Finnish scientists are working on an innovative protein source. (In case you didn’t want to click the link: Scientists Are Making Protein Meal From Cotwoother common elements, electricity [which could come from solar]and bacteria) This process, if successful and scalable, promises some degree of protection against disruption to agriculture due to climate change:
I hope that this, or something like it, can eventually replace much of modern agriculture, since, according to my math, I think food is currently the number one need that it is, it’s no surprise that sci-fi authors have based plots . about new ways of eating. Do you want to guess how many examples follow?
The food of the gods and how it came to earth by H.G. Wells (1904)
Visionary chemist Mr. Bensington, along with equally visionary Professor Redwood, gifts a long-suffering world with herakleophorbia IV, a chemical additive that vastly amplifies animal growth. The couple had very specific applications in mind for their creation (British children will be like gods, rising above their elders!), but thanks to sloppy containment procedures, the benefits of herakleophorbia IV have spread throughout history. food chain. Welcome to a brave new world of giant chickens and foot-long wasps.
Unwanted vermin issues aside, Wells takes a curiously pessimistic view of the gap between glorious vision and actual implementation. A giant youth society sounds like a society, but accommodating forty foot tall people in a community designed for six foot people will be challenging, to say the least.
space traders by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth (1953)
While Pohl and Kornbluth’s satire focuses primarily on a world where exuberant, ad-driven capitalism has been freed from any kind of caution or reason, food production features in a memorable sequence. While in hiding, fugitive stellar class editor Mitch Courtenay finds himself tending to Chicken Little, “a rubbery gray-brown hemisphere (of chicken meat) about fifteen yards in diameter.” Chicken Little is a vital source of protein for “people from Baffinland to Little America.” Hooray for progress!
Chicken Little was inspired by Dr. Alexis Carrol’s famous chicken heart experiment, in which Carrol kept the chicken heart in a jar of his own design for over twenty years. Or at least he said that he did. No one has been able to replicate his experiment. Sad news for all of us craving a VW Beetle-sized piece of chicken tumor.
“Food of the Gods” by Arthur C. Clarke (1964)
Synthetic foods freed humans from dependence on agriculture. Scientists were able to replicate traditional foods, even invent tasty new ones. But if there are moral reasons not to eat certain foods (for example, foie gras), is it moral to eat synthetic foie gras? Are there foods that are even more taboo? Should there be laws against synthetic taboo foods? (I’m doing my best not to give away any spoilers.)
Clarke’s case for synthetic foods may seem unconvincing at first glance, but the math is In contrast to the invention of Bensington and Redwood (and actually quite a bit of science fiction, where the correct reaction to any innovation is to run screaming ), the synths work precisely as intended. The only problem with this particular implementation is a simple marketing problem.
Yummy in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui (2014)
While exploring one of the labyrinthine dungeons that dot his world, Laios and his friends are attacked by a red dragon. They are saved by Laios’ sister, Falin. Even as she herself was being consumed, Falin teleported her brother and her friends to safety. She can still save Falin…if the party can track down the dragon, slay it, and resurrect Falin before she’s fully digested. The sticking point is food, of which the group has little. Or maybe they are surrounded by plenty of food, if they can count the monsters in the dungeon as food.
No matter how cataclysmic the events in each volume of this ongoing manga, the author always finds time to detail how precisely the group cooks their last meal. To read this fantasy adventure manga is to be perpetually hungry.
Without food by Sarah Tolmie (2015)
Total gastric bypass freed the wealthy from the demands on their digestive systems. They feed by alternative means and no longer need to consume real food. Is this the end of high-end restaurants? Not if you believe the visionaries behind the signature restaurant known as NoFood.
This collection of satirical pieces explores a world where the rich get what they want even if it’s not a good idea. Isn’t that the world we should all be working towards?
***
I’m sure there are other works that mention alternative nutrition. If you know of any noteworthy examples, please mention them in the comments… which, as always, are below.
In the words of fanfiction author Musty181four-time Hugo finalist, prolific book critic and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll “looks like a default mii with glasses.” His work has appeared in Interzone, Publishers Weekly and the Romantic Times, as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis) and the Aurora Prize 2021 and 2022 finalist Young people read old SFF (where he is assisted by web person Adrienne L. Travis). Your Patreon It can be found here.
