Making 'food out of thin air' (2024)
noemamag.com46 points by muchweight 3 days ago
46 points by muchweight 3 days ago
There already is a multi $B market for the amino acid methionine, made both through a synthetic process and a fermented process. It's used to supplement animal feed. So it's possible to synthesize nutrition economically. And it's a good idea to focus on animal feed since there's not the ick reaction to humans eating science project food.
I've read lately about another startup Savor that aims to make synthetic fats. They can make it in a variety of forms of it, from cooking oil to something like butter. They claim they can make it both much cheaper and with a much smaller carbon footprint than through conventional agriculture.
https://www.hertzfoundation.org/news/hertz-fellows-tech-comp...
Breathless tech reporters have discovered farming
The headline is a reference to the phrase ‘bread from air’, which was used to describe the applications of the Haber process.
Which is in turn doubtless a “mana from heaven” reference from abrahamic religious mythology
The last time they discovered farming a big pile of dumb money got set on fire by vertical farming startups. Usually SV startup culture attempting to invade a new industry sector provokes fear and loathing but in the case of agriculture I deeply enjoy watching them stick a fork in an outlet recursively.
> it’s always seemed odd that more libertarian-leaning states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida don’t seem to oppose the large state handouts they receive for beef, soy and field corn
Nothing odd about flagrant hypocrisy, it's part of the brand
It would be one of their main talking points if the majority of farmers were black/latino.
During WW2 Germany was making edible fats/margarine out of coal. Similarly, the atmospheric CO2 can be a source of carbon, especially say on Mars.
(another thing back then in Germany - ramjet engine using coal in a metal basket as a fuel. The war does put minds to work - radars/computers/nukes on the Allies side also come to mind.)
Coal margarine, this protein powder and some vitamins, I wonder how long human could survive on such "diet".
Our cats and dogs live on such a diet (until you learn what the supermarket cat/dogfood really is and take them off it). Vets have been saying about all those health problems resulting from that diet.
60kg of coal per 1kg of butter. You need about 3kg of meal for 1kg of chicken. 1.7kf of feed per 1kg of edible crickets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces...
> Similarly, the atmospheric CO2 can be a source of carbon, especially say on Mars.
How would this work?