In the film Snowpiercer, audiences were horrified to learn the true identity of the protein bars—made from insects, specifically ground-up cockroaches. But it wasn’t just the ingredients that were shocking. These black, featureless blocks, stripped of all visual and gustatory appeal, reduced the act of eating to mere survival. They represented a grim depiction of violence—one that robbed humans of the joy and dignity of eating.
At first glance, farming cockroaches to produce protein bars might seem like an effective way to significantly reduce carbon emissions. But surely, the future of sustainable gastronomy we envision isn’t a black, joyless lump. Is there truly no way to reconcile the pleasures of fine dining with the goals of carbon neutrality?
Carbon Neutrality and Gastronomy: A Tense Relationship
Grilled Eel with Sauce, Yukhoe(Korean-Style Beef Tartare) with Caviar, Soup with Sea Cucumber, Abalone, and Samgyetang(Ginseng Chicken), Hanwoo Galbijjim(Braised Korean Beef Short Ribs).
These are some of the mouthwatering dishes served at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Korea—grilled eel, raw beef with caviar, soup with abalone and sea cucumber, and braised Hanwoo short ribs. While beef, abalone, and eel are beloved ingredients among Koreans, their production and supply processes emit a significant amount of carbon. Beef, in particular, is one of the highest-emission food items, generating approximately 100 kg of CO₂-equivalent for every kilogram produced. In fact, around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from meat consumption—a staggering figure. But plant-based ingredients are not entirely carbon-free either. Growing crops requires land development and the use of large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. Rice is especially high in greenhouse gas emissions; global rice cultivation is estimated to emit around 100 million tons of CO₂-equivalent methane annually.
All ingredients emit greenhouse gases during their production. However, this accounts for only a portion of the emissions in the culinary sector. Greenhouse gases are released at every stage—from transportation, packaging, and distribution of ingredients to cooking and the disposal of food waste. So how can carbon neutrality be achieved in the field of gastronomy? First and foremost, reducing food waste is essential. Silo, a restaurant located in London, UK, is pioneering this effort by becoming the world’s first to adopt a zero-waste philosophy aimed at cutting carbon emissions. In recognition of its efforts, Silo was awarded a Green Star by the Michelin Guide in 2021.
There are no trash bins in Silo’s kitchen because nothing is discarded during the cooking process. Achieving the goal of using every part of the ingredient on the plate required creative approaches. For example, the hard crusts cut off from baked bread are not thrown away but repurposed in new menu items, such as ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Vegetable peels and roots that cannot be served are collected separately and used to make sauces. But what happens to the food left uneaten by customers? Given the nature of fine dining, only appropriate portions are served, so very little food is wasted. Any leftover food or ingredients that must be discarded are placed in a microbial digester to be composted. The key is what happens next: the compost produced is returned to local farmers with whom the restaurant works directly. This is a small-scale, local circular resource system established by the zero-waste restaurant.
Food waste isn’t the only thing restaurants need to reduce. Considering the enormous consumption of single-use plastics in the dining industry, achieving zero-plastic operations is also a top priority for carbon neutrality in gastronomy. Chef Edward Lee, who gained widespread popularity through the Netflix series Ugly Delicious, is preparing to open a nonprofit Korean restaurant as part of a project to experiment with a sustainable, plastic-free dining experience. Located in Washington, D.C., this restaurant aims not only to eliminate single-use plastics for customers but also to avoid using plastic containers within the kitchen. Moreover, the goal is to implement zero plastic throughout the entire supply chain of ingredients.
How Far Can Innovation Go for Sustainable Gastronomy?
