Making 'food out of thin air' (2024)

https://www.noemamag.com/making-food-out-of-thin-air/

by muchweight • 1 month ago

52 18 1 month ago

Breathless tech reporters have discovered farming

cjs_ac• 1 month ago

The headline is a reference to the phrase ‘bread from air’, which was used to describe the applications of the Haber process.

mock-possum• 1 month ago

Which is in turn doubtless a “mana from heaven” reference from abrahamic religious mythology

forgetfreeman• 1 month ago

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.

trhway2• 1 month ago

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.)

krzat• 1 month ago

Coal margarine, this protein powder and some vitamins, I wonder how long human could survive on such "diet".

trhway2• 1 month ago

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.

jakzurr• 1 month ago

I just think it's pretty amazing.

raybb• 1 month ago

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...

the_sleaze_• 1 month ago

Similarly, the atmospheric CO2 can be a source of carbon, especially say on Mars.

How would this work?

wiml• 1 month ago

Hire Mark Watney to grow some potatoes?

vixen99• 1 month ago

Carbon fixing takes place via photosynthesis plus the light independent Calvin cycle. Hence the extensive greening that's taken place since CO2 elevation. This was first noticed via satellite in early 1980s. Overall there has been an increase of around 25-50% of vegetated land area. Productivity gains have been around 10%. Elevated CO2 has been the main driver. Plants got to get their (45-50% of their mass) carbon from somewhere.

thinkcontext2• 1 month 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...

ericyd• 1 month ago

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

dyauspitr• 1 month ago

It would be one of their main talking points if the majority of farmers were black/latino.

tancop• 1 month ago

the majority of farm workers are Latino in many parts of Texas and California. problem is the ones doing the political lobbying are big time corporate farm owners who are almost all rich white and conservative.

RetroTechie• 1 month ago

This will claim some % of marketshare for cost reasons alone.

Also there's various startups working on casein (milk proteins) produced by bacteria, fungi or even algea. Some solution of sugars + nutrients in, casein rich product out. That in turn useable for many (all?) things animal milk is used for today: cheese, yogurt, quark, skyr, kefir, ice cream etc. Potentially a drop-in replacement for any of those.

Some of this would already be on the market, if obtaining regulatory approval wasn't so extremely difficult & time-consuming (partly for good reasons).

Making 'food out of thin air' (2024)

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