Program Summary
Cornucopia seeks to enable deployable, on-demand production of appetizing, microbial-origin food starting from water, air, and electricity with minimal to no supplementation.
If successful, the program could significantly reduce the logistical burden of food transportation associated with deployed military operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations.
To address vulnerabilities in food supply chains across a variety of operational and humanitarian scenarios, Cornucopia will demonstrate the capacity to produce all four human dietary macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat, and dietary fiber) in ratios that target Military Dietary Reference Intake (MDRI) daily requirements for complete nutrition. Outputs will be in multiple food formats (e.g., shake, bar, gel, jerky) that meet military nutritional standards and palatability requirements in a system minimizing inputs, handling, and footprint.
Cornucopia is a four-year program with three focus areas: domestication of microbes for human consumption; tailorability of microbial-origin food for different flavors, formats and nutritional composition; and integrated system demonstrations benchmarked by two military use cases, a small forward-operating military unit in austere conditions and a HADR scenario.
Proposers Day Video
Mr. Peter Donaghue, DARPA Contracts Management Office
How to propose to the Cornucopia program: 0:00 – 11:17
Dr. Phil Root, Acting Director, DARPA Defense Sciences Office (DSO)
DARPA overview & unique role of the Defense Sciences Office in revolutionary R&D: 11:18 – 22:29
Dr. Molly Jahn, Cornucopia Program Manager in DSO
Details & vision for the Cornucopia program: 22:30 – 58:03