硅谷的新顛覆對(duì)象：傳統(tǒng)食物

After phones, cameras and taxis, Silicon Valley is looking to disrupt a rather more mundane American mainstay: fast food.

繼手機(jī)、照相機(jī)和出租車(chē)之后，硅谷正著眼于顛覆一種美國(guó)人生活中習(xí)以為常的東西：快餐。

Start-ups are trying to revolutionise the food industry and have received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists to do so.

一批創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)正試圖掀起食品行業(yè)革命，并為此獲得了風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本家數(shù)億美元的融資。

Many are motivated by a desire to wean humanity off meat and other foods that have big environmental and social impacts, whether in the methane emissions and land use of cattle herds or additives in typical processed food.

其中許多公司是受到這樣的愿望驅(qū)使：讓人類(lèi)不再依賴(lài)會(huì)對(duì)環(huán)境和社會(huì)造成巨大影響的肉類(lèi)及其他食品，不管是甲烷排放和養(yǎng)牛占地方面還是一般加工食品中的添加劑。

“The traditional food system is broken in every way,” says Seth Bannon, founding partner at Fifty Years, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco that has invested in food technology companies. “It’s terrible for the environment, it’s economically unfavourable and it’s not great for human health.”

“傳統(tǒng)食物體系正在被從各個(gè)方面擊破，”投資了幾家食品科技公司的舊金山初創(chuàng)階段風(fēng)險(xiǎn)基金Fifty Years的創(chuàng)始合伙人賽斯•班農(nóng)(Seth Bannon)表示，“它對(duì)環(huán)境有害，不具備經(jīng)濟(jì)效益，而且對(duì)人類(lèi)健康不是很好。”

The best-known of these would-be disrupters is also the most extreme in its approach. Soylent was founded in 2013 by a group of Silicon Valley engineers trying to cut the time and money they spent buying and preparing food. The company has expanded from producing a powder that was mixed with water to ready-made drinks and nutritional “food bar” snacks.

這些“準(zhǔn)顛覆者”中，最有名的一家也是創(chuàng)新手法最極端的。Soylent由一群硅谷工程師于2013年創(chuàng)立，這些工程師想減少他們花在購(gòu)買(mǎi)和準(zhǔn)備食物上的時(shí)間和金錢(qián)。Soylent最初生產(chǎn)一種需要跟水混合的粉末狀食品，后來(lái)發(fā)展為生產(chǎn)成品飲料和有營(yíng)養(yǎng)的“食物棒”。

The company takes its name from a 1966 Harry Harrison science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, which explores the impact massive population growth could have on world resources. In the book, “soylent” is made of soy and lentils and is used to feed the world. A film version in 1973, Soylent Green, took this theme further by portraying the main global food stuff as dead human beings being sold as biscuits.

Soylent之名取自1966年哈里•哈里森(Harry Harrison)的科幻小說(shuō)《Make Room! Make Room!》，小說(shuō)探討了人口劇增可能給全球資源帶來(lái)的影響。在書(shū)中，由大豆和扁豆制成的“soylent”成為全球的食物。1973年，小說(shuō)被改編成了電影《綠色食品》(Soylent Green)，影片進(jìn)一步挖掘了上述主題，講述死人被作為全球主要食物原料，制成餅干銷(xiāo)售。

The Soylent company, now based in Los Angeles, says its “intelligently designed” food offers “affordable, complete nutrition”. A serving of its deliberately tasteless gloop costs as little as $2.

如今總部位于洛杉磯的Soylent公司表示，其“精巧設(shè)計(jì)”的食物能夠提供“價(jià)格合適、全面的營(yíng)養(yǎng)”。吃一頓該公司生產(chǎn)的故意做成沒(méi)有味道的半流狀食品最低只需花費(fèi)2美元。

“It’s not surprising to me that Soylent has become the darling of Silicon Valley and computer programmers,” says Amy Bentley, a professor of food studies at New York University. For one thing, she says, it does away with the social interaction that food often involves but tech nerds are not renowned for. “You don’t have to talk to people, you can just fuel.”

