A 1946 plan to feed a billion people with sawdust
Alfred M. Thomsen had spent years at his San Francisco lab trying to grow edible yeast. The yeast grew, but every batch came out terrible. Then one day, a brew that should have been especially nasty boiled over onto his hand. He licked it to cool the burn. It tasted fine.
Nelson Valjean told the story in the September 1946 issu…
