AGE OF SYNTHESIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 14 November 1928, Page 6

AGE OF SYNTHESIS

FOODS OF FUTURE SAWDUST. COAL, I’KTKOLKUiM. I'hoso liiiKiruii.'. people who lol'OScO the human race dying ol starvation wlu'ii ill" world is over populated will find comfort in a vision o! Hit' lullin' sUcichcd l>y (In' well-known American chomi.-il, Or. 11. L. Barnard. Here is his menu for future ages: — Breakfast Foods from sunlight • sources. Luncheon—Foods front (lie air. Dinner—Foods from sea wilier.

Dr. Barnard looks ahead to a long distant fillure when the human race will have forgotten the taste of bread and meal, and no longer desire them, lie even hints Ilia! men and women of that period may he endowed with three stomachs apiece, for lie remarks casually that already some animals have three stomachs which enable them to digest foods which man with his one ‘tummy'’ dare not touch. But before man learns to rely on synthetic foods, Dr. Barnard foresees the opening of ‘"food frontiers”—such as the Amazon River Valley and other great swamps and forests in tropical areas able to supply sustenance to famished humanity. Brazil, ho explains, could support a population two-thirds of that occupying the world to-day, and Africa could feed more millions than now inhabit- (lie earth.

lie. opens up a vista of possibilities when the food reservoirs of Ihe sea aie put to man’s use. A litre of water, 110 explains, taken from the Atlantic. at a- depth of 500 metres contains about 5.000 cells and this number might be increased under favourable cimnnslauces to 250,000. All this huge mass of living water is food which supports animal life and could be made to feed humanity. The chemists of the future, will lie making fats and oils, and already on paper they can form starches and sugars. Dr. Barnard scorns the, thought that Hie world must starve because growing plants cannot produce enough food for the billions who inhabit- the earth. To believe this, lie affirms, is to doubt the courage of the future race and their ability to use, far more, effectively than we can, the natural forces awaiting release from the research laboratories. He looks far ahead and sens science, having unlocked the atom, setting solar energy to work far more efficiently than does tho growing grain or forest of today.

All is a matter of taste. The first man who ate a- tomato was doubtless surprised at wliat lie tasted, and so, in the future, foods made from sawdust, coal, and petroleum will become palatable to the lmmans of that time.