杏吧原创

JOSH SCHONWALD got his first glimpse of the fish cobia in 2006. Schonwald, a freelance journalist, was intrigued by its freakish speed of growth 鈥� 10 times faster than the average fish 鈥� but what interested him most was a prediction by University of Miami aquaculturist Daniel Benetti, the first person to farm cobia successfully: 鈥淐obia will be the next salmon.鈥�

The remark made Schonwald wonder whether there was also a next chicken or papaya that would transform cuisine. In The Taste of Tomorrow, he reports on the future of food, from organic microfarming to genetic engineering to 鈥渢ransdermal nutrient patches鈥� being developed by the military.

Schonwald鈥檚 accounts of celebrity chefs elevating weeds to haute cuisine are keenly observed, and he is thoroughly engaging when investigating the downfall of Flavr Savr tomatoes or the tribulations of farm-raised fish like cobia. But his uncritical embrace of biotech as an antidote to world hunger is neither original nor persuasive. Unfortunately, he seems a bit too willing to trust every technologist鈥檚 fantasy.