Lab-grown food is about to destroy farming – and save the planet | George Monbiot

Lab-grown food is about to destroy farming – and save the planet | George Monbiot

Written by George Monbiot

Scientists are replacing crops and livestock with food made from microbes and water. It may save humanity’s bacon

It sounds like a miracle, but no great technological leaps were required. In a commercial lab on the outskirts of Helsinki, I watched scientists turn water into food. Through a porthole in a metal tank, I could see a yellow froth churning. It’s a primordial soup of bacteria, taken from the soil and multiplied in the laboratory, using hydrogen extracted from water as its energy source. When the froth was siphoned through a tangle of pipes and squirted on to heated rollers, it turned into a rich yellow flour.

Related: 'This is the farming of the future': the rise of hydroponic food labs

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[JP1]

What if it fails George ?

 

[Werzle]

Put yellow frothy bacteria soup on the package and its bound to sell! Utter nonsense.

 

[will_mck]

Frankenstein "Food" yum yum! Sounds very healthy and nutritious for you! This is nature at work is it? And I'm sure this new Petri dish cuisine has absolutely no negative consequences for anybody's health what so ever. I suppose you can't blame Channel 4 for trying to get a return on their investment in this unnatural factory "food" product somehow

 

[sjt01]

Follow the energy - where does the energy to run these food factories come from? Oil? Nuclear? Arable crops and grassland are very effective energy gathering and storage systems, which would have to be replicated to power any food generation system.

 

[Dry Rot]

At last, they are going to give the consumer exactly what he wants! Cheap tasteless food!

 

[tepapa]

Surely this needs an 'under cover' documentary on how the establishment plan to produce fake food in large industrial factories to poison you with chemicals.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Why exactly does The Guardian want to come on TFF and push their story about the destruction of British Farming?

I'm sure there will be a surge of 'support the Guardian'.

If they had a decent journalist who would highlight the huge number of flaws in Mr Monbiot's agenda and the true story of how the conglomerates want to control food supplies, maybe there would be.

 

[JP1]

Why exactly does The Guardian want to come on TFF and push their story about destroying British Farming?

I'm sure there will be a surge of 'support the Guardian'.

If they had a decent journalist who would highlight the huge number of flaws in Mr Monbiot's agenda and the true story of how the conglomerates want to control food supplies, maybe there would be.

I seem to remember The Guardian are one of TFF's news feeds as opposed to them pushing anything. Most don't go that noticed in the news feed thread and generally get commented on only when somebody (me in this case) posts on the thread.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I seem to remember The Guardian are one of TFF's news feeds as opposed to them pushing anything. Most don't go that noticed in the news feed thread and generally get commented on only when somebody (me in this case) posts on the thread.

It says "new member" and hovering over the avatar gives;
[IMG alt="The Guardian RSS"]https://d1hu4133i4rt3z.cloudfront.net/avatars/m/78/78390.jpg?1509013850[/IMG]
The Guardian RSS
New Member
Joined Oct 26, 2017
Last seen Oct 26, 2017


Which gave me the impression they were trolling!
Have looked at their postings I see it entirely fits in with them posting anything that is farming related.
My point still stands though.

 

[PSQ]

I suppose you can't blame Channel 4 for trying to get a return on their investment in this unnatural factory "food" product somehow

A very interesting point, I'd forgotten that C4 had invested heavily in 'Franken Food' production, no wonder they're so keen to wheel out George Monbiot at every opportunity to attack and undermine their competitors conventional farming.

Does anyone have a link to C4's holdings?

 

[Jackov Altraids]

What when it fails George ?

I've corrected that for you.

 

[davidroberts30]

I seem to remember The Guardian are one of TFF's news feeds as opposed to them pushing anything. Most don't go that noticed in the news feed thread and generally get commented on only when somebody (me in this case) posts on the thread.

f**king guardian

I'm blocking them

 

[GeorgeK]

We have now gone from "produce food with less chemicals" to "produce food entirely out of chemicals". Can't win really can we

 

[Scribus]

Lab-grown food is about to destroy farming – and save the planet | George Monbiot

Written by George Monbiot

Scientists are replacing crops and livestock with food made from microbes and water. It may save humanity’s bacon

It sounds like a miracle, but no great technological leaps were required. In a commercial lab on the outskirts of Helsinki, I watched scientists turn water into food. Through a porthole in a metal tank, I could see a yellow froth churning. It’s a primordial soup of bacteria, taken from the soil and multiplied in the laboratory, using hydrogen extracted from water as its energy source. When the froth was siphoned through a tangle of pipes and squirted on to heated rollers, it turned into a rich yellow flour.

Related: 'This is the farming of the future': the rise of hydroponic food labs

Continue reading...

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. Support the Guardian – it only takes a minute. Thank you.

Yer man has lost the plot.

 

[JP1]

We have now gone from "produce food with less chemicals" to "produce food entirely out of chemicals". Can't win really can we

And 'we don't want factory farming' to 'lets produce food in a factory'.

 

[JP1]

 

[Scribus]

A very interesting point, I'd forgotten that C4 had invested heavily in 'Franken Food' production, no wonder they're so keen to wheel out George Monbiot at every opportunity to attack and undermine their competitors conventional farming.

Does anyone have a link to C4's holdings?

Which is exactly what I've been pointing to in the personal transit business. Autonomous and electric vehicles are feck all to do with saving the planet, it's all about big money and big tech muscling in on other sectors of the economy which is precisely what we are seeing here.

 

[Scribus]

So TFF, as rampant cheerleaders for the great technological revolution what's the considered response to your darling baby trying to close down farming completely?

 

[JP1]

So TFF, as rampant cheerleaders for the great technological revolution what's the considered response to your darling baby trying to close down farming completely?

Are you alright? Serious question