Essay 1 Final Draft
Cobey Johnson
Professor Jesse Miller
English 110- H6
03 October 2018
What is Food, Really?
Real world problems are, in fact, a real problem. According to Rob Rhinehart, World Hunger is a crucial predicament that is an ongoing crisis in our society today. Rhinehart, who is an aspiring entrepreneur, has grown so busy that he despises the process of even eating food; he believes it is a waste of valuable time. Ironically, he ends up making a fortune through the food industry with his creation of Soylent. Soylent is a concoction that was made to cut out the time a person would need to take for a meal and substitute it. From experience, Rhinehart believes Soylent is beneficial because not only does he gain the time that he would lose from eating back, but he has seen a change in his physique. The change in his physique is due to the fact Soylent consists, “of thirty-five nutrients required for survival… with some water” (Widdicombe 4) meaning that it’s a very healthy beverage without any unnecessary add-ons, sweeteners or artificial flavoring, creating fat.
As Soylent grew increasingly popular, Rhinehart starts to ponder; he realizes that people can truly survive from his product. He begins to see the bigger, much broader picture, which is to end World Hunger. His end goal is to be able to help a village of malnourished people by shipping them containers of Soylent, so that they have some form of a food source. Rhinehart believes that if he could make this dream into a reality possible, that he would ship Soylent across the country, but more monumental, all over the world. I believe Rhinehart’s idea is profound and if put into motion could help end World Hunger. Although Rhinehart’s thinking is removed from how people would like to picture food in the article, “The End of Food” by Lizzie Widdicombe, Soylent is a product that has the power to save millions of lives.
Soylent has the potential to change the world as we know it because it gives every person a food resource at their disposal that they might not have had prior. Although it might not be as prevalent in the United States compared to other countries, there are still a number of people who spend days without consuming any food. Soylent could be that quick solution to their problem. According to Rhinehart, Soylent isn’t difficult to make and is quite filling. Lizzie Widdicombe states that, “all of a sudden… I felt way too full” (7) and when asked how much she had had, was told that she had consumed the same number of calories that is in a granola bar. Imagine what that can do a low- income household that is barely surviving because of the amount of money that is being spent on food or much worse, impoverished people who don’t have sufficient funds for anything. Rhinehart says that, “his food costs had dropped from four hundred and seventy dollars a month to fifty” (2), after converting over to his Soylent diet. Four hundred and twenty dollars back in his pocket that he can dedicate to bills or any other personal expenses he wishes to indulge in. In conclusion, Rhinehart’s infamous concoction, Soylent, could very well be what saves peoples’ lives and puts money back in their pockets.
As a college undergrad, I have quickly realized, in my first few weeks, that any extra way to conserve assets and acquire more time to put into yourself are beneficial. Therefore, I can empathize when, “about ten students sat around a table surrounded by laptops and problem sets, ignoring the dinnertime commotion” (15) because they had no desire to eat; they were Soylent drinkers, who were substituting their meals for the gooey substance. I believe with my busy schedule that on somedays it includes, lack of sleep and food, that I could personally use Soylent for a substitute of a meal or two during the day. Especially on days when I can’t make it to the dining commons on time because football practice went on longer than it was expected to go on for. I know that I could go back to my dorm and make a bottle of Soylent and not have to worry about being hungry for the rest of the night. It’s convenient to have because it’s portable and you don’t need utensils or plates, all that is needed is a bottle and the few ingredients that are needed. For instance, on Tuesdays, which is my hardest day of the week, I have an 8:00 A.M. Biology lecture that ends at 9:25 and I don’t come back to my dorm room at night until I finish school and football which isn’t till 9:00 at night. Soylent not only has the power to save millions of people’s lives by giving them another source of food, but also giving people their time back because of the inconvenience that food brings to the table.
Although Rob Rhinehart’s Soylent has far more of an upside to not advertise its major benefits to our society, his ideas are removed from what societal beliefs are. I believe to stay sane, you need to have those sit down and converse with loved ones over our favorite meals to feel whole again. As I formerly state in my Favorite Food essay, “The sweet sound of satisfaction: when I stuck my fork into the macaroni and the cream from the evaporated milk mixed with the melted five cheeses, slowly drips out from the sides of the rigatoni shells. Makes my mouth water every time” (Johnson 2). In contrast to Soylent, which I don’t believe can produce moments that will continue to stick with you throughout the course of your life. I believe the only downside to Rhinehart’s approach to marketing Soylent is that it should be seen and used as only a substitute rather than a means to cut out food entirely. I understand that Rob Rhinehart wants to be innovative, but unfortunately, I don’t believe cutting out food as a whole is the way to take a step forward in our society. I am a firm believer in people needing food to survive. There are too many benefits, nutrients wise, that food provides to people and to try and strip that out of our daily routines is more of a detriment than a benefit. I just believe Rhinehart wanted to show his consumers that if he can live off Soylent without eating any food, they could also do the same thing. All in all, Soylent has the ability to save millions of lives, but I don’t believe it needs to prevent families from interacting with one another over a hot home cooked meal.
In conclusion, I believe Soylent, if used properly has all the intangibles to successfully help benefit the world. The impact it had made on everyone who had been substituting it for meals were beneficial. If Rhinehart’s vision was active, it would save millions of lives and could truly end World Hunger. I think that with people being able to have a food source now through Soylent that communities can start to tackle other real-world problems like World Hunger. I don’t believe people would be as quick to migrate to other societies and would be more prone to stay wherever they call home and work in their own countries, boosting the rate of their own economies. Instead of leaving home for the search of finding a better life somewhere else while the rest of their respective countries’ falls apart.
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Works Cited
Widdicombe, Lizzie. “The End of Food.” The New Yorker, Lizzie Widdicombe, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/12/the-end-of-food.
Favorite Food Essay by Cobey Johnson
