"To fuel our bodies, we must eat other living things, killing them in the process. However, most plants and algae are autotrophs. They bootstrap their biomass without the barbarism of eating others: using photosynthesis, turning sunlight, water, and carbon into energy."
"Across the globe, scientists are using energy - ultimately derived from the Sun - to transform air, water, and other inorganic inputs into food. Startups like Solar Foods aim to make 'food out of thin air,' growing edible protein by feeding microbes with electricity and carbon dioxide."
"These efforts and others don't always eliminate life from food production, but they radically simplify it - replacing farms and animals with microscopic organisms, and ecosystems with controlled environments."
Humans, as heterotrophs, rely on consuming other organisms for energy, while plants and algae, as autotrophs, produce energy through photosynthesis. This realization has led to efforts to reduce the brutality of food chains by developing methods to consume energy directly from the Sun. Scientists are creating food from inorganic inputs using energy derived from sunlight, such as Savor's butter production and Solar Foods' edible protein from microbes. These innovations aim to simplify food production and minimize the need for killing in the process.
Read at Big Think
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