3D Printers Can Now Produce Tiny, Edible Ecosystems

Between extruded pizza dough and Nutella portraits, 3D-printing innovators mostly seem to care about junk food. Dutch food engineer Chloé Rutzerveld wants to change that. Rutzerveld used the technology to create a hard-to-explain snack called Edible Growth. She prints a flaky shell filled with  agar—a flavorless gelatinous substance—which nourishes a mixture of seeds and spores. After just a couple of days, those seeds and spores sprout into greens and mushrooms. What you're left with, really, is a perfect, tiny bite of fresh salad.  "A lot of people think industrialized production methods are unnatural or unhealthy, I want to show that it doesn't have to be the case, " Rutzerveld told Dezeen. The project "is actually really healthy and sustainable also at the same time."

She's currently touring Europe with her strange bites. For a full list of where she will be handing out samples and to see her upcoming projects visit her website.