The food of the future

The food of the future by Hans Dominik is a story from the genre of future literature .

The food of the future is a technical-scientific future story, which was printed in 1907 in the annual book series: " The New Universe ". It appeared there on pp. 335–356, divided into eight subsections.

Short summary

This story tells the solution to the food problem of the future . The focus is on solving scientific and technical problems, with chemistry ultimately providing the solution. The view from 1907 and the ideas on how to try to create solutions are interesting. Also of great interest are the many predictions that have come true one way or another.

Detailed table of contents

The action is set towards the end of the twentieth century. It begins in a grammar school , where the pupils are supposed to provide information on the development of humans from gatherers and hunters up to the present day, and where the food supply of crucial importance for the further development of mankind emerges. In the discussion in the school class it quickly becomes clear that it is not possible to provide mankind with enough food using traditional methods . Then it is described how two boys drive into the country and experience the new agriculture with their future machines. (From the point of view of 1907, for example, a combine harvester, a plow with a fertilizer machine, various harvesting machines, a weeding machine and a seeder are described, which are now part of everyday life in a somewhat modified form . It should be of great interest how exactly Dominik die Technology describes and how technology is today. Furthermore, the fuel problem is addressed, which can be solved by forest use ( trees - cellulose - alcohol ) or direct chemical production. Then an experiment in the field of organic chemistry is described in the school Cellulose in connection with electrical current and magnetism to produce strength . A transition from mechanical to industrial production of food is portrayed, in the scenario factories are finally built all over the country to secure the food supply of mankind Story goes on for years and it gets called problem solving ser (another safe food supply) describes the manufacture of starch; Since the forest is no longer sufficient to supply the starch factories, wood is being switched to Indian cellulose plants. In two years the plants grow over two meters and are arm thick and you can use the leaves as fodder and the trunks are used as cellulose suppliers), because these can be grown in fields. Other organic substances are also used to produce cellulose, such as straw as waste from grain production or peat . There is already speculation that starch will be extracted from coal . One of the two boys is now going to university , time moves forward by 5 years. The former teacher, who received a professorship through his experiments, teaches there. Bunsen. Here you can witness an experiment in the university laboratory , with the help of electricity (inductor), ether waves, rays, direct current (pulsating), carbonic acid , water and chlorophyll , a carbohydrate , starch, is created. Many attempts were necessary before success finally occurred. The use of coal (also the waste products of coal energy generation could now be recycled - carbon dioxide, clean electricity plants ) for starch production was successful. And the decisive sentence from Prof. Dr. Bunsen is pronounced:

" Science will feed all who today still have to remain hungry at the table of life."

A few years later the invention is refined and has achieved the big breakthrough, agriculture is changing, there is more livestock, some of which is fed on starch. Humanity is prosperous and doing well. The former student of Prof. Dr. Bunsen begins to work on his doctoral thesis (chemistry), but before that they visit the other former student who went to his father's farm. The old former inspector is retired and the farm machinery (which he was so proud of) has disappeared, he is sad and does not trust chemistry, he wants to keep eating natural foods. The professor then proves to the former inspector that there is only coal in his natural flour. Then meat is also broken down into its chemical compounds, which of course the old inspector doesn't like at all. This is supposed to prove that all natural substances are based on chemical compounds and that all kinds of food can be produced chemically if you only research long enough. The student who studies chemistry got his PhD. The subsequent history explains the chemical structure of substances (molecules, atoms) and the problems of chemistry in research, and the first successes of chemistry in the very early 20th century are described (chemical production of indigo dye from tar, first successes in Chemical Protein Production - Peptins and Peptones). Then the future of protein research will be reported (chicken protein, later blood and meat). Finally, the former student who is now a PhD in chemistry makes an artificial hen's egg (egg white, egg yolk, shell) to later give to the old retired inspector. The young doctor of chemistry visits the farm again, as does the old inspector, and hands him the artificial hen's egg, who, as always, is very skeptical about artificial foods. The philosophical question arises that there is a difference between artificial strength and z. B. gives a grain, new grain can grow from the grain, but not from artificial starch, it is the same with the artificial protein and the natural chicken egg. (After hatching, a chick hatches and there are also different breeds of chickens with different characteristics.) A natural, fresh hen's egg is alive.