June 17, 2026
Now serving: air à la carte
Making 'food out of thin air' (2024)
Scientists say it’s the future, commenters say: congrats, you reinvented farming
TLDR: A Finnish company is reviving an old space-era idea by using microbes to turn gases from the air into protein-rich food. Commenters were split between calling it clever climate-friendly food production and mocking it as overhyped “farming” with a heavy side of politics and jokes.
A Finnish startup says it can make “food out of thin air” by feeding tiny microbes with hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and other basic ingredients—a space-age idea that actually dates back to a 1964 NASA-inspired concept for feeding astronauts. On paper, it sounds like pure sci-fi: air in, protein out. In the comments, though, the vibe was less Star Trek and more “please calm down, this is just farming with extra steps.” The biggest laugh came from one brutally dry reaction: “Breathless tech reporters have discovered farming.” Ouch.
That snark basically set the tone. Some readers were intrigued by the bigger survival angle—especially for harsh places like Finland or even Mars—and started swapping wild historical examples, from wartime Germany making edible fats from coal to space-colony dreams where carbon from the air becomes dinner. Others dragged the conversation back to Earth, arguing the real money isn’t in convincing humans to eat what one commenter called science-project food, but in animal feed, where the “ick factor” matters a lot less. And because it’s the internet, the thread also swerved into politics, with one jab about farm subsidies and “flagrant hypocrisy” landing like a drive-by in an already spicy debate.
So yes, the factory is real, the science is real, and the promise is big: food made with far less land and water. But the comment section’s verdict? A glorious mix of skepticism, dark humor, and “cool idea, but maybe don’t pretend you invented lunch.”
Key Points
- •The article links a current Finnish food-tech factory to a 1964 NASA-related proposal for producing edible protein from hydrogen, carbon dioxide and waste products.
- •It explains that the International Space Station still relies primarily on resupplied dehydrated or refrigerated food, not microbial food production of the type proposed in 1964.
- •Solar Foods has built a roughly 3,200-square-foot factory in Vantaa, Finland, based on the idea of making food from gaseous inputs.
- •Solar Foods co-founder and CTO Juha-Pekka Pitkänen is presented as a bioprocess engineer whose background spans industrial chemistry exposure, biotech startup work and biological data automation.
- •The article frames Finland’s difficult agricultural conditions as part of why alternative food-production approaches have gained traction there.