Soylent has raised another $50 million to change how we eat - here are 31 quotes that show its founder's worldview
On the Soylent haters: "I do not understand the negativity surrounding Soylent. Perhaps some people confuse matters of taste with matters of morality. Some have their cooking and eating habits and seem to be offended that mine are different. I do not think it is unreasonable to desire to eat on my own terms."
On the idea of people being too busy to cook: "Not having time to cook because you're working on your career or passion should be praised."
On algae: "I also think it’s crazy cool that some of the ingredients are made by algae rather than water-guzzling pesticide-spraying farms."
On plants: "It’s just intuitive on principle, these plants are not on our side. These plants did not evolve to feed us. If they could kill us, they probably would. It’s competition."
On art: "I’m looking forward to the point where we don’t have to worry about hunger, or nutrition. Where people make food just because it’s beautiful — like gardening, or painting. I’m looking forward to the point where food can just be art."
On salad: "I was 6 or 7 and I guess my mother was serving salad. 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 cooking stereotypes: "I for one would not miss the stereotype of the housewife in the kitchen. Providing diverse, palatable, and nutritious meals for an entire family every day must be exhausting. What if taking a night off didn’t mean unhealthy pizza or expensive take out? How wasteful society has been with its women!"
On Whole Foods: "I used to dream of one day being able to afford shopping at Whole Foods, but now it’s irrelevant to me."
On the taste of Soylent: "It was delicious! I felt like I’d just had the best breakfast of my life. It tasted like a sweet, succulent, hearty meal in a glass, which is what it is, I suppose. I immediately felt full, yet energized, and started my day."
On resentment: "In my own life I resented the time, money, and effort, the purchase, preparation, consumption, and clean-up of food was consuming."
On fear: "One of my fears is someone would turn down a social eating engagement to work and drink Soylent."
On fossil fuel: "Food is the fossil fuel of human energy. It is an enormous market full of waste, regulation, and biased allocation with serious geo-political implications. And we’re deeply dependent on it."
On water: "I think the best technology is the one that disappears. Water doesn’t have a lot of taste or flavor, and it’s the world’s most popular beverage."
On pressed juice: "It’s kind of archaic. Look at the design. It’s meant to be rustic and natural and comfortable ... In fact, it’s pretty bad for you."
![On value: "[Soylent] provided more value to my life than any app."](https://staticbiassets.in/thumb/msid-58523487,width-700,height-525,imgsize-107794/on-value-soylent-provided-more-value-to-my-life-than-any-app-.jpg)
On his first Soylent trials: "I feel like the Six Million Dollar Man. My physique has noticeably improved, my skin is clearer, my teeth whiter, my hair thicker and my dandruff gone."
On pizza: "I think in the future all of our pizzas and staple meals will have a Soylent-esque nutritional make up and be designed purely for taste, texture, and appearance."
On needs: "You need amino acids and lipids, not milk itself. You need carbohydrates, not bread."
On tradeoffs: "I think it's possible to use technology to make healthy food very cheaply and easily, but we'll have to give up many traditional foodstuffs like fresh fruits and veggies, which are incompatible with food processing and scale."
On farming: "Ingredients that come from agriculture, especially animal products, are very wasteful and inefficient."
On drones: "We thought about doing Soylent drone delivery. Where you just hit a button on your phone and a drone comes and drops a bottle of Soylent, and you refuel."
On movies: "Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day."
On information: "Always know as much as possible. I think all value at some point comes from information asymmetry."
On fast food: "After a week [of Soylent] advertisements for fast food looked repulsive. All I crave is Soylent."
![On fast food: "After a week [of Soylent] advertisements for fast food looked repulsive. All I crave is Soylent."](https://staticbiassets.in/thumb/msid-58523497,width-700,height-525,imgsize-807917/on-fast-food-after-a-week-of-soylent-advertisements-for-fast-food-looked-repulsive-all-i-crave-is-soylent-.jpg)
On foodies: "Everyone’s like, ‘The natural, organic way is the best.’ And it sounded a lot like fundamentalist Christianity."
On grocery stores: "I have not set foot in a grocery store in years. Nevermore will I bumble through endless confusing aisles like a pack-donkey searching for feed while the smell of rotting flesh fills my nostrils and fluorescent lights sear my eyeballs and sappy love songs torture my ears."
On nature: "People have this belief that just because something is natural it’s good. The natural state of man is ignorant, and starving, and cold."
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