I read a great article in The New Yorker last night about a new product called Soylent. (Well, relatively new; it already has many imitators who offer slight variants). It essentially replaces eating with a scientifically designed combination of the nutrients we need to be healthy. It's somewhat like a shake, although healthier and smellier. It was invented by a 25 year old former EE major named Rob Rhinehart. He and some others had raised funding for an internet startup. When the initial idea didn't take off he ran with a completely different thought, inspired by the nonstop desire to minimize time away from 20 hour workdays for mundane things like eating. He came up with something that is fast, easy, and healthful. And much cheaper. Part of his pitch to investors was you can live nutritionally -- actually more nutritionally, with the side benefit of ~1500 calories a day) for $60 a month as opposed to the $420 a month average. Undoubtedly spurred by demand, it now goes for $85 for a 3 week supply.
After reading the article I checked out their web site. The first thing that jumped out at me is that the wait time for an initial order is 4-5 months. This is probably at least partly due to the ramp-up of production facilities, but surely it is also a sign of great interest. The 25,000 initial investors have already made back their initial investment many times over. BTW, Bonnie, I take back everything I said about crowdfunding. That's how they raised most of the money.
Yes, the name was taken from the movie "Soylent Green". In fact one of Rhinehart's followers and recipe adjusters -- the recipe is open source, not proprietary -- tried to make the product green with some ingredient modifications, but it didn't work. Classic line of the movie, starring Charlton Heston: "Soylent Green is people!" In this case, thankfully, it isn't. But it is a completely radical idea that comes out of left field. As do most great ideas, I imagine.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/12/the-end-of-food(A great overview, and the part about sodium cracked me up).
http://www.soylent.me/
