Analysis Of Lizzie Widdecombe's Essay: The End Of Food

Food will always be something that every individual has a unique relationship with. For people who have no issue finding food, dining becomes a social and recreational activity. For those, however, who are less fortunate and cannot afford to properly feed themselves and their family, food becomes a major source of anxiety and stress. In Lizzie Widdecombe’s essay, The End of Food, published in The New Yorker in 2014, the idea of food being a source of either hope or nightmare was discussed extensively with regard to the futuristic food substitute, Soylent. Soylent, a product akin to baby formula for adults, is a substitute for food and means of nutrition currently directed at “life-hackers,” or people who find ways to cut corners in their everyday lives. One of the biggest corners cut today involves the purchase and preparation of food. The creator, Rhinehart, a poor inventor struggling to come up with funds to pay for food and rent, became one of these life hackers. He turned to textbooks to find out what he actually needed to survive and what he could entirely cut out of his diet. Rhinehart found this incredibly simple and the idea of …show more content…
To clarify this, Rhinehart explained to Widdecombe that “To help a village full of malnourished people, you could just drop in a shipping container full of Soylent-producing algae. It would take in the sun’s energy and water and air, and produce food. Mankind’s oldest problem would be solved.” Not only could it be given to people in desperate need of the proper nutrients, it could also slow down the food shortage crisis and even eliminate many of the factories which suffocate our planet. An ability for a product solve several problems at once is greatly valued in today’s world, and this is something that Soylent certainly