“Soylent已成為硅谷和電腦程序員喜愛(ài)的食品，對(duì)此我一點(diǎn)也不奇怪，”紐約大學(xué)(New York University)食品研究教授艾米•本特利(Amy Bentley)表示。她說(shuō)，首先，它消除了進(jìn)餐往往會(huì)牽涉到的社交，畢竟這些干技術(shù)的書(shū)呆子們并不以社交能力聞名。“你不必跟人說(shuō)話(huà)，你只管補(bǔ)充能量。”

However, Soylent has also illustrated some of the hazards of pioneering new food. Two months after they first went on sale, Soylent halted sales of its food bars after some customers said they had caused episodes of violent vomiting, and in October removed its powder drink from sale for the same reason.

然而，Soylent的經(jīng)歷也展示了在食品創(chuàng)新方面充當(dāng)先驅(qū)可能面臨的一些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。該公司的“食品棒”首次上市銷(xiāo)售才兩個(gè)月，就因?yàn)橛蓄櫩捅г故秤煤髮?dǎo)致了強(qiáng)烈嘔吐，不得不下架。今年10月，出于同樣的原因，該公司撤下了其粉末飲品。

Soylent said that while its tests had come back “negative for food pathogens, toxins or outside contamination”, one ingredient, derived from algae, may have triggered intolerance. A new formulation will be released next year, sooner if possible.

Soylent表示，其檢測(cè)顯示在食品致病菌、毒素或外部污染物等方面結(jié)果為陰性，但一種取自海藻的成分可能引起人體不耐受。新配方將于明年發(fā)布，如果可能的話(huà)會(huì)更早。

“We are just beginning to learn about what our bodies need,” says Ms Bentley. “Turns out when we try to engineer stuff, we figure out nature did it pretty well in the beginning.” She adds: “Humans need variety.”

“我們只是剛開(kāi)始了解我們的身體需要什么，”本特利表示，“當(dāng)我們?cè)噲D設(shè)計(jì)制造食物材料時(shí)，結(jié)果我們才發(fā)現(xiàn)自然從一開(kāi)始就做的非常好。”她補(bǔ)充稱(chēng)：“人類(lèi)需要多樣性。”

Rivals have also emerged, including Ambronite, a nutritional drink, and 100%Food, whose maker, Space Nutrients Station, invites customers to “stop cooking — eat like astronauts!”.

競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手也出現(xiàn)了，包括營(yíng)養(yǎng)飲料Ambronite以及100%Food，后者的制造商Space Nutrients Station邀請(qǐng)消費(fèi)者“不要做飯了——像宇航員一樣吃!”

“The idea is that Ambronite can be any meal, says its co-founder Simo Suoheimo, “ but the idea is not to replace every meal.”

“我們的想法是Ambronite可以代替任何一餐飯，但不是代替每一餐飯，”Ambronite創(chuàng)始人西莫•索海莫(Simo Suoheimo)表示。

Ambronite has received $600,000 from backers, including a co-founder of YouTube, Jawed Karim, and Lifeline Ventures, while Soylent has raised more than $20m. But other food technology companies have been more ambitious. Investors have poured more than $180m into Impossible Foods, which is trying to replace meat with something that tastes and smells similar but is made from plants.

Ambronite已收到投資者60萬(wàn)美元資金，包括YouTube聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人賈韋德•卡里姆(Jawed Karim)和Lifeline Ventures，而Soylent已募集逾2000萬(wàn)美元。還有更加野心勃勃的食品科技公司。投資者已向Impossible Foods注資逾1.8億美元，這家公司試圖用味道和氣味與肉類(lèi)相似、但由植物制成的食品來(lái)替代肉食。

Ingredients such as potatoes and coconuts are fermented then combined with the “magic ingredient” of heme, a yeast extract with similar culinary properties to blood.

土豆和椰子等原料被發(fā)酵，然后與血紅素這種“神奇原料”混合，這是一種酵母提取物，具有與血類(lèi)似的烹調(diào)特性。

“You can’t get people to stop eating meat,” says Pat Brown, Impossible Foods’ founder and chief executive.

