Many start-ups in the US are focusing on producing lab-grown meat or what they call ‘‘cultured meat’’. They claim it is sustainable and hence good for the environment. Changing consumer preferences is one of the biggest challenges they need to overcome. But the start-ups say they are confident that they can change eating habits one bite at a time.
As we chart the history of nutrition over the decades it's clear that the cultural, societal and technological trends of the time have a huge impact on our perceptions about food. As a longstanding staple in our diet, dairy has been caught up in this and over the years it has been both lauded and demonised.
Murmurs trending that the online market site, Taobao, is supported by these quiet female shopaholics as a form of activism. Whether or not we're being too quick to place political idealization on a opportunistic convergence of the times, Taobao's wealthy owner Jack Ma is now worshipped as a deity.
We can't give up on the planet - it's the only one we will ever have. We need to keep trying. We need to persist in finding new ways of working and looking for solutions, and we need to shake off the psyche that we can't do anything to help - because the fact is, we can. We all can. And we need to achieve.
For instance if God were to launch a range for TopShop, would we not gather on Oxford Street in our thousands to catch a glimpse as we did for Kate Moss? Or if God were to leave behind a series of handcrafts, would almost half a million of us not shuffle through to marvel at them as we did for Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty?
Despite the horrors of conflicts like those in the Middle East and central Africa, or the outbreak of diseases like Ebola, we have made immense progress in building a safer, freer, more prosperous world. But it isn't yet a fair one, and not everyone has the opportunity to thrive.