ANNABEL CRABB: Meet the Ferrones.
Who set this table?
Julian. Julian.
Peter, Carol, Julian, Sienna and Olivia.
And we like to eat. Yeah, that's us.
(LAUGHTER)
For the past six weeks,
this everyday Australian family has travelled back in time to live...
(GIGGLES)
..cook and eat their way...
It's actually the lining of a cow's stomach.
..through decades of Australian history.
ALL: Cheers!
And food trends in Australia have changed hugely over that time,
from the rationed butter and creamy tripe of the 1950s
to the molecular gastronomy of the 2000s.
But what will the future look and taste like?
Well, today our seasoned time travellers are forging ahead
into the future.
Oh, wow! Oh, wow!
A time where our dinner plates become...
It's a gummy meal.
..unrecognisable.
There's ants in there!
Cricket snacks here.
(GAGS)
As environmental sustainability...
We've got to take more care about what we're eating
and try and use everything we possibly can.
..becomes everything...
You either pollinate or perish.
Oh, goodness. Just stay still.
I'm suddenly itchy all over.
Don't make them angry.
..and ancient foods lead the way...
There's all these amazing, traditional foods
were used by Aboriginal people for medicine, food, survival.
..as the Ferrones' time travel adventure comes to an end.
Well done. Thank you.
The challenges, the hardships, the successes.
I'm so grateful we did it together.
To the past, the present and the future.
CAROL: Oh, it just went off. Oh, my gosh.
Hold on. Hold on.
That's like the mountains over there.
OLIVIA: Wait, can I see? This is like the freakiest...
Whoa! Oh, my gosh!
JULIAN: I actually don't know
what we might be experiencing in the future.
Maybe we'll get 3-D printed food and you'll just insert a USB
and out comes a pudding.
Or something. But I don't know.
I'm looking forward to it, that's for sure.
I've got no feet!
OLIVIA: I think it's gonna be so super-cool,
and this might not happen but I want a flying car.
And there's a pink screen here. My face is there!
No, no - there's shelves. Shelves.
The decor of the Ferrones' living room hasn't changed much
from when they were last here in the noughties.
JULIAN: There IS a cat. SIENNA: I know!
But it's all the same to the family.
They're off playing in a virtual world.
CAROL: Oh, my God! What?
I'm standing in the ocean!
I... I need to get back on this ledge.
I wanna go in!
I'm holding you. Wait, wait. There's something.
What's this? Um...
Hi, Peter. Oh! Annabel! (LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS) Sorry. Reality intervening.
Oh! Hello. I was just floating above the ocean.
Of course you were.
(ALL LAUGH)
How does it feel to be in the future?
It's certainly fun to have, you know, all these gadgets.
Can you remember this space in the 1950s?
I know! And there wasn't even a television!
What a difference!
And you had all those board games, Olivia,
and now you're just, "I'm just walking through
"the underground world of whatever."
You know - "Shootin' me some trolls," or whatever you're doing in there.
You were so excited about going back to the '50s
and making your siblings play board games with you.
Anyone wanna play a game with me?
(SIGHS) If we have to. Sure.
So, out of board game crazy or this stuff, what would you choose?
This. Yeah.
Well, you guys must be getting whiplash
from how quickly you've raced through the last few decades,
and now you're in this really uncertain spot, right?
You spent the last six weeks just working yourself back to the future
where you felt comfortable,
and now I'm about to make you feel uncomfortable all over again
by parachuting you into something quite strange.
So, what will our future look like?
Well... old.
By 2061, Australia will have more 65-year-olds than one-year-olds.
The Ferrone children and their friends
will live longer than any generation that has gone before.
Some things don't change, though - it will be another 118 years
before women have the same career prospects as men,
according to the World Economic Forum.
Temperatures are predicted to rise
between one and three degrees Celsius by 2050,
and water reserves in the Murray-Darling Basin
are expected to halve.
On the upside...
Hello. How are you today?
I'm always feeling good. Thank you.
..artificial intelligence is standing by
for all the stuff that human intelligence is too bored to do.
I'm scared now. I know, right?
I don't even wanna walk into the next room now!
Well, I think we should,
because, you know, you've walked into this kitchen so many times
over the last six decades,
and this is the last time you'll do it.
So, shall we?
Into the teleporter. PETER: Here we go.
(LAUGHS) SIENNA: That still freaks me out.
The Ferrone family kitchen has been an engine room of change
over these past 60 years.
Cramped in the '50s,
it gradually opened to the rest of the house,
and sprouted all manner of appliances...
..appliances which in the future will talk directly to the world.
SIENNA: Look at our fridge! CAROL: Wow!
OLIVIA: Whoa! Oh, my God, like, a shopping list.
So, this fridge can do a lot more things than your current fridge can.
You don't have to waste energy or effort
opening your fridge to see what's in it,
because... you can go straight to "view fridge".
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Wow. What?!
You can also...
Ooh! Listen to music! ..listen to music,
order food... Oh, my goodness.
..find recipes, do your shopping.
So, this is the big trend of the future.
It's all about the internet of things -
not so much about screens anymore,
but about devices that are intelligent, a smart house...
Yes. ..that knows you
and can anticipate your every need.
And for someone like you, Carol, who's just lived through the '50s
doing 77 hours a week of housework,
you're gonna have devices like this little guy...
CAROL: Oh, yes!
..that know how to clean when you're not even around.
Yes. Yes. OK.
So, come and have a look at this.
Freaking me out, tiny vacuum cleaner.
I'm gonna turn you off.
Robot uprising has begun. I know.
OLIVIA: The manual's on the iPad!
Well done. Oh, my God!
Cool.
For the first time, your regular manual is going to be digital.
I'm going to leave you to read that at your own leisure,
but I do have one little surprise for you.
CAROL: Yes?
So, what do you think we might be eating in the future?
Cow. We eat cow now.
Well, maybe we'll have cows grown in labs.
SIENNA: Don't open it.
(FERRONES EXCLAIM)
Bugs.