Impossible Foods創(chuàng)始人及首席執(zhí)行官帕特•布朗(Pat Brown)表示：“你不能不讓人們吃肉。”

“We turn plants into meat more efficiently and sustainably” than animals, he says.

他表示：“我們以比動(dòng)物更高效、更可持續(xù)的方式將植物轉(zhuǎn)化為肉類(lèi)。”

However, copying nature has proven tougher than Mr Brown may have anticipated. Impossible’s burgers have already been five years in the making, and only now are starting to be offered in selected, expensive restaurants.

然而，事實(shí)證明，復(fù)制“自然”要比布朗想象的還要難。Impossible的漢堡已研制了5年，現(xiàn)在才開(kāi)始在精選的高檔餐廳供應(yīng)。

A commercial-scale manufacturing facility will not open until next year. In the meantime, a pilot facility is producing 1,200lb a week. Over the past two years, Impossible has reformulated its burgers’ ingredients and reduced costs.

具備商業(yè)化生產(chǎn)規(guī)模的制造工廠(chǎng)要等到明年才能投入運(yùn)營(yíng)。與此同時(shí)，一間實(shí)驗(yàn)工廠(chǎng)每周的產(chǎn)量為1200磅。過(guò)去兩年中，Impossible修改了漢堡包的成分，降低了成本。

“A cow is pretty much as mature a technology as it will ever be,” Mr Brown says. “One of the huge advantages we have over cows when it comes to making meat is we have the capability of improving every aspect of it.”

布朗說(shuō)道：“一頭牛的技術(shù)成熟程度將永遠(yuǎn)像現(xiàn)在這樣，相比牛，我們?cè)谥圃烊馐撤矫娴木薮髢?yōu)勢(shì)之一是我們有能力從每一個(gè)方面來(lái)改善產(chǎn)品。”

Another start-up disrupting nature is Memphis Meats. The Bay Area-based company is taking a different approach — growing meats in a lab, cultivating them from real animal cells.

另一家顛覆自然的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)是Memphis Meats。這家總部位于舊金山灣區(qū)的公司正采用一種不同的方法：在實(shí)驗(yàn)室培育肉類(lèi)，利用真正的動(dòng)物細(xì)胞培養(yǎng)。

“We identify cells that have the capability to renew themselves,” says Uma Valeti, Memphis’ co-founder and chief executive. “We breed those cells that are the most effective and growing — just like a farmer would do with animals.” Eventually, he hopes to remove animals from the equation altogether.

“我們會(huì)找出那些有能力自我再生的細(xì)胞，”Memphis聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官烏瑪•瓦列提(Uma Valeti)表示，“我們培育那些效率最高且在增長(zhǎng)的細(xì)胞，就像農(nóng)民飼養(yǎng)動(dòng)物那樣。”他希望最終從人們的食物來(lái)源中徹底剔除動(dòng)物。

Previous efforts to cultivate meat in this way have produced burgers that cost thousands of dollars. Memphis Meats hopes to drive down the price of its meatballs from a projected $40 a gramme in the lab-scale to a few cents per gramme by the end of the decade.

以前用這種方式培育肉類(lèi)的努力，制作出的漢堡成本高達(dá)幾千美元。Memphis Meats希望到本10年末，將其肉丸價(jià)格從預(yù)期的實(shí)驗(yàn)室規(guī)模的每克40美元降至每克幾美分。

Mr Bannon, of Fifty Years, who has invested in Memphis Meats, calls its approach the “second domestication”. “Traditionally we have domesticated animals to harvest their cells for food or drink,” he says. “Now we are starting to domesticate cells themselves.”

上文提到的風(fēng)投基金Fifty Years就投資了Memphis Meats，其創(chuàng)始人班農(nóng)把這種方法叫做“二度飼養(yǎng)”。“我們飼養(yǎng)了動(dòng)物，把它們的細(xì)胞制成食物或飲料，”他表示，“如今，我們正開(kāi)始飼養(yǎng)動(dòng)物細(xì)胞本身。”