Continuing yesterday’s loose theme of Food and the 1960s, Paleo-Future treats us to a glimpse of what scientists circa 1964 envisioned for our culinary future:
The general consensus seemed to be that “food”—a word that was already beginning to sound old-fashioned—was destined to break its surly bonds to Nature, float free of agriculture and hitch its future to Technology. If not literally served in a pill, the meal of the future would be fabricated “in the laboratory out of a wide variety of materials,” as one contemporary food historian predicted, including not only algae and soybeans but also petrochemicals. Protein would be extracted directly from fuel oil and then “spun and woven into ‘animal’ muscle—long wrist-thick tubes of ‘fillet steak.’ “
Yum! Petrochemicals and fuel oil? We were in for such a treat! And my stomach is already grumbling at the thought of those delicious “wrist-thick tubes.”
Note: I was going to insert a picture here of the first photo that Google Image Search turned up for “wrist-thick tubes,” but as you might imagine, they weren’t exactly savory, food-related or safe for work.
she eats. 