"The next big thing in food is little edible bugs."
Oh! Crickets! CAROL: Oh!
Now, not every Australian is super-excited
about the prospect of eating a bug.
Look how big they are!
But this box, according to the United Nations,
contains our food of the future.
Crickets need just one sixth of the food that a cow eats
to produce exactly the same amount of protein,
and as agricultural land and water become scarcer,
insects are starting to look pretty good.
You know, a piece of chicken is about 23% protein.
PETER: Yep.
But a cricket... Nup.
..is up to 65% protein.
OK, I'll eat it! Nope.
Listen here - we do not eat bugs, full stop!
I don't care what the food of the future is like -
we do not eat bugs or worms or ants.
Yuck.
Now, there's about 2 billion people in the world currently
who practise what they call 'entomophagy' -
the consumption of insects -
and you're about to make it 2 billion and five.
(JULIAN EXCLAIMS) OLIVIA: Yay!
OK. So, we've got some...
PETER: Where's the tripe? ..cricket snacks here.
They are sauteed crickets. OK? Oh, my G... Mmph!
CAROL: Alright. Come on. JULIAN: They smell pungent.
It's just like a little... I cannot eat a worm.
It's a chip. It's a chip. Come on. It's a chip.
Just think of it as a little salty snack.
That's disgusting. Mm-mm.
PETER: The worms are nicer than the cricket.
(GAGS)
Can somebody get me a drink out of the computer fridge?
(LAUGHS) Quick - email her a drink.
Ugh!
OK. Well, maybe you would like a squishy marshmallow.
It's delicious.
There's ants in there!
Correct.
Oh! I ate an ant, Mum.
Think of this as a crash course for the future.
JULIAN: Mmm. Great.
If the future involves eating bugs,
that is just gross.
You've been very open to everything over this whole experiment,
and you're not disappointing me with the future either.
I'm gonna leave you to explore your new connected home.
As you know, Carol, men are starting to do more cooking,
certainly more than they did decades ago,
so your first meal, it's going to be cooked by Julian and Peter.
Excellent. No-one is to help.
In the meantime, would you three ladies
like to return to the virtual universe?
Yes. Yes!
Come on. Yay!
Good luck, fellas. See you!
When we began this experiment in the 1950s...
Oh!
..Carol was handed full responsibility
for all the cooking and all the housework.
I don't even know where to start.
(SIGHS)
I'm expected to do everything...
..and I feel like a servant.
She had to be the perfect wife...
NEWSREEL: Wives have realised that their husbands' future success
can only be achieved if they groom themselves for new social strata.
Are you serious? (LAUGHS)
..and cook...
Oh, wow. ..the perfect meal.
JULIAN: You don't have to stab it. I'm sure it's well and truly dead.
They're cold!
In the '70s, Carol got a new office job.
"Today you will join the workforce." Yes!
But she still had all her old jobs at home.
So, you guys didn't clean up the breakfast dishes?
That's Dad's fault. Dad and Julian were up after us.
Great. Great.
As decades passed, men began to do more.
It's pretty fair for men to step up and help out.
Even Julian, a committed '50s throwback...
Oh, perfect!
..eventually pitched in.
This is very fancy. We gotta do that again.
I think that's the screensaver.
It's not the screensaver. It is.
In fact, according to the OECD,
Aussie blokes are second only to Danish blokes
in the amount of domestic work they do -
nearly three hours a day.
I like not having to cook.
Yeah.
That said, Australian women still do two hours more.
Perhaps understandably,
Carol has stepped into the dust-free world of virtual reality.
CAROL: Oh, whoa!
OLIVIA: This is so... SIENNA: Oh, my God. I'm moving.
It's predicted more than 2 million Australian homes
will be plugged into this other world by 2020.
I must look like the biggest idiot, but this is the best.
It's great for gaming, sure...
There's a planet spinning on my head.
..but when this technology can take you to the Amazon rainforest
or to an operating theatre
or to the last days of the Roman Empire,
you start to understand how virtual reality can change our lives.
Someone's touching me. Sorry - that's me.
PETER: Vegan burgers. JULIAN: OK, now, that's just gross.
That's nasty. Would you really?
Sorry, all the vegans out there, but, you know...
For today's first taste of the future,
Peter and Julian will make burgers
involving zero casualties in the animal kingdom.
It's our, uh, vegan patties.
And we don't even know what's in them.
Mystery. Mystery meat substitute.
I dare say it's vegetables.
I swear the people of the future are crazy.
We won't tell the girls till after.
Once seen as a niche market,
veganism is one of the fastest- growing movements in the world.
The plant-based cuisine
is even on menus in traditional fast-food outlets.
In 2018, more than 2 million Australian adults
live a meat-free life.
How well they're cooking, I don't know.
Advocates say that cutting out meat and dairy
could reduce global greenhouse emissions by two-thirds,
as well as making us slimmer, fitter and more virtuous.
Oh, it's not a barbecue without a bit of flame.
This might be what the future of food is,
you know, all vegetables, vegan-style food.
I am a firm believer of giving everything a go,
and giving it a fair chance, but...
..the fair chance isn't going very far here today.
It's not looking really good.
OK, let's start building these.
Don't tell them, alright, Julian?
Tell them what?
Exactly.
It's going to be a bit of a surprise for the girls, I think.
We'll tell them after they eat
just to really stick the knife in deeper.
We've got burgers!
CAROL: Ooh! They look good. They smell burnt.
Grab your plates, guys.
It's not kangaroo, is it? No, it's not kangaroo.
No, it's... We assure you it is not kangaroo.
What's wrong with it? SIENNA: It looks really fake.
I feel like there's some secret to this.
OLIVIA: Is that, like...
I just need to know, were any bugs harmed in the making of this?
No, no. Promise?
Yep. OK.
It's... interesting.
It tastes fine, but it doesn't taste like a beef patty.
You know what? It's actually really nice, whatever it is.
Yeah. OK.
Well, welcome to your first fully sustainable burger
from the future - it's all vegan.
