Always enjoy Steven Overly’s smart work at the Washington Post “Innovations” blog, which looks at where we may be heading and how we might get there. In the post “Farming on the moon and meat grown in a lab. Six thoughts on the future of food,” the journalist wonders about where tomorrow’s meals might come from, focusing on the ideas of the Musk brother Kimbal. Though the entrepreneur dreams of vertical farms on the moon, he acknowledges there’s a strong local component to food production that makes macro planning merely a piece of the puzzle.

Two items from the post:

1. Vertical farming is poised for prime time — and outer space. 

There is no question that Musk is a strong proponent of vertical farming, by which crops are grown in tall stacks under LED lights inside massive indoor facilities. The practice is being driven in large part by a desire to grow produce locally and thereby eliminate the need to ship items long distances. It would allow major urban centers, such as New York City or Chicago, to eat local fruits and vegetables during all four seasons. Musk said that 2015 marked the first year when vertical farming companies could sell produce at a profit, meaning the declining cost of the technology makes the practice feasible for the mass market. And when future generations eventually inhabit the moon, vertical farming may be how people eat fruits and veggies there. At least that’s what Musk told the audience of futurists late last month.

6. Our taste for meat will force us to look beyond animals.

Successful efforts have been made to engineer meat in a laboratory or replicate it using plant-based ingredients. These aren’t frozen veggie burgers; we’re talking about an innovation beyond that. “Meat” that doesn’t come from cows, pigs and chickens could one day be more widely eaten, a shift that both animal welfare advocates and environmentalists would likely celebrate. After all, the increasing number of livestock that is necessary to sate the world population’s meat consumption has had a well-documented, negative impact on the environment. For his part, Musk is much more enthusiastic about plant-based meat products, questioning whether the lab-grown variety is something consumers will ever trust. He also says simply eating less meat is one path forward. “I am a fan of less and better meat rather than replacing meat,” he said. “That’s just me personally.”•