What if I told you that, in the future, you'll be producing your own food, in your own home, using nothing more than water, carbon dioxide, microbes, and electricity? You might think this is some absurd concoction that would only exist in science fiction, but you'd be wrong. In fact, that future has already begun to emerge.

As a result of a joint study by the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, a batch of single-cell protein had been produced using the ingredients mentioned above.

In the chemical and manufacturing business, there's a technique known as electrolysis that allows researchers to use direct electric current (DC) to cause chemical reactions - in particular, the separation of elements from naturally occurring sources. Which brings us to the joint study, whereby raw materials were exposed to electrolysis in a bioreactor. This then produced a powder which consisted of "more than 50 per cent protein and 25 percent carbohydrates," with the rest being fats and nucleic acids.

The process behind creating this edible powder is said to be "nearly 10 times as energy-efficient as common photosynthesis." However, this efficiency is nowhere close to what's needed for effective commercialization. At the moment, it can take up to two weeks to produce a single gram of protein. Though, according to Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, principal scientist at VTT, we could only be looking at a timeframe of 10 years before reaching commercial capacity.

"We are currently focusing on developing the technology: reactor concepts, technology, improving efficiency and controlling the process. Control of the process involves adjustment and modelling of renewable energy so as to enable the microbes to grow as well as possible. The idea is to develop the concept into a mass product, with a price that drops as the technology becomes more common. The schedule for commercialisation depends on the economy."

- Professor Jero Ahola of LUT

Let's assume, then, that this process does reach full commercial capacity. What does this entail for the future of food production itself? For starters, it could officially do away with world hunger forever. As the researchers noted, this process doesn't actually require any of the conditions currently needed for modern agriculture. All you'd need is the ingredients - water, carbon dioxide, microbes, and electricity - and an affordable at-home bioreactor.

With those things alone, we could make sure that famines, malnutrition, and other horrible realities today are done away with for good.

Another possible implication would be combating climate change and other costly inefficiencies to our environment. The protein produced using electricity could serve as an effective replacement to your typical animal feed. As a result, this would eliminate the need for deforestation and pest-control substances. It would also greatly reduce the emissions being pumped out in today's livestock industry.

However, this also raises other important questions. For example, when it comes to electricity and our access to it, while many countries throughout the world have already declared this access to be a fundamental right to the average citizen, there are many other areas (e.g. the United States) where this topic is still heavily debated. If access to electricity still isn't regarded as a fundamental right for all by the time this process is commercialized, would that also be interpreted as saying that access to food isn't regarded as a fundamental right either?

What do you think?