Oh, good!
So, it's a vegan patty and vegan bacon.
I wouldn't be too angry if I was eating vegan burgers in the future.
They were pretty good, although the bacon tasted like cardboard.
Although I have not eaten cardboard, so I can't actually prove that.
OLIVIA: Who eats vegan like this?
(PETER CHUCKLES) They're missing out on the real fun.
I agree. So do I.
But you know what?
If this is what we need to eat to save the planet,
it is pretty good.
Like, it's not bad. Even if it's not every day.
If it's once a week. Yeah. We've had worse.
Oh!
Oh, that is nasty.
ANNABEL: Starting with tripe.
If I have another dinner like that, I'm out.
Carol was thrilled to meet the convenience foods of the '60s...
It's like an astronaut's meal.
Everything's fried. Yeah.
Everything is fried in the '60s.
..the canned delights of the '70s...
Fried Spam and eggs. JULIAN: Ugh!
..and the ready meals of the 1980s.
PETER: Look at that. Lots of meals for one.
SIENNA: TV dinner. Ooh, yeah.
We're gonna go into the lounge room. OK.
So, you're putting the TV in TV dinner?
OLIVIA: Exactly.
But by the end of the '90s,
the Ferrone family was beating a path back to fresh produce.
So incredible. A nice thing to see after all these decades, isn't it?
Oh, yeah. Food the way it should be.
Oh, see?
They're back to feeding each other food again, guys. What do you think?
OLIVIA: At least it's not grapes.
Diners are more demanding than ever before.
The food of the future needs to be healthy, delicious and sustainable.
Are we eating more crickets? PETER AND CAROL: No.
A man who worships at all three of these modern culinary altars
is leading chef Matt Moran.
Hi, guys. How are we? Matt Moran. Oh, hi, Matt! Nice to meet you.
Well, welcome to Barangaroo House.
Thank you for having us. It's an absolute pleasure.
One goat's curd, one rabbit,
followed by a pie and a scotch fillet.
MAN: Service.
Matt began life on a dairy farm
before starting his food career at the age of 15.
He opened his first restaurant at 22, and now runs nine.
For more than 30 years, he's been a champion of fresh produce.
He also has a '50s-era horror of wasting food.
You know, food's changed over the years, as I'm sure you've seen.
Yeah, we've realised that, yeah! It's come a long way.
Because the population's getting bigger,
sustainability is a big thing.
We've gotta take more care about, you know, what we're eating
and, you know, not to overfish.
And that's where the future is. Yeah.
We've got to really be smart about what we use and how we use it,
and make sure that we use everything.
That's really important.
What you'll find with the future
is that a lot of things are actually coming back.
We've already found that a fair bit. Yeah, yeah.
We've gone from the '50s, where it's fresh food,
and the '60s processed came in - the frozen meals and TV dinners -
and then we've sort of gone back to fresh produce.
Yeah, so we'll take you on a little bit of a journey tonight.
Ooh. There's some unusual things.
OLIVIA: Uh-oh. But, uh, you know,
don't worry - you won't be eating too many grasshoppers.
Oh... Been there, done that.
Or ants. We ate ants a couple of hours ago!
Oh, did you? CAROL: Yeah.
Oh, right. Well, you're used to them now.
Didn't go down too well. Didn't they?
No. Alright.
So, what do we have here, Corey? So, the steak tartare.
Oh, I was gonna say... It's my version of a steak tartare.
Dig in. Use your hands if you want.
What is this? So, this is a bit of a bone marrow.
We don't throw anything out here.
If you are going to just cut
the nice big beautiful piece of beef fillet
and then get rid of the rest of it,
all that other stuff goes to waste.
Here we make sure that we use everything.
CAROL: This is delicious.
This is the belly of the kingfish.
Oh, wow!
This is hiramasa kingfish.
This is actually a farmed product.
This is all ocean-penned in South Australia, done properly.
They call it the Wagyu of the ocean.
JULIAN: Ooh!
They use a lot in sashimi. Yes.
So, what we would do is use it as sashimi,
and then we use the bellies and roast it.
Oh, wow!
It's good? That is delicious.
SIENNA: What Matt said was amazing.
We should start to become more sustainable
because these natural resources will run out if we're not careful.
So, if it means not throwing away certain parts of a fish or beef,
I think that's really good.
This is what I think is the future of food, yeah?
Sustainable, all about the produce.
And I don't think it's a fad. I think it's actually here to stay.
CAROL: That's good to know.
ANNABEL: The Ferrone family's time-travelling adventure
has brought them all sorts of fascinating new friends.
Go, Dawn, go! (LAUGHS)
And hitchhiker.
And then we've got the swim. Ta-da!
You know what? I think I can beat you.
Bring it.
(GASPS) Oh, my God!
I love you! (LAUGHS)
Skippy has got a lot to answer for.
(ALL LAUGH)
Everybody say 'zucchini'.
Zucchini! Zucchini!
CAROL: Oh, smells a bit. JULIAN: Bit acrid.
ANNABEL: Carol and Julian have been told
they have another special guest waiting for them in the backyard.
Oh! (BEES BUZZ)
Several thousand of them, actually.
MAN: Hello, Carol. Hi!
Lovely to meet you.
I'm Julian. Pleased to meet you, Julian.
So, we've got a beehive in the backyard?
Yeah. We do!
The urban beehive.
Bees have been around forever, but their future is under threat
from disease, pests and climate change.
A suburban army is assembling to save them,
led by devoted bee whisperers like Arthur Garske.
The fascination of bees and what they do is so interesting.
I've been keeping bees for 48-odd years,
and they're not what you call a loving thing to have as a pet,
but they're not something to be feared.
The future of bees
is more closely tied to our own survival than you'd think.
Nearly all the foods that we eat here in Australia
are pollinated by bees.
So, if you haven't got bees to pollinate,
we lose our source of food.
Wow.
We have a slogan, amateur beekeepers,
that you either pollinate or perish.
