Growing Food Out of Thin Air

While we quibble about climate change here in the United States, the green economy continues to grow and innovate. I came across an article today in the vegconomist, about Solar Foods, a company that produces protein out of thin air. Solar Foods claims their flagship product Solein® “is the purest and most sustainable protein in the world. It is nutritionally rich, can taste and look like anything you use it for, and is unparalleled in its functionality – it can be used in any food, regardless of diet. And now it is about to enter commercial production.”

Produced leveraging a microorganism, CO2, and electricity and described as a nutritious and versatile protein, Solein has only been released in small batches from the company’s pilot laboratory in Espoo, near Helsinki.

Solar Foods is gearing up to manufacture Solein on a commercial scale with the opening of Factory 01 in Vantaa, Finland. CEO and co-founder, Pasi Vainikka, shares: “We will be able to deliver quantities that allow food producers to create large batches of Solein-powered products for the first time.

As the Finnish firm explains, Factory 01’s bioreactor can make the protein equivalent of a 300-cow dairy farm in a day without the environmental impact and demands of traditional agriculture.