Farma: Speculative Gastronomy
Xander Balwit, editor-in-chief of Asimov Press, writes about a restaurant that is bullish on GMOs and other food technology for Issue 04.
When one considers the millions of permutations of foods and wines to test, it is easy to see that life is too short for the formulation of dogma.
Since their conception, GMOs have faced resistance. Their reputation has long been sullied as unnatural or even murderous. Environmentalists and activists have slandered GMO seeds as the weapons of Big Ag and the destroyer of the smallholder farmer. Efforts to introduce genetically modified crops into circulation have been lambasted as “Farmageddon” and their harvests as “Frankenfoods.” From their first intrepid steps into the fields, GM crops have become a scapegoat for distrust in science and its overextension into formerly “unadulterated” products. Genetic engineering in the medicine cabinet is one thing; allowing it at the dinner table is another.
Farma, an innovative GMO and food technology-friendly restaurant has decided that the time has come to fight back against this illogic. Located in the eucalyptus-lined streets of San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, Farma tinkers with food in the same spirit that the region's tech giants tinker with transformative technologies — in the hopes of building a better future. Since its doors opened to the public a few weeks ago, Farma has crusaded against the apocryphal purity of organic foods.