Gee.
There are now nearly 100,000 hives in Australian backyards.
Each one yields around 50 kilograms of honey every year.
To keep one, you need a licence,
or the help of a friendly fanatic like Arthur.
Put your suits on. OK.
How stylish is this?
OK. I feel like an astronaut.
Almost. This has got to be done up.
So, Arthur, why aren't you wearing a suit?
Well, if you've been keeping bees for as long as I have,
the bees talk to me. Oh.
At the moment, these bees are as quiet as little lambs, so...
Well, that's good to know.
We'll take that box off... Oh, wow.
You just give them a little bit of a puff,
and that sends them guards in the house,
to tell them that there's a fire going on.
Ugh!
Oh, goodness. And you're sure they're not hungry, right?
Yeah. Don't wave your legs and that around, they don't like movement.
Yeah. Just stay still, Mum. Just...
I know, but I'm suddenly itchy all over.
Don't make them angry.
Believe you me, if these bees were stingy, they'd be stinging.
(CHUCKLES) OK.
This is honey all around here.
With these bees in the backyard, you've got everything you need.
And these bees will pollinate everything in an area
up to four to five kilometres... Oh, wow.
Wow. ..radius of where they are.
So, you've got sustainability of food,
you get honey for the table,
plus then you get the interest of watching your bees.
Have a taste of that honey.
Oh, my God. That is delicious!
What do you think, Jules?
Ferrone beehive in the backyard? Have our own honey?
It'll be good for the garden. Yeah.
So, you're sold on bees? I think we are.
It's certainly worrying
with the whole colony collapse disorder, you know,
because they are basically responsible
for our entire food chain.
But I appreciate bees a bit more, I guess, now.
I can't unzip this. How do you unzip this?
I don't know. And I don't want to unzip this.
The Ferrone family has lived through six decades in six weeks
and they have survived countless fashion offences...
..from itchy trousers, to the occasional outbreak of fluoro.
Just want to personally apologise... (ALL LAUGH)
..for those tracksuits, I can't help but feel partially responsible.
In the future, though, clothes will be remarkable for what they can do.
Nanotechnology will create clothing that's like a digital skin,
with tiny sensory threads woven into fabric
that can monitor our heartbeats or even create artificial muscles.
WOMAN: I think the technology has come to a point
where we can actually make wearable technologies
that we could only dream about before.
Not to mention, personal 3-D clothing printers
or machines that grow fabric from bacteria,
which could be yours by 2050.
Oh, OK.
Peter, a renowned petrolhead, has discovered his wheels of the future.
They look kind of familiar.
Got a bike again, back to the '50s. But this is electric. Cool.
In 2018, with around 19 million vehicles clogging our roads,
cycling is back in vogue.
Look, it has it's place I think, to save the environment,
but if this electric bike was the end of me driving a car,
I would be really upset,
and it wouldn't like the bike, it would be my enemy,
public enemy number one for me.
At least I won't sweat as much with this one, I suppose,
like back in the '50s.
In 1950, one in ten homes had a car, and cycling to work wasn't unusual.
Bit warm, though, with the suit.
But by the late '50s...
Ooh, it's bouncy. Oh, my goodness.
..nearly 3 million of us owned a car.
(CHUCKLES) Stalled it.
(OLIVIA LAUGHS)
And so began our long love affair with the automobile.
Oh, my God! Does this not bring back memories or what?
Sure does.
It's like going on our first date again.
This one's a bit different. There's no back seat.
Maybe that's a good thing. (CHUCKLES)
But in the future...
..while we already have vehicles that assist us, hands-free,
we're only a software upgrade away from making cars truly driverless.
MAN: Keep it set to the max speed.
But it will change according to whatever the car in front is doing.
Motoring bodies believe they'll be on our roads by 2025.
As Peter cycles to work,
Carol is taking a break from working at home, to shop.
(PHONE BEEPS AND VIBRATES)
(READS) "Carol, today you'll be making an after-school snack
"of banana bread with icing sugar for Sienna and Olivia.
"Best to check your fridge through your phone app
"and make sure you've got all the ingredients."
Definitely no butter or eggs in the fridge and we need sugar,
so while I'm here, I might put the vacuum cleaner on
and let's go shopping.
While Carol walked to her local shops every day in the 1950s,
in 2018, she, like 68% of Australians,
visits a supermarket at least once a week.
Just see what else I need.
In the future, the Ferrone kids probably won't go into a shop at all,
they'll do it all by phone.
Aha! Sugar.
But it's still what we're putting in those virtual baskets
that's of greatest concern.
By 2025, 80% of Australians will be overweight.
Ah, good vacuum cleaner.
OK, banana bread.
Journalist, author and anti-sugar campaigner Sarah Wilson
has arrived armed with some creative answers
to Australia's obesity crisis.
(RINGS DOORBELL)
Hello. Hello. Oh, my goodness.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, welcome.
Come on in. Thank you very much.
Oh, my gosh. I have your book.
Oh, do you? Yes. Oh, that's good start.
Sarah is a pioneer of the global anti-sugar movement.
Her books about quitting sugar sell in 46 countries.
I was going to make banana bread.
The girls will be home soon and Julian will be home from uni.
Yeah. So, um...
It's interesting that you're making banana bread,
because I think a lot of families think of it as really healthy.
Yes.
And the stuff that you find in cafes
is about six to nine teaspoons of added sugar.
Wow. Is that per slice?
Per slice. Wow.
The WHO guidelines specify that adults should have
no more than six to nine teaspoons of added sugar a day.
Oh, my goodness.
For children, it's no more than three teaspoons.
Wow.
So, I'll be interested to see what you're doing with your banana cake.
My recipe, let's just say it uses less sugar...
OK.
And we'll see what your kids think when they get home.
But, yeah, let's call it a bake-off. Alright.
Let's do it.
Carol's iced banana bread comes from an online recipe and contains:
Oh, and three cups of sugar.
Sarah's recipe, meanwhile,
uses the leftover banana peels from Carol's recipe, along with:
I'm struggling with the whole banana skin thing.
