Lab Food: Better Than from an Algae Vat?

With the recent FDA approval of lab-grown meat for human consumption (AP article here), I thought I might talk about how science fiction has thought about feeding the masses when we’re not living on Earth.

But let’s start with the concept of “manufactured” food replacing grown food.

Back in the day, when I was a graduate student in Ecology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, we learned to calculate the energetics of an ecological web, asking questions about how much energy each level of consumption in a food chain derives from the level below. Our professor being Scottish, had us calculate the energetics of predation in Loch Ness; sorry—no Nessy! So I appreciate it when someone “does the math” on grandiose claims. To understand the energetics of lab meat production, I tried to find out where the “raw materials,” what the companies call the nutrient bath, come from.

No luck. I found descriptions of what generally is in the bath: water, growth hormones, nutrient molecules, etc. but nothing on how it’s made or where it’s sourced. So—more research is needed.

But I did find an article that did the math on how many factories would be needed to replace grown meat with manufactured meat. It’s a long read, but you might find it interesting. (Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story.)

Bottom-line is it’s unlikely that the economics or sheer scale of manufacturing capacity required are feasible without significant scientific breakthroughs or external forces that might change the economics.

But someday, maybe in my or your lifetime, humans will live on the Moon, Mars, or long-term stays on space stations, etc. At some point, we will likely need to manufacture food where we live rather than shipping it from Earth, and we’ll need to solve the raw materials and production issues.

But how? Does science fiction provide some insight; let’s see.

We have to start with Star Trek. In the original series, it looked like food came out of a slot and was composed of various multi-colored nodules. Yum?! I’m with Riley—this looks unappetizing, and we never find out how they make it. At least by the movies (e.g., “The Undiscovered Country”), the crew sits down with the Klingons to what looks like a meal of “real” food. Again, no clue where it comes from.

[Image Credit: https://collectingtrekca.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/86a7b-star-trek-the-conscience-of-the-king-hd270.jpg]

Fortunately, by The Next Generation, we had replicators. But in some instances, the food might not have been very satisfying; real food was what they craved. Although, in the video, this martini was apparently pretty good. (The video at the link is about 4 minutes but is a fun compilation of food-related vignettes. Fun to see the two “Q: What is it? A: It’s green.” scenes next to each other.)  Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHjqCCkpzd8

In his SF murder mystery, The Patchwork Girl, Larry Niven describes The Garden, a vertical shaft in the middle of Hovestraydt City on the Moon, which was festooned with crops: grains, fruits, vegetables, and flying chickens. Niven forecasts we’ll be growing our food like we do on Earth. Open question: where does the organic matter to grow the plants come from?

[On another note: the book’s a great sci-fi read and a real “whodunit.” Check it out.]

The list could go on. A common trope is we’ll grow fungi or food in algae vats, or some machine will produce perfectly balanced nutrition. In the second Foundation Trilogy, vast algae farms feed Trantor, at least in part. And in one of my favorite books, The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, robotic farms on the surface harvest cellulose to supply the vast algae factories to feed the population of Earth’s cities.

In the end, we’ll have to wait and see. Science Fiction presents some interesting options, but who knows, maybe growing salad fixins on the International Space Station might be the beginning of an answer. (https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space)

One last movie reference and a harbinger of an approach we might not want to take, and then I’m done—honest. The classic Soylent Green depicts an overpopulated, resource-depleted Earth trying to feed the masses in 2022. In solving a murder mystery, Detective Thorn discovers a horrifying reality—and we don’t want to go there.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2aH9tu4s30 SPOILER ALERT – if you have not seen the movie and want to be surprised by the ending – DON’T CLICK THE LINK!] Image Credit: https://www.amazon.com/Soylent-Green-Charlton-Heston/dp/B0016I0AJG

I hope you enjoyed this excursion into manufactured food. We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m sure we’ll find ways to make it fun and tasty.

Thanks for dropping by, and leave a comment if you’d like.