We’ve had a flurry of new food news lately. And by that, I don’t mean the commissioning of a new Iron Chef.

Recently, there was Peter Thiel and Bill Gates with their plant-based artificial eggs, and news that Gates is joining with Sergey Brin to invest in artificial meat.

Earlier this year, Rob Rhinehart wrote of his experiment eating the basic raw ingredients. He calls the concoction “Soylent.” The results he writes about are nothing less than fantastic. If you hadn’t heard about it, definitely click that link.

We’re on the cusp, not of a new revolution in food, but of several new revolutions in food.

It’s only a matter of time before we stop raising animals for meat. Or rather, they’ll be grown in vats. We may have to wait until they get the taste right, but it will happen. Beyond that, the next step will be to create new types of foods. We’ll have foods from new types of plants and animals that never really existed before. The generation after that will see hobbyists creating meats and vegetables the way that home brewers are now doing with beer.

If you’ve read Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, “The Food of the Gods,” you can guess what will happen next. (Sorry, I’m not going to spoil it for you.)

UPDATE: The new Soylent does remind me of something we’ve seen before. (No, I’m not knocking it; they both probably work pretty well.)