I mean, it does seem such a waste to throw them out.
This can actually have a consistency and a flavour
a bit like dried fruit. OK.
But without all the sugar. Yeah.
So, you know, they are edible.
The other thing that they're great for is polishing shoes.
They're really good for that kind of thing as well.
Two minutes. OK.
Your banana cake, I think it's probably 10 to 12 slices, right?
So, when Olivia comes home, and we serve this up,
she might have two slices with the icing.
Yes.
We're looking at 24 teaspoons of sugar, which is, you know, huge.
You are making me feel terrible right now.
You shouldn't feel terrible, it's just where we're at.
And we're gonna have to change because as you know,
like, the obesity levels amongst kids is just going through the roof.
It's a huge problem, and it's because of what we're eating.
The good news is that, kids' tastebuds change really quickly,
so if you reduced the amount of sugar
over a two-, three-week period, our bodies can adjust,
and we can get back to a normal appetite again.
Alright. I'm gonna start on my combo.
So, I'm just gonna put those in there,
and then we're gonna blitz that for a bit...
Yeah. And it'll form a thick paste.
Alright. I'm gonna actually introduce you to rice malt syrup.
I don't know if you saw me walk in with this.
Oh, I thought that was honey. I brought it with me.
It's very much like honey in its consistency.
Is it sweet? Yeah. It tastes like...
It tastes like honey.
So, I'm gonna put half a cup in here
and that's gonna be for 12 slices.
Speaking to Sarah made me realise
that giving up sugar doesn't necessarily mean giving up sweet,
it's more looking for different types of recipes,
different ways to cook,
so that you're not putting all that sugar in your body
that's not good for you.
OLIVIA: Get inside, quick!
Oh, it's so wet outside.
But how is all of this going to fly with the Ferrone girls?
I think Olivia will be the biggest issue.
I will admit she has a very bad sugar addiction.
Olivia has never met a processed sugar she didn't like.
I love lollies.
So the 1950s were something of a barren landscape.
Were there lollies?
Oh, boy. What you see is what you get.
The 1960s corner shop helped a lot.
It's really cool being at the milk bar. See?
Hmm...
And by the highly processed '70s, Olivia's addiction was in full swing.
(SQUEALS) Liv, no.
Too bad. (SQUEALS)
Once she got into the lolly jar, she went super-crazy
and she wouldn't listen to me.
Stop.
(LAUGHS) Stop.
I mean it. No more. Go sit down.
Hi. Hello.
Hi.
This is Sarah. This is Sienna and Olivia.
Hi. Nice to meet you. Lovely to meet you, too.
Hi. Hello.
Are you ready for afternoon tea? BOTH: Yes.
Oh, yeah.
We've made two different banana breads.
Cool.
Do you like banana bread? Yum.
Yeah.
There you go. Thank you. Oh, thank you.
So, what do you think of Sarah's cake?
Mine's the one you're eating. It tastes good.
It tastes like it has no sugar. You are a very smart girl.
You're pretty much right there.
Have a guess how much teaspoons of sugar
is in a slice of your mum's one.
Ooh, five? Five, OK.
You're eating about 12 teaspoons of sugar in one slice.
Ooh.
You know what's in my one?
Banana skin.
It doesn't have any banana.
I took your mum's banana skins. She used the banana.
Now, when you know that, does it...
I mean, they taste different I can tell.
But is it that different?
No. No.
Mum's is definitely, definitely better, because I love sugar.
So, how do we help our children kick the sugar habit?
Well, doctors and dentists in Australia
are pushing for a tax on sugary drinks,
which can contain up to 10 teaspoons of sugar in a single can.
If we have a sugar tax,
at the moment, they're talking about it on soft drinks only,
so drinks only, but if they roll it out on to all food,
banana bread like that is gonna be super-, super-expensive.
And this version, it's going to be actually a lot cheaper,
especially if you use banana peels, so...
It's cheaper to eat healthy, which is a good thing.
It's the future. It is.
Absolutely.
OLIVIA: I feel like in the future,
I think I'd go pretty good with a no-sugar diet,
because you start to realise
how sweet and gross all of the sugary things are,
and you don't want them anymore.
Ready? Get set, bang!
Living through six decades of life in Australia...
..the Ferrones exercised in ways that ranged from the inadvertent...
Bye, Mum. Bye.
..to the faintly ridiculous.
JULIAN: I think I'm getting the hang of it.
See, this is where Year 12 physics really helps.
I'm breaking a sweat here. I don't sweat, I sparkle.
Oh, my Lord.
But when the home computer arrived in the '80s...
Commodore 64.
..it provided a compelling new reason to remain seated.
The life of the superconnected teen, is a highly sedentary affair.
For people of the time, this would have been huge.
Julian, that's it. Cut it.
I'm making up for 40 years of no computer games.
So now the Ferrones are reporting to the gym of the future.
This does not look like a gym at all.
Oh my... Oh, my God! Oh, my Lord!
I'm gonna be better than you people. What are we doing?
JULIAN: Ninja 101.
Look who's down there. Oh, my God.
Uh-oh. Now I'm scared.
I know.
Steve Willis, AKA Commando Steve,
spent more than a decade in the army's special forces
and is now one of Australia's most feared and respected fitness experts,
from his days on the television series Australia's Biggest Loser.
Hi. Hello. Nice to meet you.
Not so nice to meet you.
You're the... You're the beans of the family, are you?
Yes. PETER: She is.
I'm actually quite strong. Quite strong? Well, let's see.
Commando, I expected him to go, "Drop and give me 50."
So, I'm a bit scared of you. No.
Of me? You're very intense.
I'm a human like anybody else. And I guess my job as a trainer...
Well, first and foremost to be a trainer,
there needs to be that empathetic, compassionate side.
ANNABEL: It's thought that within a decade,
scientists will develop a pill that makes exercise obsolete
by helping cells to burn fat.
But for now, trainers like Commando Steve
are doing it the hard way.
