When
buying a 30-pound bag of food for my dog, I sometimes wish I could also buy a
bag of people food for myself that would last a month. I love trying new foods, and I usually enjoy
cooking, but every so often, I get tired of having to think about food and wish
I could just scoop out two cups of kibble for myself twice a day. This would save me from having to plan meals,
buy groceries, prepare meals, and clean up after them.
Rob
Rhinehart feels the same away about food, so he's created people food that he
calls Soylent, after the 1973 film
"Soylent Green.” He’s the founder of a failed wireless communications
company, not a nutritionist, but after researching nutrition and biochemistry
for several months, he compiled a list of ingredients that he hoped would
provide all the nutrients he needed to survive, blended them together into a
milk-like drink, and has spent several months consuming nothing but
Soylent. Regular blood tests confirm
that he’s healthy, he now spends $150 on a food a month compared to the $500+
he spent before creating Soylent, and the U.S. military is now interested in
potentially using Soylent to feed soldiers.
Some dietitians and nutrients have criticized Soylent, particularly for
its “one-size-fits-all approach” to nutrition, and the spokesman for the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics tried it and said, “It tastes
terrible.” Despite these criticisms, Rhinehart
is planning to mass produce Soylent and hopes to begin selling it soon.
I’ll
definitely be trying it, and even if it tastes terrible, so does most
toothpaste, and I still brush three times a day, so maybe eating could become
like brushing one’s teeth. I suspect that if it’s ever marketed to a wide audience, ways would be found to
improve Soylent’s taste. I doubt,
however, that Soylent would be widely adopted, unless, of course, we ran out of
food, which is what happens in “Soylent Green.”
Overpopulation and pollution have wiped out most of Earth’s species, so
the remaining humans survive on a cakelike substance known as “Soylent Green.” Officially, it’s made from algae and
plankton, but by the end of the movie, we learn that it’s actually made from
human bodies. From a strictly utilitarian
perspective, in a world where food is scarce, it makes sense to use dead bodies
as food rather than wasting them by burying them in the ground, but it’s very unlikely
that the general public would ever accept this, so the substance’s true ingredients
are kept secret.
If
we ever reach the point where Earth runs out of food, Rhinehart’s creation
might save us, but in the meantime, what would it mean for the future of eating
for those of us who are receptive to Soylent?
Would we be richer and more productive?
Would we still want snacks? Would
we be healthier? Would our social lives
suffer from not sharing meals with friends, family, and co-workers? Would we produce white piss and shit? Unless the mass-produced version of Soylent
has an irresistible flavor, I’ll probably continue my current eating habits,
and consume Soylent only when I don’t want to think about food. It’s also possible that after one sip of
Soylent, I’ll pour the rest down the drain, be thankful I don’t have to eat
like a dog, and order a pizza.
