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Finnish company making food of the future out of thin air

Heidi Lux
08.09.19

A new report from the United Nations warns that climate change is threatening to shrink our global food supply. Extreme weather such as droughts and floods plus our own exploitation of natural resources might prevent the human race from being able to feed itself. The report also shows we are losing soil between 10 and 100 times faster than soil is forming. But one company in Finland might have found the solution.

Start-up company Solar Foods is ready if the day ever comes where we finally consume all of our resources thanks to a new protein powder they've created based on a concept by NASA. The company pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by using carbon capture technology, then adds water, nutrients, vitamins, and electricity to the CO2, triggering a fermentation process that's not too different from beer, according to CNN. The finished result is a white, powdery, high-protein substance known as Solein.

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Solein sounds like the food of the future that we've seen in science fiction movies. It looks kind of like flour, and just like flour, can be turned into other foods. It can also be used to boost protein in current foods without making it taste any different, just in case the idea of eating raw protein powder sounds unappealing.

Solar Foods claims Solein is the "most environmentally friendly food there is," and it might live up to those claims. Since Solein is literally pulled out of thin air, it doesn't consume natural resources. The carbon-neutral process removes CO2 from the atmosphere instead of releasing it. It also doesn't have the same limitations as agriculture and it's not as problematic for the environment as the meat industry. And while certain crops can only grow in certain environments, air is everywhere. According to Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka, Solein would allow us to "disconnect food production from agriculture," he told Food and Wine.

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Because Solein can be made from the air we breathe, it gives us options. If resources like land and water become scarce, we can still have food thanks to Solein. If we have to completely abandon the wasteland we've turned the Earth into and live in space, Solein can feed us there, too.

What's the future of this futuristic protein? Solar Foods wants to start selling Solein by 2021, with the aim to produce two million meals made from the product, Dezeen reports. The company is applying for a novel food license from the EU so that it can go into commercial production. Solar Foods envisions Solein as an environmentally sustainable plant-based meat alternative and wants to use it to boost the protein in other meat-alternatives, like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger.

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Innovation

Pizza guy whose quick thinking saved a woman's life gets the reward of a lifetime

WITI Milwaukee

Joey Grundl, a pizza delivery driver for a Domino's Pizza in Waldo, Wisconsin, is being hailed as a hero for noticing a kidnapped woman's subtle cry for help.

The delivery man was sent to a woman's house to deliver a pie when her ex-boyfriend, Dean Hoffman, opened the door. Grundl looked over his shoulder and saw a middle-aged woman with a black eye standing behind Hoffman. She appeared to be mouthing the words: "Call the police."

"I gave him his pizza and then I noticed behind him was his girlfriend," Grundl told WITI Milwaukee. "She pointed to a black eye that was quite visible. She mouthed the words, 'Call the police.'"

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Airport security worker fired after giving traveler 'You Ugly' note


Rochester NY Airport Security passing insulting notes to travelers caught on tape www.youtube.com

Neil Strassner was just passing through airport security, something he does on a weekly basis as part of his job. That's when a contract airport security employee handed him a small piece of folded cardboard. Strassner, 40, took the paper and continued on his way. He only paused when he heard the security employee shouting back at him, "You going to open the note?"

When he unfolded the small piece of paper, Strassner was greeted with an unprompted insult. "You ugly!!!"

According to Strassner, and in newly released CCTV of the incident, the woman who handed him the note began laughing loudly.

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popular

A single dad became an internet hero after taking a cosmetology lesson to style his daughter's hair

What if the tables were turned?


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A post on the Murdered by Words subreddit is going viral for the perfect way a poster shut down a knee-jerk "double-standard!" claim.

It began when a Redditor posted a 2015 Buzzfeed article story about a single dad who took cosmetology lessons to learn how to do his daughter's hair.

Most people would see the story as something positive. A dad goes out of his way to learn a skill that makes his daughter look fabulous.

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Lifestyle

West Virginia coal miners are getting retrained as beekeepers to boost the economy and the environment

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Coal mining is on the decline, leaving many coal miners in West Virginia without jobs. The Mine Safety and Health Administration says there are about 55,000 positions, and just 13,000 of those jobs are in West Virginia. The dwindling amount of work is leaving some struggling to make a living, but the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective is giving those coal miners a way to find new jobs and make a supplemental income as coal mining diminishes.

The Appalachian Beekeeping Collective trains coal miners and other low-income residents in mining communities to keep bees. Some coal miners are getting retrained to work in the tech industry, however beekeeping allows coal miners to continue to work in a job that requires a similar skill set. "The older folks want to get back to work, but mining is never going to be like it was in the '60s and '70s, and there is nothing to fall back on, no other big industries here, so all of these folks need retraining," former coal miner James Scyphers told NPR. "Beekeeping is hands-on work, like mining, and requires on-the-job training. You need a good work ethic for both."

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Business

In Florida, it was illegal to have a vegetable garden in your front lawn. This couple fought back and won.

Photo by Stella de Smit on Unsplash

There was once a time in Florida where you could park your boat in your front lawn, but you were SOL if you wanted to grow squash and lettuce there. However, thanks to one Miami Shores couple, that's about to change.

Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll had been growing a front yard garden for 17 years, but in 2013, Miami Shores changed its city ordinance, making the activity illegal. The new city ordinance said that backyard vegetable gardens were a-OK, but Ricketts and Carroll couldn't keep a garden in their backyard because it didn't get enough sun. So the couple could either dig up their garden or face $50 in daily fines for letting it continue to grow. The couple opted to do neither and instead, they sued the city.

Ricketts and Carroll took their case to the Florida Supreme Court. Initially, the courts sided with Miami Shores, but the fight wasn't over. Florida State Senator Rob Bradley introduced legislation preventing "a county or municipality from regulating vegetable gardens on residential properties." Earlier this year, the Senate passed the bill 35-5.

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