There's a whole host of research
that's come out, you know, over the years
to show that there's been a significant decline.
Now, not just in the physical activity of the adults,
but especially the younger generation.
Steve believes that getting us back to the '50s,
where basic family life included exercise,
might be the answer for the future.
Rather than driving, walking, going to parks, going to new places,
going bushwalking, you know, coming to a gym
where there's lots of things hanging from rigging,
and being a monkey and swinging from them and having some fun,
because we put a lot of focus
on the academics and the intellectual side of who we are,
but there's more to us than just that.
A lot of those skills
that we as humans have allowed to diminish for a period of time,
it's... it's untapped and we can do so much.
So, let's go inside and enjoy it.
Alright, a bit of follow the leader to start out. Let's go.
Come on. Go.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
That's it. Can you squeeze through the gap?
I wasn't really expecting to do a ninja warrior course,
so I was like, "Oh, my Lord."
Really fun.
Get some air. That's what I want to see, stay tight, jump, land, good.
A ninja course is great to experience as a family, you know.
The kids saw me and Carol get out there
and, you know, lead by example.
Oh, look at that! Go, Dad. Oh, he's pumped through it.
Julian's performance today?
Sure he's a self-confessed super-nerd,
but today his Spider-Man came out.
CAROL: Let's watch Julian.
Unlike, you know, what the rest of the family will tell you,
I did do some physical exercise.
I had compulsory sport at school.
You got it. Use your legs. Use your legs. Use your legs. Good.
That's it. PETER: Oh, you're gonna kill me.
Awesome!
That's it. You got it.
I was extremely surprised at Julian, because he's so lazy, worse than me.
He hates doing any sport.
I've never seen him do that much physical activity at once I think.
I don't have a head for heights. Awesome! Yeah, but guess what.
You practise this kind of stuff, and you overcome it. Awesome work.
I think the future looks good.
I think this is the type of physical activity
that us Ferrones can get into as a family.
Well, you'll find walking in a straight line much better now.
It's quite fun, it's not boring.
So, I definitely wanna come back.
Make yourself flat, you hang on with your arms,
but you want your legs to do the work.
I think I was definitely the best because I'm the smallest
and I'm like a monkey.
Can I get a high five from, everyone?
Well done. Thank you.
So, here's to now and here's to the future.
And if you keep this up,
I really see your future being bright and beautiful.
Feeling so proud, like, especially of the kids, especially of Julian,
like, he's an academic, he's never been a sports kid.
He has grumbled through 10 years of school sport.
And to see him willingly and enthusiastically try that,
is... Oh, it makes this whole experience worth it,
from the '50s till now.
When Peter first stepped back into the '50s,
he was confronted by the life his parents led
when they immigrated here.
PETER: Oh, it's quite emotional going back,
especially because Dad's not around anymore.
I think of their struggles coming out here...
..trying to integrate with the community
that didn't speak your language,
didn't dress the way you dressed,
didn't eat your food.
But before long, Italian food mounted a serious challenge
to the prevailing meat and three veg.
(GASPS) Spaghetti bolognaise.
We bought olive oil from the chemist.
Excellent, well, that will go great in my baked spaghetti.
And in the '60s, we learnt how to cook Chinese.
It's very, very nice.
It has a Chinese flavour which I'm sure you'll love.
And maybe you'd like to use chopsticks.
Are you expert at using chopsticks? Yep.
Here you go. Thanks.
Whole new cultures, foods and flavours
arrived on our dinner plates.
What nationality is this, Dad? Greek.
And we loved them...
This is so good.
Eww!
..most of the time.
But while we enthusiastically adopted immigrant cuisines,
we neglected the food that has been on this continent for millennia.
Now, as sustainability becomes more urgent,
Australians are turning to an ancient culture
to find the superfood answers of the future.
This is the most time-travelled family that you will meet.
Jody Orcher is an expert in traditional Indigenous cuisine.
Hello, Ferrones.
Hi, Annabel. Hi, guys. How are you?
So, I'm going to show you
some beautiful food from around Australia,
used by Aboriginal people for medicine, food, survival.
We're going to have heaps of fun this afternoon.
Excellent. Alright. Let's go.
Excellent.
Lead on. OK.
It's so beautiful around here, isn't it?
Oh, it's just gorgeous.
I'm taking you to our first farm garden.
And all of these plants that are planted here
came on the First Fleet.
Oh, because they brought lots of seeds with them, didn't they?
Absolutely.
Arriving on the First Fleet,
they didn't know what type of food they would have here,
so there's chives, there's sunflowers.
We've got some oranges. So much effort.
Asparagus and all of this stuff that needs heaps of water as well.
Yes. It does need heaps of water.
Seeing all of these introduced foods,
it's amazing to think of how much trouble these settlers went...
A completely different planet. It's been 230 years of trouble.
So, how much could they have saved themselves
by just opening their eyes?
Can you show us what they duffers should have been eating?
I certainly can. Come down this way. Thank you.
Come in here, guys.
I've got some food that I've picked for us earlier.
That looks good.
I guess there's some foods there that you haven't seen.
That's the beauty about being in Australia,
there's all these amazing traditional foods
Aboriginal people have been eating for ages.
These are our native finger limes.
This is coming up in the culinary world.
So, it's like a little caviar. Use them for your salads.
And of course for cooking with seafood.
Very zingy.
Another thing that I found here this morning was this Davidson plum.
So, this is a native plum? Yeah.
So, this Davidson plum, really rich in antioxidants.
But this is a salty plum.
So, you will use this for your salad.
OK? Do you wanna try some? I'll go first.
Wow. You could pickle those and they'd be nice.
SIENNA: It tastes like tomatoes. PETER: Yeah. They do.
Oh! (ALL CHUCKLE)
So, if the question for the future is, you know,
how do you eat and farm
in a way that's sustainable on the continent where we live,
it's amazing how many of the answers are kind of in the past.
Absolutely.
