Throwback Thursday | Brave New Butter | Science History Institute /Distillations

“The butter story fits into a familiar and often charming genre of scientific speculation. Among its earliest practitioners was the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot. When McClure’s Magazine profiled him in 1894, he confidently predicted the disappearance of farms and pastures by the year 2000. “Why not,” he asked, “if it proved cheaper and better to make the same materials than to grow them?” Steaks would come in the form of tablets instead of tenderloins. Fruits would be grown purely for decoration because synthetic foods would replace them on the kitchen table.”