For sustainable gastronomy, practicing zero waste and zero plastic is important, but the more fundamental change lies in the ingredients themselves. This doesn’t simply mean reducing meat consumption and increasing plant-based diets—that conversation has long been surpassed. The current focus is on innovation in ingredients through technological development and creative disruption. The culinary industry has become a battleground for cutting-edge technologies. Instead of traditional methods of reducing meat intake, one prominent example is the development of various alternative meats aimed at completely replacing animal meat. Alternative meats are not limited to soy-based products. Technologies are rapidly advancing to recreate the taste and texture of meat using diverse plant-based ingredients such as wheat gluten, rice, potatoes, and mushrooms. There is also a wide range of products available. For instance, Beyond Meat, a leading plant-based meat company in the United States, offers not only burger patties but also sausages, meatballs, jerky, and more. The global plant-based meat market reached $8 billion in 2022 and is expected to nearly double to $15 billion by 2027. One of the hottest trends in the alternative meat market today is lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat. This meat is produced by extracting muscle and fat cells from animals and cultivating them in laboratories. Because it is made from real cells, it has a realistic appearance—including the red color and marbling that make it visually appetizing. Lab-grown meat drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming by approximately 80 to 90 percent.
On the other hand, instead of artificially producing “fake” meat, some propose new alternatives made from “real” natural sources. This is a new world of infinite possibilities once we break free from stereotypes—edible insects. While many might wonder who would eat insects, the global edible insect market is estimated to be around $1.5 billion in 2024 (approximately 2 trillion KRW) and is expected to grow more than sixfold within the next decade. Going forward, edible insects are likely to be processed more through technologies that extract useful components like protein, rather than being consumed whole. Currently, the countries that consume the most edible insects are Mexico, Thailand, India, Congo, and China. In South Korea, ten species are registered as edible insects, including rice grasshoppers, silkworm pupae, white-spotted flower beetle larvae, brown mealworms, house crickets, rhinoceros beetle larvae, American cockroach larvae, drone pupae, and mole crickets. The main reason edible insects are gaining attention as a key to sustainable gastronomy is that they are highly nutritious, high-protein foods that are cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Compared to livestock, insects require much less space to raise, have higher land-use efficiency, consume less feed, and have rapid life cycles that allow mass production in a short time. Furthermore, the edible portion of insects is about 80%, compared to 55% for chickens and pigs and 40% for cattle. As a result, brown mealworms emit only about one-tenth of the greenhouse gases per kilogram compared to the same weight of pork. In addition, insects have a protein content of over 50% and are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, calcium, vitamins, and other nutrients, making them highly promising as alternative food sources.
Not all alternative foods that emit no greenhouse gases come with a rosy outlook. Even widely accepted ingredients divide opinions based on personal tastes, so whether consumers will easily embrace vegan meat, lab-grown meat, or edible insects remains to be seen. In this context, it’s worth paying attention to an innovative Japanese product that breaks conventional wisdom. Kirin Holdings, a Japanese food company, has developed a spoon called “ElecSalt” that uses electrical taste technology. This spoon sends tiny electric currents to the mouth, enhancing the brain’s perception of salty and umami flavors, effectively adjusting the taste experience. The implications of ElecSalt are significant—it’s hard to predict how far technological innovation in gastronomy will go. Imagine if, through taste technology, the cockroach jelly from the movie Snowpiercer actually tasted good. If that’s the future of sustainable gastronomy we’re hoping for, it might leave us feeling somewhat uneasy.
Gastronomy is not decided by the tongue.
Everyone pursues gastronomy, but the experience of taste varies from person to person. For example, the blue crab that is a delicacy in Korea is discarded in Italy, sometimes even paid to be thrown away. We often consider rare or out-of-season foods like salmon, mangoes from afar, winter watermelons, or the hard-to-find Jeju daegumbari fish as gourmet treasures. Gastronomy is not decided solely at the tip of the tongue. It is, therefore, a matter of culture. How we eat is as important as what we eat. The Chinese dining culture values leaving food on a table laden with dishes as a sign of hospitality; buffet culture encourages overeating with the fear of missing out; modern food consumption culture discards imperfect-looking produce and favors only the most attractive items. All of these are part of gastronomy. So, while trying lab-grown meat and edible insects might be part of sustainable gastronomy, perhaps what can be innovated immediately is the culture of gastronomy itself. In the era of climate crisis, we need a new kind of gastronomy.
▶ This article is a contribution to the webzine published by the Korea National Oil Corporation.
https://www.knoc.co.kr/upload/EBOOK/sabo/204/sub/sub2_4.html
