Ideas about how to reform agriculture to make it less destructive vary widely, ranging from organic farming and eating less meat to engineering crops genetically to make them more productive and less susceptible to pests. Replacing animals with lab grown meat is even on the table.

Over the past five years a more radical idea has emerged: growing hydrogen-oxidising bacteria for human consumption. These bacteria consume hydrogen for energy and carbon dioxide to make biomass.

The plan is to combine the existing technologies of water electrolysis, bacteria fermentation, and atmospheric carbon dioxide capture to grow vast amounts of bacterial biomass using renewable electricity, essentially taking the strategy of ecosystem modification to its ultimate form.

That is, humans taking over responsibility for capturing sunlight to split water and growing food in a completely artificially environment.

The resulting edible biomass is a protein-rich yellow powder that reportedly tastes like wheat. As George Monbiot reported for The Guardian in 2020, the substance could replace the feedstock necessary for animal agriculture or fillers in common food products; it could be the building blocks for artificial meat, milk, and eggs, or a substitute flour in pancakes or pasta.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.