Mike Lee

Instead of making predictions, this essay maps dependencies. Rather than claiming "X will happen by 2030," it asks: "What conditions must align for X to become real?" Four major forces get the dependency treatment: GLP-1 appetite suppressants reshaping food demand, AI tools accelerating product development, regenerative agriculture's climb out of pilot purgatory, and hybrid proteins as the pragmatic compromise the industry doesn't want to admit it needs. For each, I identify the specific economic, regulatory, or behavioral conditions that must resolve favorably for the technology to scale - and what happens if they don't.

A hard look at where food tech actually stands in 2025, not where pitch decks promised it would be. This essay maps six major categories, vertical farming, cultivated meat, ghost kitchens, plant-based proteins, precision fermentation, and personalised nutrition, tracking which are finding commercial traction, which remain stuck burning investor capital, and which are quietly being abandoned. The analysis reveals a pattern: the technologies that survived weren't the ones that tried to replace existing food systems, but the ones that learned to integrate with them.

In this insightful reflection, Mike Lee revisits the bold predictions made at evoke^AG. 2019, exploring how the food industry has evolved over the past six years. From the rise of food as a form of identity, to the divergent paths of plant-based meat and the corporate embrace of regenerative agriculture, Mike examines the forces shaping our food systems today.

Food and agriculture, like no other industry, has a profound impact on the health of people and the planet. Mike Lee shares the cost of not looking ahead.

The regenerative agriculture movement has the opportunity to flourish and create many positive benefits for people and the planet. However, Mike Lee shares why the current state and structure of the movement is vulnerable to co-opting from less than honest actors looking to use it for greenwashing. 

In industries like technology, constant product and experience reinvention is par for the course and expected by its consumers. In food, legacy FMCG especially, products that succeed tend to stay the shame. How does this culture of maintaining the status quo in food product innovation have implications for the future of food?