Soylent Green is another step closer

[urban rednek]

Ingenious really. I applaud the technology while questioning the agenda.
Develop a new product, create a marketing campaign to redefine death and change the narrative over time.
It starts with "people are compost", it ends with "compost is used to grow food".

https://www.designboom.com/design/li...ure-09-18-2020

The video and pictures in the link definitely add to the story, it is a glossy brochure of the highest order. Here is the text for those who do not follow links:

World’s first living coffin made of mushroom mycelium gives human nutrients back to nature.

TU delft researcher bob hendrikx has developed the world’s first living coffin made from mushroom mycelium as a way to give human nutrients back to nature. together with his team at the student start-up, loop, hendrikx has developed ‘the living cocoon’ as as way to help the body ‘compost’ more efficiently while removing toxic substances and enriching the soil where new trees and plants can grow. the first batch of loop’s cocoons was already used for a funeral last week.

‘the living cocoon enables people to become one with nature again and to enrich the soil, instead of polluting it’, says bob hendrikx, founder of loop, which is located in the yes!delft incubator. the coffin is grown with mushroom mycelium, which hendrikx calls ‘nature’s recycler’, thanks to its ability to convert waste materials into nutrients for the environment. 100% natural, the cocoon is grown in only seven days with only local materials and without the use of electricity or artificial light.

loop expects that a body will be able to compost much faster in the ‘living cocoon’ than in traditional coffins because it actively contributes to the composting process. though the speed at which a body composts generally depends on various conditions, experience shows that it can take over a decade, with synthetic clothing and the varnished and metal parts of a coffin delaying the process even further. in loop’s design, the entire process is expected to be complete in two or three years. in that process, not only are the waste products from the human body converted into nutrients, the quality of the surrounding soil is also improved, giving new life an opportunity to thrive.

the loop cocoon is made of mushroom mycelium, which normally grows underground in the complex root structure of trees, plants and fungi. it is a living organism that can neutralise all kinds of toxic substances and provides nutrition to everything that grows above the ground. ‘mycelium was used in chernobyl, is utilized in rotterdam to clean up soil, and some farmers also apply it to make the land healthy again,’ notes hendrikx. the inside of the coffin is filled with a soft bed of moss that also contributes to the composting process.

in collaboration with two major funeral cooperatives, CUVO (the hague) and de laatste eer (delft), loop performed extended testing to make sure this new form of burial is ready to be applied in practice. ‘as a regional funeral home, we think it is important to be involved in sustainable innovation like this,’ says frank franse, director of the two funeral homes. ‘it fits our objective to be a sustainable co-operative funeral service.’ after several tests, the first of the initial limited batch of ten living cocoons was already used for a funeral.

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by urban rednek

Ingenious really. I applaud the technology while questioning the agenda.
Develop a new product, create a marketing campaign to redefine death and change the narrative over time.
It starts with "people are compost", it ends with "compost is used to grow food".

https://www.designboom.com/design/li...ure-09-18-2020

The video and pictures in the link definitely add to the story, it is a glossy brochure of the highest order. Here is the text for those who do not follow links:

There is truth to the idea that everything is food for something else. It's only technology (either primitive or advanced) that has made humans the top of the food chain. Take away tools and secure shelter and you'll find that humans are easy prey for many different predators.

[Grizzly Adams]

One has to think we've hit rock bottom as a species when it comes to this.



BREAKING NEWS


Eastern Ontario cricket farm takes off as bug buying goes mainstream
on: August 08, 2019In: Featured News, News
By Connor Lynch
NORWOOD — Once upon a time, you may have eaten something because you liked it, because you’d had it before, or someone made it for you. Or maybe it was just the cheapest thing on the shelf.

These days, more people are more interested in the nutritional profile of their food. It’s in this atmosphere that an unusual, to say the least, food-product has been making a successful debut in the province. Insects. Crickets, to be precise.

Northumberland-area farm Entomo Farms received one of the province’s Excellence in Agriculture awards last month. The cricket farm employs 30 people full time and expects to employ 28 more as their markets continue to grow, said president Jarrod Goldin, who runs North America’s largest cricket farm at 60,000 sq. ft. with his two brothers. They raise about 866-million crickets a year in three facilities at Norwood, east of Peterborough. Originally named Next Millenium Farms, they got started raising crickets back in 2014.

Demand is being driven by a new breed of consumer: One that wants to know exactly how nutritious their food is, and what impact raising, shipping and processing that food has on the environment. In marketing jargon, they’re called LOHAS consumers (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability), and they’re interested in what their food does for their health, and the health of the planet. The Natural Marketing Institute, a market research firm in the United States, suggested as many as a third of U.S. consumers would fall into this category.

Crickets have been an easy sell in that regard, Goldin said. “We’re providing a great alternative food source that is nutritionally healthy and beneficial. It comes with its own built-in fertilization. It’s a fully-integrated, unwasteful way to farm livestock.

“You want to eat healthier and in a more sustainable way, where animal welfare is considered? This ticks all those boxes.”

One of the other nice things about these consumers? They aren’t price sensitive. Not a bad thing, considering a 113 gram, or quarter-pound package at Real Canadian Superstore costs about $15.

A United Nations report that kick-started the Goldin’s into the business also spoke to some of the advantages of eating crickets: There’s 8 to 25 grams of protein in every 100 grams of cricket; they’re high in a variety of nutrients and minerals, including calcium, iron and potassium, but low in cholesterol and saturated fats; and per unit of protein, compared to cattle, they only need two per cent of the water and 12 per cent of the land. The UN report called insects a more efficient and sustainable food source on a planet that will need to feed 9 billion people by 2050.

Raising crickets sounds like a fad but Goldin said the majority of the company’s sales are for human consumption in the United States, although they sell crickets all over the world and here in Canada.

Who’s buying crickets to eat? Well, most aren’t, at least not directly. The company sells roasted crickets, seasoned in a variety of ways, but the majority of their sales are business to business, where companies use crickets as an ingredient in a miscellany of pancake batters, protein shakes, pastas, crackers and chips to pump up the nutritional content.

They raise the crickets in so-called cricket condos. Crickets get around some of the issues involved with livestock: They can be crammed in, since they prefer to live in tight groups, and slaughter is easy, since the farmers can just pump CO2 gas into the condos to kill the crickets. Goldin uses modified chicken barns, which is useful because they’re typically two-stories high, he said. Crickets are harvested every six-week life cycle. They’ve also been looking at uses for the cricket manure: Early experiments suggest it could be a good fertilizer.

Entomo Farms isn’t alone in the province either. Last year, Joe Shouldice, a Toronto-born graphic designer, came back to Ontario from Brooklyn, moved to Owen Sound in Western Ontario, and started a cricket farm. In Montreal, a food marketing business called Crickstart launched last year, aiming to market cricket-based protein bars and shakes to consumers. They’ve since renamed themselves Landish (as in, not outlandish) and added spirulina-based products (a type of bacteria that grows in large colonies), and reishi-mushroom bars (made with an Asian mushroom).


Grizz

[Mistagin]

Actually, cricket farming isn't all that new. I've got cousins who've been doing it for many years on their farms close to Barrie, Ontario. They even make their own cricket flour and I've had some of the baking goods made with it. Quite tasty!

[HyperMOA]

I don’t really have a problem with the coffin. I’ve said that my true wishes after death would be to toss my carcass in the woods and let me give back to a food-chain that I’ve taken so much from. But there’s laws against that!!! So I guess my mushroom coffin will have to be close enough. 😀