Food Forward and the Future of Food

We built Food Forward as a strategic tool—one that uses visual and narrative storytelling to illustrate signals, trends and scenarios in the industry. We presented 20 topics to the executive team and narrowed our focus to three—a deep dive in each:

1. Functional Food

Food is more than fuel. Food is more than taste.

The first topic explored how human nutrition is becoming biotech — how what we eat is turning into an act of self-optimization. From microbiome science to personalized DNA diets, Functional Food charted the rise of edible technology and the blurred line between supplement, snack, and self-care.

2. Disrupted Distribution

With so many new alternatives emerging, traditional grocery retail has to win its customers back.

Food doesn’t just move through supply chains anymore — it moves through algorithms. We mapped the rise of autonomous delivery, last-mile robotics, transparent sourcing, and AI-driven logistics. The grocery store becomes a showroom, the kitchen becomes a micro-warehouse, and food finds you before you find it.

3. Exponential Protein

The world’s middle class will explode by 1.4 billion people in the next decade. They will want protein. How will we feed them?

The radical reinvention of protein. Cultured meat, precision fermentation, plant intelligence, AI-driven flavor design. Meat without animals — and the ethics, emotions, and economies that come with it. Exponential Protein examined the innovators defining this new category and the cultural shifts that will decide who will feed us next.