natural, processed and 3D-printed foods, modified in all manner of ways, treated with flavorings and chemical processing agents such as emulsifiers, preservatives and antibiotics, and topped off with cloned proteins. Very little meat is processed directly from animal sources anymore, although far from the cities one can still find “old-school” farms and ranches growing and producing food the old-fashioned way.

In the domed arcologies, offshore installations and certain areas of the city, massive sealed farms and vertical farm-factories yield an abundance of nutritionally complex foodstuffs from biomass, from fish and krill to kelp and all manner of vegetables, aided by advanced agricultural technologies and tended by robotic systems. Thanks to cellular agriculture and other modern processing and preparation techniques, these core staples can be modified to mimic the flavor, texture and density of most traditional foods.

Brainstorming

 * Vertical Farms
 * Hydroponic	and Aeroponic Growing Spaces
 * Recycled	& Molec-Recomb Water
 * A	lot of food comes from the sea (kelp, krill, biomass)
 * GMO foods with extraordinary properties (color, flavor, texture, micronutrients, shelf life, reactivity to other ingredients, etc.)
 * cellular agriculture is a scientific field that uses biotechnology to produce	proteins and biomolecules once derived from animals : milk, meat, etc
 * your	diet can be optimized for your DNA
 * Most food is grown, cloned or printed right within the city, in vertical	farms or food processing labs
 * Restaurants that recognize diners upon entering and prompt them with their favorite orders
 * Cloned meat

Genetic Modification
Nearly all food is genetically modified in one way or another. At root this is done to decrease production costs and increase the shelf lives of perishable products, but modification is also done in order to impart new properties to the foods people eat. Modified foods often possess surprising combinations of color, flavor, texture, shelf-life, micro-nutrients, and even gustatory reactivity to other ingredients.

It is still possible to obtain “all natural” ingredients at a premium price from small artisanal shops and distant wilderland outposts, but for the most part the low cost and other benefits of GMO foods have become matters of simple reality, and they cause very little argument or uproar (the exception may be whenever a radically new process is invented; conspiracy theories and commercial rivalries will always find their targets).

Fast Food
Automated Food Hubs with their own menus of corporate-branded (and patent-protected) recipes have replaced “fast food” outlets. These Food Hubs are common hangouts and are regularly crowded with hungry people, especially in lower-class areas. The cheap but flavorful meals produced here are constantly changing with the trends and vigorously protected by copyright law, but counterfeit copies of protected recipes may often be found on the black market and downloaded via the Darknet.

Food Delivery
In UbiComp zones, it's not necessary to know how to cook, or even how to press buttons on a Food Printer, since it is common for people to have prepared dishes delivered directly to them from one or more restaurants and local kitchens, either via automated cars or airborne drones.

Food Printers
Specialized 3D printers with onboard heating elements can be used to assemble raw processed nutritional resources into meals, using “recipes” which can be bought, sold and traded online. This is the single most common method of food production in the average household; even a fancy home-cooked meal will include some printed dishes out of sheer convenience. Much of the nutritional matter used by these devices comes from the sea, though it’s textured and flavored during assembly to resemble any desired food for which a recipe has been downloaded. The most common base ingredient of all is the bland but versatile Nutri (see below), which can be processed in a variety of ways to yield different textures and flavors. A typical recipe might call for a tube of Nutri, three flavor packets, some water, an emulsifier and one or two personal preference settings; just enough to make you feel like you're cooking. Bing: Salisbury steak and fried potatoes.

Food printers come in all sizes, from small home appliances (single person or family models) to the large multi-chambered industrial printers seen in fast food hubs, food-vending vehicles, auto-bakeries, and other commercial uses. The simplest units require you to feed the ingredients into the machine and wash after each use. Luxury models are not only self-cleaning, but contain a variety of storage compartments for different ingredients, allowing them to serve up completely automated meals at the push of a button.

“YumBots” are AI-driven mobile food printers that sell confections, pizzas, pretzels and other snack items at public parks, children's parties and open-air events. They are often visually augmented to appear in AR as popular videogame heroes and animated cartoon characters.

Lab-Grown Protein
The majority of animal-based protein consumed by metropolitans is cloned meat, grown in massive vatlabs. In addition to vast megacorporations providing meat to brand-name food distributors and restaurant chains, small meatlabs can be found in suburban areas and sprawls alike, often specializing in specific proteins or geno-culinary techniques.

Nutri
Molecular recombination and chemical synthesis have made it possible to include all the required proteins, enzymes and micronutrients needed for survival in a rich compound that can be flavored, printed and served in a variety of ways. The common term for this “food substrate” is Nutri. It’s the main ingredient in most 3D-printed recipes and fast foods, and for those on a tight budget it may at times be the only food material available.

Nutri is available in two forms: powder and paste. Different companies make it in different ways – some using more protein, some using more kelp, some adding artificial color, etc – so the taste, appearance and consistency varies slightly from brand to brand.

Nutri in powder form has a slight odor of sulfur and glutimates, or umami flavor, which smells like fermented fish sauce. Ounce for ounce, this is the cheapest way to buy Nutri, but it must be prepared with water and a 3D printer.

Raw Nutri is also available in the form of a gray, gruelly paste that comes in single-serving tubes. This paste can be eaten in its unprocessed state (i.e. unflavored); the taste is dirt-like and bland, with random notes of fish oil, bitter greens and fructose.

Popular forms of pre-processed Nutri-based foods are “NutriBars” and “NutriBevs” in recyclable pouches. Basically these products consist of Nutri with a bit of flavoring, and are manufactured to be as cheap as possible: they are the "rice and beans” (and corn syrup) of the future.

Vertical Farms
Roughly 2000 ft2, or 200 m2 is required to feed one person, given advanced greenhouse methodologies, cheap energy, robotic systems and extensive hydroponic technologies. That's an square area of about 45 feet by 45 feet.