Soylent: From Science Fiction Horror to Food of the Future.

To many who have seen the 1973 Movie "Soylent Green", the idea of any food supplement carrying that moniker might make the stomach churn, but one Silicon Valley twenty-something might be on the verge of a new period in food production and nutrition.

Rob Rhinehart was stressed about money and how much was spent on non-nutritional "cheap" food. He wanted the best of both worlds: inexpensive and healthy.
He cracked open a few textbooks, did his research, and came up with Soylent, a meal supplement meant to be perfectly balanced to what the human body truly needs to survive.
According to his website "Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort."

So, what's in Soylent? Well, for one, I can assure you it's not people:

http://www.soylent.me/#/

While Rhinehart means for this food to be a supplement for days when food is more a utility than an event or function (going out to dinner rather than eating a bowl of instant ramen) the implications of this are immense. Not because it marks the end of food and dining, but because it marks the beginning of the attack on hunger.

Imagine: inexpensive macro-nutritional shakes being giving to developing countries that are crippled by malnutrition and poverty. Plumpy'Nut is a good example of this sort of macro-nutritional food for the malnourished, which is given to children. In the case of Soylent, the shake is drunk slowly over the course of a day, eliminating food prep and the need for three square meals.

As of now, the Soylent drink does lead to some digestive discomfort if immediately switched to as a person's main food source, but by slowly mixing it in with one's normal dietary habits, it should relieve these problems. Critics point towards the fact that Rhinehart has no degree nor background in nutrition, and as of yet his claims have not been scientifically substantiated.

This hasn't stopped millions of dollars being flooded into Soylent by multiple backers and hundreds of customers.

If not Soylent, why not others that are similar? If not by a young computer programmer in Silicon Valley, why not a scientist in a lab? The future of macro-nutritional meals might be right on top of us.

Is Soylent the beginning of a new era of food security? We'll have to wait and see.

Sources:
http://www.soylent.me/#/
http://blog.soylent.me/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/soylent-documentary_n_4266853.html
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soylent-no-food-for-30-days
http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/10/soylent-is-the-food-of-the-future-really-a-nutrition-solution/#ixzz2kIN5wrrK
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/09/soylent-beverage_n_5296329.html
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/12/the-end-of-food