<論説>空想のなかの未来の食 --敗戦後から一九七〇年代のトレンドを追う-- (特集 : 食)

Abstract

敗戦後から高度経済成長期にかけての日本における未来の食をめぐる空想は、脱食品化された<物質化>、および<簡便化>と、そのことへの<疑い>を伴いながら示された。このうちとりわけ敗戦後の食料難のなかでは、この<物質化>は食料不足の解消への期待と連動していたが、高度経済成長期にはその様相が変化し、次第に「宇宙時代」の未来の食事という華々しさを伴うようになった。しかしながら、これを支えた科学／技術の未来像への漠然とした期待や信頼が有効であった時代は限定的であり、公害問題への対峙と、その一方での科学／技術の具体的な展開を前に色褪せていくことになった。そして、一九七〇年代に入ってから、石油タンパク問題を象徴的な転換点として、空想を成り立たせていた科学観の解体とともに、食の<物質化>を軸にした未来像も解体することとなった。

This paper traces trends in the food of the future as imagined by the Japanese people from the period of food shortages just after WWII through the period of rapid economic growth. In the 20th century, there arose a vision that the food of the future which would no longer have a specific form but would look like a paste or a pill and that food would be produced in factories by chemical synthesis. In 1948, such visions appeared in a book for young readers as a method to overcome food shortages. The content reflected a sincere desire to overcome severe food shortages by creating food through the unprecedented method of chemical synthesis. Once the problem of food shortage was resolved, these visions were transformed into yearnings for the future. During the period of rapid economic growth, the simplification of food was introduced in books and articles, using space food as a model. The “materialization” of food and the “simplification” of cooking offered a vision of more convenient human life, and yet there were also descriptions that cast doubt on whether these fantasies were desirable or not. This image of the future of food was vividly expressed in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey, ” released in 1968. People were fascinated by advances in science and technology that resulted in images of paste-like food eaten in a spaceship and imitation sandwiches consumed on the moon, where plants and animals were unavailable. With the development of “petroleum protein, ” the industrial production of food by chemical synthesis seemed to have become more realistic, and even “petroleum steaks” were dreamed of at this time. However, this glamorous vision of the future faded rapidly through the following two phases. First, as the food of the future came closer to a reality, food that did not retain the appearance of food, such as pastes and pills, gradually ceased to be depicted. The fact that “petroleum protein” was first thought of as animal feed prompted this change. Furthermore, from the late 1960s through the 1970s, as pollution became a social problem and the dangers of food additives and pesticides were recognized, people began to worry that artificially produced food in factories would have a negative impact on health. The practical application of “petroleum protein” was met with strong opposition from 1972 to 1973, forcing companies to abandon the concept. The vision of the future in children's books written during this period was a bit more complicated. While presenting a vision of the future that included the chemical synthesis of food, the cultivation of agricultural products in factories, and “petroleum protein” as well, one such book also described the damage caused by pollution and the shortage of food due to population growth as a crisis for humankind. The book also explained the fact that humans were suffering from the technology that they themselves had created, and that further technological development was still necessary to overcome this reality. And in a message to adults at the end of the same book, the author expressed his concern about the uniformity of diet and instant food. Subsequently, the depiction of food in the future changed dramatically. Children's books in the late 1970s depicting life in the 21th century featured children expressing disgust at old images of “future foods”, such as meals in tubes and pills in place of real meals, and showed them enjoying the delicious taste and pleasure of eating ordinary foods such as vegetables, meat, and fish. In the 30 years since the food shortages just after WWII, people's vision of the future of food and their view of food-related science has returned to a nature-based one.