Food technology startups are now attracting the kind of valuations associated with the internet industry, says futurist Brad Kreit.

The food industry may be next to get the 'Silicon Valley' treatment says the research director at California's Institute for the Future.

Futurist Bradley Kreit says the fact Google offered US$500 million for a startup developing an "impossible burger" made from synthetic meat before it had sold a single bun – and that the startup turned Google down – is a taste of things to come.

Kreit is visiting Auckland to speak at an Institute of Directors' leadership conference.

The conference coincides with a "High-Value Nutrition" symposium that is seeking ways to boost New Zealand's annual food exports by $1 billion within 10 years – the first of 11 "national science challenges" set out by the Government in 2013.

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New technologies being explored in the food industry include the use of drones to monitor and spot-treat crops, growing food indoors under LED lights, and "printing" chocolates using 3-D printers.

Others that are already having a big effect on agricultural production include genetic modification and the use of GPS technology to track the origin of meat and mitigate against disease outbreaks.

It was difficult to say whether the application of technology to the food industry would be a threat or an opportunity to New Zealand overall, Kreit said.

But given "lab grown meat" was probably seven to 10 years' away from being commercially viable, the country had time to turn threats into opportunities.

Lots of Silicon Valley startups were employing data scientists to work out how to replicate eggs without chickens, milk without cows and beef without cattle, he said.

"So many industries are being shaping and mediated by information technology. The big story in food is the convergence of information science and food science.

"What they are all aiming to do is create something that tastes as good or better, often cheaper, more sustainable and healthier."

The impossible burger, which is being designed from a "molecular level" using plant material by a former Stanford professor, was a good example of the long term opportunities, he said.

"I haven't been able to try an impossible burger but I talked to someone who has and they said it was 'good' and much better than you would expect from an ordinary veggie burger but not great yet.

"Something like this is going to work, but not everything."

Other startups had already had success, such as Hampton Creek which produces an eggless mayonnaise.

"I've tried it and it tastes better than most mayo, is cheaper and has a third less cholesterol and is better for the environment."

While some people might be wary of technology reshaping yet another aspect of our lives, and one as sensitive as food, Kreit said many of the people at the cutting edge of food technology were also the ones interested in organic food.

People's values were often more complex than viewing food as good because it was "natural", or bad because it wasn't, he said.

Even within individuals, different attitudes would coexist, he believed. "Sometimes you will want the substitute because it's more practical, and sometimes you'd want the pasture-raised, grass-fed beef."

What's in an "impossible burger"?

Proteins from grains, vegetables and beans which are separated and combined with vitamins, fats and amino acids, also from plants.

Impossible Foods also mentions coconuts and rock melons.

And the magic ingredient?

Molecules called hemes which give meat its flavour and smell.

Impossible Foods says that although hemes are abundant in meat, they are essential to all life and also occur naturally in plants.

The advantage?

Require less land, energy and water to produce than meat patties. Contain no cholesterol, hormones or antibiotics.

When will they go on sale?

In the United States later this year, if all goes to plan, and then worldwide.