Genetically modified food—we think of it as plants modified to be pesticide-, virus-, insect-, or bruise-resistant, or simply to grow more evenly and look better in supermarket displays, or perhaps even to be more micro-nutrient dense. But why stop there? In the future, it may become possible, and perhaps even deemed desirable, to create plants from scratch, which may result in all manner of crazy designs. Coconuts that grow salami. Pawpaw-like fruit containing bacon. Pine trees that grow haggis and blood sausages. The possibilities are endless. And if your heart bleeds because of world hunger, wait until a cookie-seeking billionaire, maybe an ageing rock star seeking to ‘make a difference’, once the hard drugs and Rolex-spewing piñatas don’t do it for him anymore, funds a project for next-day crops—plants that go from seed to fully grown overnight, that can grow in the desert, metabolising sand and sunlight, to feed all of the world’s poor.