[zulko]

In his 1976 essay on (or against) genetic engineering [1] Erwin Chargaff wrote "But screams and empty promises fill the air: Don't you want cheap insulin? (...) And how about a green man synthesizing his nourishment: 10 minutes in the sun for breakfast, 30 minutes for lunch, and 1 hour for dinner?" Nice to see that scientists are actually trying.

[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.11643312

[dekhn]

It also comes up at least once in John Varley sci fi books. People can get themselves turned into space-floating plants and just sort of hang around saturn. I can't remember if they get genetically modified to photosynthesize or they wear a suit that does it.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

In the novel Old Man’s War, everyone is a green genetically modified super soldier. To reduce potential calorie intake for the troops.

[Charon77]

What about water?

[Onavo]

Insulin is already very cheap, the markup in the US is not due to manufacturing costs.

[zulko]

Insulin today is produced cheaply in genetically modified microbes, this is the technology that Chargaff is alluding to, which was first succesful 2 years after his letter, in 1978.