The largest animals, the whales, exist by eating very small creatures which the seas produce in abundance. Biologically speaking, humans are in the class of the largest animals on earth as the majority of living creatures are very much smaller. The smaller the creature, animal or plant, the faster its rate of reproduction and creatures like protozoa and bacteria have a very high rate of reproduction. Traditionally humans have fed on living things only slightly lower than themselves on the food chain. If genetic engineering could modify protozoa and bacteria to produce creatures nourishing and appetizing to humans and which could exist on much material such as cellulose which is inedible to humans and in plentiful supply, a very large new potential for a food source would be available at a probable low cost. Many variations on this supply could be manipulated into all sorts of new flavors and textures and production facilities would probably be much more efficient than normal agricultural processes. In addition manipulation could induce these sources to contain much of the vitamins and minerals missing in more traditional foods.
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One point that I did not emphasize was that the rapid rate of reproduction, which, in addition to contributing to the mass of the product, also makes it possible to genetically modify the genome very quickly, testing each step in the way for viability and progress in attaining a particular goal.
I like the concept of being able to fed my breakfast the evening newspaper before consumption. It would be the ultimate compost machine if you will. Question: Do you visualize this as the size of a cheerio or smaller? Also, do you eat them alive or is their some "slaughtering" that transpires?
Since nobody is repeled by eating cheese or yogurt which contains much live bacteria nor has much sympathy with slaughtering yeast in bread baking ovens I don't imagine properly prepared and presented foods consisting of micro-organisms will gain objections if they are tasty and nourishing. Certainly humanity is quite inured to the screams of cattle and poultry, who are much more aware of their environment than bacteria, in order to enjoy their meals. Undoubtedly a portion of consumers would not kill these animals themselves but a good many would. I personally would prefer to subsist on bacteria.
As sand said - Re: "modify protozoa and bacteria to produce creatures nourishing and appetizing to humans". Been around for centuries - it's called cheese. I think before we do such things, the first genetic modification would be to somehow give humans the moral maturity to handle this technology.
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