Growing up, we weren't a rich family
and so it was about us adapting and to live within your means,
and to use what you needed and to save some for tomorrow.
Let's hope in the future we make a bit better use
of all this stuff around us.
Can you see this type of food ending up in our supermarkets?
I don't know if I want it to be.
I would rather our supermarkets, and you come buy from us.
(ALL LAUGH)
But in the future, what could food look like at home?
CAROL: OK, what's for dinner?
Carol is about to find out.
(READS) "Meat and three veg.
"A classic recipe from the '50s has made a comeback."
That's pretty simple.
Oh, what is this?
(READS) "Tonight's meal will transport you
"deep into the future of food.
"You will be having a meal of T-bone steak with pepper sauce,
"broccoli steamed with lemon, honey-and-thyme-roasted carrots,
"and mashed potato with butter and gravy, in gummy form.
"While this idea seems very futuristic and very weird...
"it's not inconceivable.
"A food tech start-up in Japan are selling meal replacement gummies
"with the aim of solving problems related to food efficiency,
"safety and calorie control."
I feel like we're having lollies for dinner.
It's taken me to my childhood and Willy Wonka
and where the kids pick up some gum or something
and it has a three-course meal in it.
And, um, I feel like that's what I'm gonna serve for dinner.
Hmm.
It smells like potato.
Like we're back in the '80s with our fancy nouvelle cuisine,
big plate, small food.
You know, if this does become the food of the future,
I hope that I'm not alive to have to experience it.
Oh, this is going to be very entertaining tonight.
I was actually quite keen when I saw the top of the recipe,
meat and three veg.
I thought in the future we were all about getting back to '50s
in the sense of fresh produce straight from the garden.
This is not food to me. This...
I don't even have words to describe what this is.
Guys, dinner. ALL: Coming.
Hey. I'm excited to see what's for...
Oh, it's gummy. It's a gummy meal.
Is this all we're having for dinner? This is it.
The brown one is steak. Yeah?
The white is mashed potato and gravy.
Ooh.
The green one is broccoli. JULIAN: Hmm.
And who wants to guess what the orange is?
Orange. OTHERS: Carrots.
Do we soak them in the water and they expand?
No. This is it. You don't even heat them up.
Did you make some dessert ones, like, blueberry pie?
No. Because we're sugar-free now.
Oh, my God, it smells like a piece of broccoli.
It does.
What do you think?
OLIVIA: I know, right? Does it taste it broccoli?
It tastes like it. It feels funny.
I thought it would be like a gummy bear.
PETER: I'm thinking the vegan burgers were pretty good.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's saying something.
It's really gross. I don't like it. CAROL: Me either.
I reckon even a dog would turn his nose up at that steak.
OLIVIA: Yeah.
And they'd eat just about anything.
Really didn't enjoy that.
You know, I've given everything a go,
quite open-minded along our journey.
In the future, for me if I've got to have gummy food,
there's not much purpose left in life.
Um, you've taken away all my enjoyment.
Dad, I've got a question, where's the real food?
This is the real food. This is it.
Livvy, this is potentially the future that we're facing.
If we don't look at sustainability in food and, you know,
protecting the environment, you could be facing this.
Sure. I mean, quick, easy.
I guess you get the nutrition from the gummy foods,
but if someone told me you can be immortal
but you're going to have to eat those gummy things for food every day...
..I don't know if I'd do it.
Australia's population is set to reach 36 million
by the middle of the century,
so producing enough food is one of the major challenges we face.
It's not helped by the fact that our cities are spreading outwards,
taking over land once used for growing food.
At the current rate of growth,
around 90% of the food-growing land in the Sydney basin,
will be growing houses instead by 2030.
We need to grow food more intensively, in smaller spaces.
And Carol is taking the girls to Western Sydney University
for a glimpse of the future.
Maybe this way. Whoa!
Hello. Hi. Welcome to the facility.
My name's Ian.
Professor Ian Anderson and his team
are world leaders in protected cropping.
Look at all the capsicum.
Yeah. There's lots.
That looks so cool. That's my favourite.
Where's the soil? There's no soil in here whatsoever.
Plants are going in this suspended system that you can see.
And there isn't a speck of soil anywhere in sight.
That is just phenomenal.
I feel like I'm in a spaceship.
It's a big change from the way in which vegies are grown...
Yeah.
..or have been grown to this point in time.
But there will be more and more of our food, particularly fresh food,
produced in facilities like this.
There's been a lot of research done
to try and genetically manipulate plants to produce more.
In here,
we're not doing anything with the genetics of the plant at all,
all we're doing is really controlling the environment
to really maximise the quality and the nutritional value
within the fruit that is being produced as well.
OK. Let's go in and have a look a bit closer.
Can we pick one? Yeah, you can pick one.
Oh... Do you like red?
Perfect. Yeah, that's my favourite.
With protected cropping, you can say goodbye to seasons
as these climate-controlled glasshouses
guarantee fresh fruit and vegetables all year round.
Obviously we can't produce every type of food
in an environment like this.
But for plants that have a root system,
and that really just need something for their roots to hang onto,
like this fibrous material that we use,
then I think there is a whole range of possibilities.
And while lan's current crops like capsicum don't need pollination,
his team is currently trying out stingless bees to help those that do.
Because they're stingless, they don't have the stinging bit,
so it means you can use them in an environment like this
and there's not the issues with people getting stung.
Wow.
So, do you want to go have a look at some eggplants?
Yes. Please. Our favourite! Definitely.
They look so good.
I never heard of growing vegetables in, like, no soil.
I found that, like, amazing.
They look so, like, perfect. They are.
This is the allotment of the future. Yeah.
And I think a lot of people would be surprised,
even today, the sort of food that they are consuming,
nearly all of the snacking tomatoes
come from a facility very, very much like this.
So, it's how can we use this sort of technology
to grow more than just tomatoes?
And, I mean, ultimately,
you're not using artificial chemicals or anything.
