Synthetic Food... Backed by Bill Gates?

[GhostNappa890]

I saw an article that on Yahoo that caught my eye Bill Gates and  Peter Thiel, the Paypal co founder, are partially backing a venture to replace eggs and chicken, as well as other foods with high environmental impact with synthetic alternatives engineered from a host of plants for across the planet. http://news.yahoo.com/food-tech-startups-aim-replace-eggs-chicken-165009483.html?soc_src=copy  

 

 

This raises some questions, not in regards to who is funding it because people like Bill Gates throw money at a lot of projects, But in the amount of funding going into these type of projects. It makes me wonder just how long it's going to be before real meat is an extremely rare delicacy across the planet. Until we have to pay 10 dollars for a single egg. and i don't even want to think about the price for a pound of meat.

[cloud]

Alas, the day will come when I look at a carton of eggs and the fine print will read "Naturally and Artificially flavored".

[TechFan@ic]

Genetically engineered food is of the devil, or so they say.

[TheMightyNoob01]

Lol... I read it as, synthetic food baked by Bill Gates. :wacko:

[James_AJ]

Really, this is the only viable solution. Either people stop f***ing and producing babies, we all starve, or we come up with a logical solution to mitigate the food shortage problem.

If you're thinking, "eww, GMO" or "eww, artificial food", obviously you've never been hungry and obviously you haven't seen the situation in 3rd world countries.

[TheMightyNoob01]

Alas, the day will come when I look at a carton of eggs and the fine print will read "Naturally and Artificially flavored".

Chickens are actually given a dye in their feed to make the yoke a specific colour. Different parts of the world prefer different coloured yokes.

[cloud]

Chickens are actually given a dye in there feed to make the yoke a specific colour. Different parts of the world prefer different coloured yokes.

Today I learned...

[helping]

SOYLET GREEN IS PEOPLE

 

Really, this is the only viable solutions. Either people stop f***ing and producing babies, we all starve, or we come up with a logical solution to mitigate the food shortage problem.

If you're thinking, "eww, GMO" or "eww, artificial food", obviously you've never been hungry and obviously you haven't seen the situation in 3rd world countries.

dis.

Globally we need negative population growth, and it's already happening in modern markets, however the burden  of a high population of old people and people living longer is making it seriously difficult and is an issue in practically every modern country. 

 

And third world/developing countries are still pumping kids out like crazy.

 

I plan on adopting instead of having children. We have too many fking kids, old people, and fkings kids having kids.  

[ChillKyle]

I don't like the idea of artificial foods. I like it to be natural.

[Yoinkerman]

We all know this one,

 

soylent green is actually people.

[EricX2]

My guess is the price of food is going to go up, not because of the 'synthetic' food but because of the cost of producing food will go up. If they can provide food that is synthetic but healthier than modern cheap food it could be better for us anyway. A lot of cheap food that is 'real' is so bad for us eating the packaging it comes in is healthier.

[mr moose]

Correct, mostly, my sister in law who is a horticulturalist and biological engineer was pointing out that the actual danger of GM food is no where near as bad as some make out. And that if the human race is to continue on it's current population growth curve not only is GM necessary but artificial and reclaimed foods are needed.  I have read other articles pointing out that there is enough farmland on earth to feed the current population if we were to swap to 100% organic foods however to sustain the growing population this has to be in conjunction with GM foods and the land has to be heavily managed to maintain it's effectiveness. Essentially the farming process with pesticides and artificial nitrogen fertilizers makes for easy plentiful crops, without those the land has to be very tightly managed or crops production can fall significantly.

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=organic-farming-yields-and-feeding-the-world-under-climate-change&page=2%C2'>

[Imabigmac]

"Real" meat isn't real meat anymore anyway. There will have to be a balance between GM foods and synthetic foods and "real" foods in order to sustain us. What I think we have to move away from is Fast food and heavily subsidized poor nutritional food like corn. Although one should ask if we don't produce enough food will our population actually grew or just die off to a sustainable level? 

[mr moose]

"Real" meat isn't real meat anymore anyway. There will have to be a balance between GM foods and synthetic foods and "real" foods in order to sustain us. What I think we have to move away from is Fast food and heavily subsidized poor nutritional food like corn. Although one should ask if we don't produce enough food will our population actually grew or just die off to a sustainable level? 

corn may not have many nutrients but it is a staple for fibre and carbohydrate like wheat.  It is still very necessary in our diet and there is not much that can match it.

[ChillKyle]

I eat organic when I can. I hate bill gates for trying to come out with this idea. He has no nutritional common sense.

[qwertywarrior]

[Imabigmac]

corn may not have many nutrients but it is a staple for fibre and carbohydrate like wheat.  It is still very necessary in our diet and there is not much that can match it.

Fair point but what I'm getting is that we use corn in so much stuff that has no value like soda, perhaps if we cut down on corn production by stopping using it in fuel, and as food for poor Africans the land to raise/grow food that's better for us and not have to resort to growing eggs from a tree. 

[mr moose]

Fair point but what I'm getting is that we use corn in so much stuff that has no value like soda, perhaps if we cut down on corn production by stopping using it in fuel, and as food for poor Africans the land to raise/grow food that's better for us and not have to resort to growing eggs from a tree. 

so eat it rather than use it to fuel cars or produce crap 1st world foods like coke. or better yet  just send it over to the poor nations so they at least have a staple carb on their table.

[Giggitygoebbels]

I will just eat noctua branded chocolates then.

[Sky Daddy]

I don't see why synthetic food would be any different than natural food.

All food is just chemical makeup, does everything we eat have to live and die for us to eat?

 

Synthetic food is the only way, not a combination of the two either.. Animals take too much land/energy to produce for food to feed the people on this planet. (and many still go without food)

[Imabigmac]

so eat it rather than use it to fuel cars or produce crap 1st world foods like coke. or better yet  just send it over to the poor nations so they at least have a staple carb on their table.

As you said its hard to find a replacement for corn so yes we do have eat it but not in the form of "First World Foods". If Gates is funding farming that uses less land then he must figure that we are using to much land and that there will not be enough for the future to sustain us, so why not stop growing a portion of corn that really is not needed and use that land for chicken instead of growing eggs on a tree. 

 

Maybe if North America stopped flooding Africa with corn grown on our soil Africans may actually be able to farm their own stuff again. Corn is made so cheaply available in third world countries the farmers there can't compete with the UN plane that flies in daily. 

[Imabigmac]

I don't see why synthetic food would be any different than natural food.

All food is just chemical makeup, does everything we eat have to live and die for us to eat?

 

Synthetic food is the only way, not a combination of the two either.. Animals take too much land/energy to produce for food to feed the people on this planet. (and many still go without food)

No we just manage our land terribly as well as our distribution systems. We also waste food and have an addiction to fast food. 

[Magic8Ball]

Might be applicable to this topic. Don't be so quick to judge. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy

[MbV93]

The Chinese should stop having babies for like 2 generations!

[Eroda]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDvSPQ7megQ

 

 

yummy