Nuevas direcciones de la transición alimentaria: el incipiente ecosistema Food-Tech y la localización de la producción de "nuevos alimentos" en España

Abstract

[EN] The concept of “innovation ecosystem” has been explored from the perspective of economic geography in numerous studies published over the past two decades. Simultaneously, the development of biotechnology and the legalisation of the commercialisation of cultured meat in countries such as Singapore and the United States have led to a rise in the number of companies and start-ups interested in producing food products -alternatives to those of animal origin-whose protein sources are based on plants, fungi, insects, or cells. Consequently, a food-tech ecosystem has begun to emerge in Spain, whose main characteristic is the substantial investment in R&D required to launch such business ventures. The principal aim of this paper is to present the initial findingsof a study on this ecosystem in Spain. To this end, a database has been constructed to record the main characteristics of companies involved in the production stage of the food-tech value chain. The analysis of these data reveals a marked geographical concentration of food-tech firms in urban areas designed for the location of high-tech enterprises (such as those in aerospace or big data), primarily within technology parks. These results give rise to a discussion about the territorial implications of this locational model, such as the intensification of capital flows from rural to urban areas -exacerbating depopulation in the former to the benefit of the latter-or the potential emergence of new techno-industrial spaces dedicated to such activities.