In this sort of system, we don't have to use those sort of controls,
so the food that's produced is much more healthy,
much reduced in terms of pesticide use
and all of those other things
that as consumers we don't want to be present
with the food that we are consuming.
I thought we'd be faced eating this artificial gummy food.
Now we have this wonderful technology
where we can grow pretty much perfect fruit
in a controlled environment anywhere.
With all the perhaps doom and gloom
we could be facing in the future,
there is a light at the end of the tunnel,
and we still will be able to have
all our beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables, so it's good.
Would you like to take some home?
Oh, yes. Please. Alright.
I'm thinking we need to make some parmigiana.
OLIVIA AND SIENNA: Yes.
After six decades of turbulent change,
the Ferrone family house is back to its 2018 self.
I've forgotten where everything is in our normal house.
I know.
For Carol, Peter and their kids, life is returning to normal.
Hello! Hello, welcome to the present.
So, you're back to normal? We are back to normal, come on in.
I have forgotten what your house looks like, does it...
We've forgotten. Come on in. I love it.
Welcome home. Thank you.
So, for once, I have turned up for dinner
and I haven't brought you anything to eat.
(ALL LAUGH)
What do you think was the worst dish that you ate?
Tripe! Tripe, it has...
Tripe is the winner or the loser. Yeah.
Above all else.
In retrospect, it was probably a bit unfair
to make that your first meal of the whole experience.
SIENNA: It traumatised us.
So, was it the tripe that was the absolute low point, kids?
Or was it seeing your parents' wedding video?
Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
That's pretty even. That was really embarrassing.
Yeah, but the tripe, the tripe was quicker.
Yeah.
Yeah. Every time I see grapes I cringe.
OLIVIA: (GASPS) That's not them.
That's, oh... Get a...
If I was them, I'd be embarrassed and burn this video, honestly.
As the greatest history buff in this family,
I don't think I'm gonna be challenged on that,
what was it about living through history that surprised you the most?
Well, when you study history,
you tend to study all the "great people", you know,
like, all the people that actually did stuff,
whereas when we sort of travelled back,
it was a lot more like
seeing history through the eyes of your average person.
So, it's sort of interesting because it's, like...
It's a different perspective.
What was your most memorable day, Sienna?
Probably meeting June Dally-Watkins. I know.
I saw your spine straighten a bit when you met her.
You're THE June Dally-Watkins. Oh, my God, that's amazing.
I am, I'm the real one.
The pineapple thing that we made.
OK, that... Was embarrassing.
June Dally-Watkins has to eat that slop.
Oh, it was a mess.
CAROL: It's a duck liver sausage.
Mmm.
That's the best pineapple I've ever eaten.
Thank you.
She liked it. Yeah.
Well, because she's June Dally-Watkins,
she pretended to like it. Yeah.
Luckily you invited the most polite woman in Australia
to share your liver pineapple.
Olivia. Yes?
Your favourite decade? Which?
'70s. I liked rollerskating, that was the best.
JULIAN: Yeah. The rollerskating was really cool. Liv was good at it.
I was getting pretty good at it. It was so fun.
I think I'll definitely go again. Mum said she'd bring me.
Going rollerskating,
normally we wouldn't do that sort of stuff, but that was loads of fun.
What about you, Sienna?
Did you ever have a moment where you thought, this has been a mistake?
I think seeing Mum get really upset,
and that she had to do everything.
That was the most difficult thing.
Yeah.
I guess you were transported back to an age
where the expectations of you based on whether you were male or female,
were just completely different.
Are you pleased that you're your age today and not then?
Definitely.
I've so many more rights now, I can do so many more things,
and I'm so much more equal to men now, which is so much better.
PETER: The most frustrating part of this journey for me...
..1950s.
I was really segregated from the family.
I've sort of lost my appetite. It's, uh, pretty lonely in here.
That's not who we are.
We would always eat together,
and, you know, it's a communal thing.
You eat and drink
and share a meal with the whole family every day.
Kids grow up so fast.
You know, Julian's already off to uni,
and he might move out of home.
You only have them for a short time,
so we really try to spend some time together, give them experiences,
and actually this journey is about that as well,
giving them an experience.
What about you, Julian?
In terms of stuff I'm taking to the present and to the future,
I guess it's just sort of a lesson
on letting yourself be open to experiences
that you wouldn't normally, you know, go on.
So now that you've got everything back,
does it feel incredibly special?
Or just like the whole thing was a dream?
Oh, for me, both. OTHERS: Yeah.
I feel, um...
You know, I'm so grateful
for all the modern conveniences that we do have,
and I do feel like it's been a dream.
Like, I...
You know, the first night we were here,
there was boxes everywhere, and I sat here on my own.
And you see it in the movies
that... that montage of almost, like, ghosts running through,
it's almost like a time-lapse.
And, you know, that 70 years played through my head over two minutes.
And I'm getting a bit teary, but it was good.
SIENNA: Yeah.
Well, it's a big thing to live through,
particularly when you think about
the things your family has lived through.
Does it make you think differently about your own mum?
Yeah, it does. And, um, through everything that we've been through,
the challenges, the hardships, the successes,
I'm so grateful we did it together.
All parents say, "When I was your age, we did things this way."
We talk about the '90s when Peter and I met and dated.
And they lived through that with us.
And I know it was very painful for them to watch our wedding video...
Too bad. ..but you know what?
It was really lovely to be back in '93, and to relive that
and relive that with them.
I have to say you've all been incredibly great time travellers.
You know, like, it's a hard thing to do.
But the thing that you've all individually
in all of your personal ways, been really good at,
is being open to things and learning things.
Even when it's been hard, I think it's been really impressive.
So, well done, Ferrones.
Don't cry. Don't cry. You're crying.
Told you. I was ready. Happy tears.
It's been an incredible thing to live through, right?
I think you've done brilliantly. Thank you.
Cheers.
To the past, present and the future.
Thanks for being our... our captain of the ship.
Oh, a neglectful captain but an interested one.
Is everybody ready to go...
ALL: Back in time.
Bye! See ya.