News that scientists in Finland had developed a way to produce edible protein, perhaps to be used to build "a substance similar to tofu or Quorn, a meat substitute made from a fungal protein grown through fermentation" using electricity, water, bacteria, carbon dioxide and a few other plentiful substances must have passed me by last year, since I've not been able to stop thinking about it since hearing George Monbiot refer to its revolutionary possibilities in the context of the more unavoidable, and welcome, news of the new Extinction Rebellion.
One exciting thing about the technology is the way it could free up land currently used for agriculture, which could then be re-forested. The inventors even refer to the possibility of "counter-top protein reactors for at-home use". You can read about it in this article from The Smithsonian but I'd just like to highlight that, like so many other things that are good, revolutionary, liberating and exciting, here's a technology that is, by definition in this case, vegan. Not to mention, ditto, anticipated by Star Trek. Are bacteria animals? No, don't be silly. They aren't even eukaryotes - and you'd have to know nothing about science whatsoever to bring up the ridiculous "plants have feelings"-style of argument here, sincerely. What we have here is the possibility of generating an abundant, ethical, environmentally-beneficial source of food more or less out of thin air, within the next decade, just when we need it the most.
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| Science fiction. |
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| Science fact. |
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