Ruminant Me
On the earth there are almost 7.4 billon people, more than 10 percent of them have not enough food, that means that almost 800 million people live in hunger. With the population of the world still growing, it is time to look into new possibilities of nourishment. But what could the solution be? Cellulose is the worlds most abundant organic compound. Almost every plant has cellwalls made of cellulose. But we can not digest it, cows and other ruminant animals can.
Cows have four stomachs, the first one is called the Rumen. And here it is where the cellulose gets digested by microbes that live in the stomach. The question i asked myself in this project is: Could the microbes be used in a way so humans can digest cellulose?
“Ruminant Me“ is an external stomach.
By adding water, your cellulose material (v.b. grass), and an activated moving ball filled with microbes that is moving through the stomach.
When the microbes are finished digesting the food it can be drained. Now it is ready for consumption.
This means that people can harvest there own cellulose material from their garden or even a public space. Whilst they are cooking their food the cellulose can be predigested and afterwards be used in a recipe. This would mean that we will have less cellulose waiste and it could maybe even be the solution against hunger.
