• Flabbergassed@artemis.camp
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    10 months ago

    I’m calling BS on this. Their “explanation” was “it uses ultraviolet light”. Then they say they can’t explain it because nobody can understand it. Even if it were possible to electronically manufacture vegetables, what would be the advantage? How much electricity, equipment, and raw material would it take compared to conventional farming? What are those raw materials, and what does it require to produce them?

    • Comment105
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      10 months ago

      To me it sounds like carrot cell soup theoretically growable in a similar structure as hydroponics. Not the hydroponic part, but the layered rows of UV-lit product, here it sounds like the product would be cell-soup in tubs.

      Then instead of just hardening it and cutting it out, they send it through a printer gantry to make a vaguely carrot-shaped mass.

      So, did I misinterpret it?

      I am curious about how liquid or solid the product is throughout the printing procedure, how it’s handled.

      Edit: It’s normal carrot, pureed then printed.

      Edit 2: This is interesting, though.

      “The large-scale or mass cultivation of plant cells is the growth of plant cell suspensions at volumes above those normally produced in shake flasks, that is, above IL. Attempts to grow plant cells in fermenters or bioreactors started in the early 1960s with converted carboys. The area has developed steadily, such that today bioreactors in excess of 5000 L have been used successfully for large-scale plant cell culture.”

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21390630/

      So I’m guessing this kind of product is what they’ve figured out that they can print and harden with UV?

      If it can be grown in a massive sterile food processing tank I can see how that can easily produce the plant cell volume equivalent to a lot of good acreage, and while I don’t see the value in shaping the product like natural carrots, layering and UV curing to harden each layer might genuinely produce good and usable, edible carrot-like blocks?