Forecast #4: "The End of Food"- Soylent

"The End of Food" 

Soylent Website Link

Soylent: Liquid nutrition that is sustainable enough to live off of alone. 

This article is about a few guys that got together to start their own technology/ software company. When that failed, took all their money and left them living only on Ramen, cost-co taco rolls and gas station food they tried to find something new to live off of. One of the men decided he was tired of purchasing low-income/ little money food options. He wanted to only buy the key nutrients that his body survived off of. Example: Protein, calcium, carbohydrates, key vitamins and minerals etc. 

The end of food to some may seem like a wise choice. Soylent is quick, easy and gets you all the nutrients you need. But in my opinion the end of food is a much bigger issue than just the nutrients going into our bodies. People don't realize how much food and social settings around food, bring people, and cultures closer together. 

Bullet Answers:

1.) Global: Globally if we only turned to Soylent, or liquid meals, global trade of goods, would change drastically. Think about everything from farmers in the fields, production lines, thousands of jobs, and how we conduct business.

Nationally: America runs on food, and socialization. Look at Instagram people can't seem to eat a beautiful meal without first having the desire to share it. Instead food, fast "food" chains would sell different cups of sludge with different calorie content and flavors. Basically, instead of a Starbucks or Caribou on every corner, now this liquid matter would be everywhere. 

Locally: Hundreds of farmers would most likely have to cut their supply and demand down by at least 70%. Barley enough to sustain their own family off of. Farmers markets and all growing/ sharing markets would shut down completely. 

2.) The greatest positive outcome I see from Soylent is helping to feed the poor/ homeless. If we could bring this product to third world countries where they would give anything to have a meal, we could change lives dramatically. Soylent could also be used as a replacement for feeding tubes in eating disorder cases. Helping patients get used to a physical (in this case liquid) substance being ingested orally, vs having the tube placed through your nose and into your stomach. 

The greatest negative outcome would be no more physical food at all. A "restaurant" is where you walk into something that looks (what I imagine) somewhat like a pharmacy to order your "meal" again, this is just another human connection/ interaction we are taking away. Imagine how a first date would go… yikes. 

This fits under almost all the tech's in my opinion. Food is SUCH a huge subject across the board. 

Questions:

1.) How do you see yourself fitting in, in this society that runs on a liquid diet?

2.) How would our teeth be effected? When you don't use your teeth do you lose them?

3.) What jobs do you see being created or destroyed by this kind of change??