Food of the Future?

Scientists are always trying out new ways of growing food, but even they can only guess what food will be like in the future. You can perhaps get a better focus on what lies ahead from the four ideas below. Read them and see if you can guess what the future hamburger will taste like.

【趣味英语】春节小知 世界节日（1）Spring

The sea can be farmed. Only one third of the earth's area is land. The remainder is sea. The ocean contains huge amounts of tiny sea-animals called krill①. Krill are already in some fish products, such as fish sticks and canned crab. Next time you buy canned or frozen seafood look carefully at the label. Seaweed is another source of future food from the ocean. It is used in ice cream and some breads.

Animals can be changed. A farmer is able to "engineer" his animals by adding hormones② to their feed. Hormones can make chicken meat more tender or beef less fat.

New crops can be planted. Today, rice supports more than half the world's population. But it takes a lot of water to grow rice. Scientists predict③ the climate will get drier during the next century. Therefore, it might be impossible to grow rice in the future. Some farmers are experimenting with new crops. Farmers like to grow beans because they don't need much water, and beans also improve the quality of the soil. People can now eat soyburgers in some restaurants.

Plants can be grown inside. Some vegetables are now grown without soil and under artificial④ light. In Japan, there is an indoor lettuce⑤ farm run by machines and computers. The lettuce travels along slowly moving belts toward a supermarket next door. By the time the lettuce is ready, it's outside the supermarket door. Five minutes later, shoppers can buy fresh lettuce.

So what is the future hamburger to be like? Let's go there and see. The bun is light, even though it began life as seaweed. On the bun there is some fresh GREen lettuce that grew under artificial light. The patty is made from soybean, not from beef. On top of the soybean patty is a slice of cheese made from the milk of engineered cows. The writing on the label says,"Krillup. Made from highest quality krill."

Notes:①krill:(鲸鱼吞食的)磷虾 ②hormone:激素 ③predict:预言 ④artificial:人工的 ⑤lettuce:莴苣;生菜