Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: September 23, 2024
Microbe-fermented protein, "food from thin air," is coming to America!
Solein, a microbe-fermented protein powder that’s essentially “food from thin air,” is moving towards approval.
Tell U.S. newspapers to report more on Solein and the amazing potential of microbe-fermented protein!
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Reasons For Hope
An incredibly epic revolution in food production has reached a major milestone. Solein, a pioneering microbe-fermented protein invented by Finnish startup Solar Foods, is moving towards commercialization and sales in the United States. As of September 2024, Solar Foods has compiled enough research to qualify Solein powder for self-affirmed GRAS [Generally Recognized As Safe] status, a step towards regulatory approval for being sold in the USA. The next step is to register their Factory 01 with the U.S. FDA, and hopefully then to start sales by the end of this year.
For context, in early 2024, Solar Foods turned on their Factory 01 for the first time, which they estimate will ramp up their microbe-brewed protein powder Solein to a whopping 160 tons per year. That’s a big deal, because producing one kilogram of Solein uses just 1% as much water and 5% as much arable land as an equivalent amount of plant protein, while emitting just one-fifth as much carbon. And Factory 01 is making it happen at unprecedented scale; they will produce the same amount of protein per day as a 300-cow dairy farm! Lessons learned from this project will soon inform the construction of a much bigger Factory 02.
It’s hard to overstate what a truly amazing technological advance this is. Solein is formed by microbial fermentation (similarly to how beer is brewed) with electricity, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, and small quantities of key nutrients as the only inputs.
“Factory 01 demonstrates it is possible to grow protein from start to finish under one roof, year-round even in the harsh Northern conditions of Finland – and to do it all sustainably and in a commercially viable manner.”
-Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka
The final product is described as a powder resembling turmeric and tasting like “a light, nutty mix of cashews and almonds,” capable of being used as an enriching ingredient in almost anything, from gelato to noodles to snack bars. It consists of “65-70% protein, 5-8% fat, 10-15% dietary fibres and 3-5% mineral nutrients,” a profile similar to soy. In other words, Solein is the first time in human history when edible calories have been produced and eaten without photosynthesis providing some of the energy, and now it’s being produced at an industrial scale.
If this technology continues to scale up- and it really looks like it could - then humanity has within its grasp the technological means to very possibly ensure that no one is ever forced to go hungry for lack of food, ever again. We probably could have done that eventually just by continuing our progress in agriculture, but this might make it a lot easier and faster. Spectacular work!
If we get enough people excited about this before it hits the market, maybe we can help protect microbe-fermented proteins from being attacked by Big Ag the way cell-cultivated clean meat has been. The future of food could be incredibly clean and abundant - let’s give it a chance to happen.
I’m not big AG, and I love your Substack, but I’m 100% against factory engineered food. There is a symbiotic relationship between life forms and the other life forms they eat. It’s a complex and poorly understood relationship. A relationship co-developed over millennia. The consequences of subverting that relationship are unknown. It’s anthropocentrism at its worst.