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NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

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Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#21

Post by ippisl »

mistercow wrote: post #5

I feel like hunger is much more likely to be solved with innovative economic thinking than with innovative engineering. We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is. That's not really the issue. The issue is getting the economics worked out so that we do grow enough food, and so that we can distribute it to everyone who needs it without breaking all of the economies.

the problem is that social solutions are much harder to implement than technological ones , and rarely do succeed.

But i've seen better solutions to this problem .one example is letting bacteria grow basic food elements at 10x less cost, like pronutria claims.another example is making high quality chicken substitute from soybean,which,depending on proces could be much cheaper than chicken.

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#22

Post by JonnieCache »

mistercow wrote: post #5

I feel like hunger is much more likely to be solved with innovative economic thinking than with innovative engineering. We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is. That's not really the issue. The issue is getting the economics worked out so that we do grow enough food, and so that we can distribute it to everyone who needs it without breaking all of the economies.

>We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is.

We already grow more than enough food, and have for a long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#23

Post by zevyoura »

ccallebs wrote: post #9

Food sustainability is my passion area. Although the technologist in me thinks this is an awesome endeavor, the sustainability advocate in me thinks this is a step in the wrong direction. Agriculture is an area that I think needs to stay relatively low-tech. However, the cultural boundaries preventing that are pretty massive.

Modern agriculture is very, very far from 'low-tech.'

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#24

Post by codeulike »

bokglobule wrote: post #16

Soylent green here we come... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

See also: http://www.soylent.me/ TLDR: Guy is living off a drink he formulated that provides all his nutritional needs. He's three months in.

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#25

Post by jvm »

mistercow wrote: post #5

I feel like hunger is much more likely to be solved with innovative economic thinking than with innovative engineering. We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is. That's not really the issue. The issue is getting the economics worked out so that we do grow enough food, and so that we can distribute it to everyone who needs it without breaking all of the economies.

To be fair, technology has allowed crop yields to grow considerably which has been credited with decreasing world hunger. Lower food prices is clearly a good thing, even though I agree more buying power for the world's poor would be better.

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#26

Post by DanI-S »

If anyone is interested by the edible insects concept touched upon here, check out our company Tiny Farms (http://www.tiny-farms.com). We're one of a handful of US companies doing real work in this area.

Alongside our research, tooling and outreach work, we've actually managed to feed Dave McClure a waxworm-filled Baklava: http://www.tiny-farms.com/2013/04/tiny-farms-in-zagat/

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#27

Post by leef »

mistercow wrote: post #5

I feel like hunger is much more likely to be solved with innovative economic thinking than with innovative engineering. We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is. That's not really the issue. The issue is getting the economics worked out so that we do grow enough food, and so that we can distribute it to everyone who needs it without breaking all of the economies.

The actual purpose of this project is to provide years-long space travelers with food. This makes sense. The bit about solving world hunger looks to be a side aspiration of the creator.

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#28

Post by tomjen3 »

mistercow wrote: post #5

I feel like hunger is much more likely to be solved with innovative economic thinking than with innovative engineering. We should be able to grow enough food for everyone as it is. That's not really the issue. The issue is getting the economics worked out so that we do grow enough food, and so that we can distribute it to everyone who needs it without breaking all of the economies.

The problem is that there economics is pretty simple, so there isn't much that can be invented here: you want the people who are currently starving to produce more stuff that others want to buy so that they can buy food for themselves and their family.

Economic innovations won't help with that, but engineering ones might.

Or just remove the trade barriers with Africa and start buying from them like we do with the Chinese.

Re: NASA grants $125K to create a prototype of a universal food synthesizer

#30

Post by tomjen3 »

obviouslygreen wrote: post #13
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this! People keep trying to solve a problem they don't understand, that doesn't really exist. We have enough food in the World to feed our population. Countries like North Korea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Congo have starvation problems not from a lack of food in this World but from monsters running their government that won't allow their people the freedom to live their lives. In spite of a growing population, farm lan…

Politics aside, there's an appalling amount of food waste in developed countries. It's certainly not as simple as "send all the not-pretty produce to Africa" or "ship all the no-longer-perfectly-fresh bread to North Korea," but there is a huge potential target for reducing what we throw away and getting it to people who need it. The major problem, of course, is interfering with people's lifestyles, if only in margina…

You just touched all of my buttons wrt food and economics here.

First of all, just because food isn't used doesn't mean it is wasted. I don't like to go to the store all the time so I buy more food than I may end up using -- but I still consider it worth it.

Second there is not an limited amount of food in the world and there is no reason we have to cut down on our use in order to feed hungry Africans -- we can, as GP correctly pointed out -- feed the entire world.

At this point the only reason there is hunger anywhere in the world is bad governments and failed states -- Haiti is hell on earth (and has been before the recent earthquake), but it borders the Dominican republic, which is much better (if still far from the western world), NK is the worst place on earth with street urchins scavenging for single kernels of rice in animal dung, SK, which it borders, is a pretty good place to live and has basically no starvation.

It is one country today, but the same difference (albit to a lesser degree) could be seen between East and West Germany.

Finally, take the recent hunger situation in Africa -- people had to walk miles through the desert, leaving their dead and dying children behind in the sand because they couldn't carry them. They had to walk until they came out of Somalia and entered Kenya where they would receive held and food -- because the warlords of Somalia didn't allow the food aid into the country as they believed it was a western emperialist attempt to make Islam look bad.

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