© Solar Foods
If a post-scarcity society is ever realized, it will likely not involve the redistribution of wealth and a populace of leisured gluttons feasting on filet mignon and
songbirds drowned in armagnac. As the global population increases amidst a background of climate change and the effects it has on agriculture and clean water, the types of food that we consume will change according to scarcity and availability. Fortunately, humans are relatively adaptable - both from a social and evolutionary perspective - when it comes to their diets, as evidenced by the sudden popularity of non-meat "meats" like the
Impossible Burger.The problem with plant-based foods, however, is that they require fertile earth, land space, and water: three resources put at risk by ever-growing populations, their waste output, and changing climate patterns. Moreover, 60% of our plant-based foods come from just three sources: rice, maize (corn), and wheat, all of which have huge agricultural demands.
Fortunately, Solar Foods, a Finnish food start-up company, has developed a novel solution to this problem: Solein, a protein powder made using renewable electricity, carbon dioxide, and water laced with special bacteria. According to the company, Solein looks and tastes just like wheat flour and is composed of 50% protein, 5-10% fat, and 20-25% carbohydrates.
© Solar Foods
Solein's scalability and
sustainability make it a far better alternative energy source than plant-based foods or meat, requiring just 10 liters of water to produce a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of powder. To put that in perspective, consider this: the Institute of Mechanical Engineers
estimates that it takes between 5000 and 20,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of beef, while wheat requires 500 to 4,000. It's easy to take water for granted until you turn on the tap and it's spurting rust-colored liquid because the reservoirs have gone dry after too many mild winters and long summers.
"Producing Solein is entirely free from agriculture - it doesn't require arable land or irrigation and isn't limited by climate conditions," the company writes, and if its
roadmap for the next four years is any indication, you may be enjoying food made from their product sooner than you think: they aim to produce enough Solein for two billion meals by 2022.
Reader Comments
I rather catch & eat vegans ...
On a side note, didn't they say the exact same thing about GM agriculture. Fools! (them not us).
The seeds of hype are sterile and filled with deadly sickness and poison.
And yet they multiply and 'feed' the poor.
The world has gone completely mad. There is no hope.
There is, however, HYPE.
I remember well over a decade ago, when my wife and I and our children were still operating a small dairy farm (20 cows) organically and we had small tractors and work horses, I loved those horses as well as the cows. We were being robbed steadily by Organic Valley, a den of thieves. I remember a conversation I had on the phone with their 'elite'. I was not happy. The Organic Valley bigwigs were force feeding us their lies. It was despicable. So, we were having this 'conversation'. Over the phone. I had several of these 'conversations'.
One of their 'elite', a lady from Wisconsin (America's dairyland) glibly told me, 'We are all consumers now.'
We sure are.
Open wide and receive your nourishment.
You have no other right.
ned,
OUT
Mind control.
Mind control.
Mind control.
The seeds (and fruits) of HYPE.
A world gone completely mad.
OUT.
Give us a break.... Perhaps it is the western consumption model that is at the heart of the problem. Perhaps it is the ideal of the power structure and fiscal hierarchy that is also at the heart of the problem. Perhaps it is the worlds richest families as shadow handlers of every government of the people they claim to represent ( sans the axis of evil nations who are yet to be handled ) who are to blame for all our ills while they hide unseen behind the smoking shroud. Seriously, do these people honestly believe what they claim? I wonder what connection they have with the UN.
(Probabilities busted )