South Korea has enacted the world's first "Act on the Promotion and Support of the Food Tech Industry" and has begun full-scale implementation. This means more than simply adding another law to support a new industry. As the entire world wages a fierce technology war over the future of food, it is a historic declaration that South Korea has been the first to grasp a massive institutional compass for pioneering humanity's food territory. The task that now remains for us is how to sail toward becoming "number one" in the world food tech market, hoisting this law as a powerful sail. The answer is clear. It lies in "fostering an emergent industry led by the private sector with no entry barriers," based on the government's bold support through regulation zero (Zero).
Whenever new technologies have emerged, what has always held back our industries is regulation. The ten core food tech technologies—including personalized food, smart food distribution and manufacturing, and plant-based and cell-cultured food—are areas that cannot be defined under the old Food Sanitation Act. The world's first food tech law must eliminate these gray zones and provide a vast sandbox where companies can play freely. Completely tearing down entry barriers to create an environment where anyone with an idea and technology can challenge the market—that is the first mission the government and the law must carry out.
If the government has taken on the role of removing barriers, filling that space and leading innovation must be thoroughly the responsibility of the private sector. Food tech can never succeed if it becomes a government-led, state-centered industry. This is because the DNA to read consumers' subtle shifts in taste, flexibly apply cutting-edge technology, and expand into global markets exists only in private companies and emergent innovators. A truly "emergent ecosystem" is completed only when the solid capital and infrastructure of large corporations combine with the disruptive innovation of young startups, and the unrivaled original technologies of universities and research institutions are embraced. When the private sector sets the board and leads on its own, the pace of industry evolution transcends imagination.
The World FoodTech Council was launched in 2023 as the world's first private-sector-led consultative body. It was established to create value and contribute to a positive future by solving problems related to food, such as the climate, food, and health crises stemming from global population growth in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Through divisions and chapters, the council holds various forums, conferences, and expos by field and region. Recently, it held the world's largest "World FoodTech ConfEx 2026" at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where more than 500 experts participated and some 35,000 people visited. It is building an emergent platform for world food tech, including preparations to hold the "World FoodTech Summit" this December.
The world's first legal foundation has been laid. Now we must make food tech companies and capital from around the world gather in South Korea. The government should remain thoroughly a supporter that removes regulations and strengthens infrastructure, while the private sector's emergent innovators must boldly expand their territory across the global stage. When the private sector's challenging spirit explodes in an ecosystem free of entry barriers, South Korea will stand tall as the number one and first mover in the world food tech industry. The great era of emergence has already raised its curtain in our hands.
