Can We Possibly Eliminate Food Altogether?

Rob Rhinehart, through much trial and error, has created Soylent (cheekily named after the cult science fiction film Soylent Green). But this Soylent is not made from people; it's a beige-colored, milkshake-like food substitute that supposedly contains all of the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that any human needs to survive. Rhinehart, over the course of years, has tinkered with the ingredients, and now lives almost entirely off of the food substitute.

His food-replacement milkshake certainly stirs up a lot of emotion in people: he says that he has received death threats for even suggesting that food is unnecessary.The discussion about Rhinehart's food replacement substance been kicking around for a while, but the product is apparently finally ready to hit shelves.

"I was six or seven and I guess my mother was serving salad," Rhinehart said in a recent interview with The Atlantic. "I was looking down at a plate with these leaves on it. I could look outside and see leaves on the trees, and it just seemed a little weird. It seemed a little primitive — like something an animal would do. On this nice plate, in this nice house, why would I eat this thing that grows on trees? I thought, "We can do better."

And so it began. Soylent is made from maltodextrin, rice protein, oat flour, canola oil, fish oil, and raw chemical powders. According to Atlantic, it has the texture and taste of unsweetened custard. Right now, Rhinehart is trying to cut down the cost of Soylent to $5 per day, which would make it affordable even for those living on food stamps.

Joanna Fantozzi is an Associate Editor with The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @JoannaFantozzi