Rumpelstiltskin’s Algae: Future Food Utopias in That Neo-Pastoral Farm City We Call New York

• Science & Health

Meat brewed like beer, farms on top of industrial warehouses, artisanal bacteria, farms on Mars, genetically engineered super salmon, Soylent (but not people), delicious delicious insects… these are not (only) the tropes of science fiction, but the promises of startups, established companies, and labs in big American cities. Historian of biotechnology Wythe Marschall will introduce some of these future food projects and unpack the futures they seek to invent or avoid.

Wythe Marschall is a writer and Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science Department at Harvard, where he researches the intersection of biotechnology, food, and science fiction. Previously, Wythe lectured at Brooklyn College, curated art and science exhibitions and events in New York City, and worked in advertising, most recently at NeON (Draftfcb). His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Bio Art by William Myers, postmedieval (forthcoming), and elsewhere.