Talk:Synfood
If i understand correctly this is being currently used for Animal Feed / Fish Feed .
Main limits are Cultural Acceptance (Ie all those “That’s Messing with Nature/Playing God” / “Non-GMO” types + the “They will make us eat bugs” types) (Also just as with any Protein Powder or Yeast Extract etc, short of if you know how to mix it up right / make something good with it, it can taste very nasty.
I think the use of Precision Fermentation to make High Value Products (Such as Essential Oils for scents/flavors, or things like Vanillin or Cinamaldahyde etc, or even a Drop In Replacement for Olive Oil or something etc could help it catch on
ALTERNATIVELY if used to make a drop in replacement for Palm Oil (as one company may be doing, need to document it), or things such as “Less Scary Sounding/Hated Substitutes for MSG “ Such as Yeast Extract etc or other ingredients used in the food industry + proper networking with them, that could have it catch on, albeit in a less fun, and moreso Food Desert kind of way.
A middle of the road kind of neat situation would be someone making a “killer app” of a Plant Based Milk Alternative / Engineered Meat Alternative (Mainly for Ground Beef, Italian Sausage, “Cheesesteak Meat” / Lunchmeat, and Broths/Soups). This way you aren’t setting yourself up for failure by competing with a steak etc, BUT if made “good enough” and CHEAP (plus getting past taboos, which admittedly is far harder) you could Decarbonize + Remove Cruel Conventional Mass Scaled Up CAFO etc Industrial Animal Agriculture leaving behind a few chill people doing small scale Intensive Rotational Grazing / being the stereotypical picturesque peaceful farm etc for the few luxury items, but all “normal” food / people getting Fast Food burgers or tacos etc would not be reliant on IAA
A final sort of achievable use, which would be really neat, but sadly unlikely (At least here in the USA) would be scaling it up for Disaster Preparedness / Emergency Response a la Feeding Everyone No Matter What . Unlike fanatical “Colonize Mars” talk by Elon et al, along with other aspects of a National Disaster Preparedness Program (as well as Nuclear + Conventional Arms Control + Peace Processes / Defense Pacts etc, although easier said than done!) (Plus small scale ICBM Interceptors and Planetary Protection Stuff (ie those Sky Surveys + Something Derived from DART/Seeing it Early and Spray Painting one side reflective like a Solar Sail etc, not the Hollywood Solution lol) would be a (comparatively) affordable.
Also TO AN EXTENT could help with MRE / RUTF Production/Stockpiling Logistics, although those are largely handled by Conventional Agriculture (and thus also tied up with the politics of Farm Bills / Agricultural Export Market stuff + lobbying etc so that’s a whole can of worms)
All in all though neat tech, and as always if/when the tech is developed in an open source manner it gets more people using it/working on in!