Water, air and electricity are able to feed a person — according to the Agency for Advanced Defense Projects (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense, which announced the launch of the Cornucopia project ("Cornucopia").
"Cornucopia strives to produce from air, water and electricity — with minimal additives - a number of nutritious products of microbial origin that have a pleasant taste and provide full nutrition for military purposes, from troops in harsh conditions to civilians and military personnel during humanitarian aid and natural disasters. Recent advances in microbiology, genetic sequencing, bioactive hybrid materials, and electrochemical synthesis of three-carbon or more compounds have brought us to the point where we can take this bold step," said Molly Yang, program manager at DARPA.
American soldiers eat pizza from the army "suhpay"
Image source: army.mil
DARPA points out that there is nothing new in feeding microbes. People eat trillions of microbes every day, and their bodies contain kilograms of microbial biomass. Many companies have already demonstrated the ability to create products of microbial origin - primarily based on protein. Then it was presented as an opportunity to feed people with minimal costs and in order to reduce land use as a result of crop production.
The Cornucopia program is planned to be built on these commercial technologies, but with a number of improvements — the creation of microbial food should include not only proteins, but also fats, carbohydrates and dietary fibers "in the form of safe, delicious foods with different flavors and textures."
The result of the DARPA program should be a portable Cornucopia system that will convert electricity, air and water into simple molecules that can be used as energy sources to convert carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen from air and water into more microbes that produce food molecules.
Earlier, DARPA proposed turning plastic waste into edible proteins.
