Fermentation based foods have the potential to be revolutionary in scope
Ferming: brewing microbes through precision fermentation. This means multiplying particular micro-organisms, to produce particular products, in factories.
Solar Foods, based in Helsinki, Finland, is creating new forms of protein. They use bacteria taken from the soil and use hydrogen extracted from water as its energy source.
This liquid is converted into a nutrient rich yellow flour which tastes like wheat. Such flours can be used to feed animals or people. When the bacteria are modified they will create the specific proteins needed for lab-grown meat, milk and eggs. Other tweaks will produce lauric acid – replacing palm oil – and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids – introducing lab-grown fish. The carbohydrates that remain when proteins and fats have been extracted could replace everything from pasta flour to potato chips. It will take time before this technology is commercially scalable, but the results are promising.
Since this is all prepared in vats and not a farm, the company estimates the land efficiency will be 20,000 times greater. Research by the thinktank RethinkX suggests that proteins from precision fermentation will be around 10 times cheaper than animal protein by 2035. It will also be healthier. Because farm-free foods will be built up from simple ingredients, rather than broken down from complex ones, allergens, hard fats and other unhealthy components can be screened out. Meat will still be meat, though it will be grown in factories rather than in the bodies of animals. Starch will still be starch, fats will still be fats. But food is likely to be better, cheaper and much less damaging to the living planet. [The Guardian]
