Final answer:
The meal replacement company named after a product in a sci-fi novel is Soylent, which is plant-based and aimed at providing a sustainable food source, unlike the version in the dystopian film 'Soylent Green'.
Step-by-step explanation:
The meal replacement company that launched in 2014 after raising 1.5 million dollars on Kickstarter and gets its name from a product in a 1966 dystopian sci-fi novel is Soylent.The name Soylent is derived from a product featured in the novel 'Make Room! Make Room!' by Harry Harrison, which was later adapted into the 1973 movie 'Soylent Green'. This movie is set in a dystopian future where the eponymous food product, Soylent, is an essential part of people's diet amid resource scarcity.
Soylent, the company, aimed to provide a convenient and nutritionally complete food option that could serve as a staple meal, aligning somewhat with the fictional product's role in addressing food shortages. However, unlike the movie's version, the real-life Soylent is known for being plant-based and environmentally conscious. Since its inception, Soylent has become a part of modern food culture, reflecting the ongoing shift toward alternative and sustainable food sources that has been occurring since the advent of the fast food industry, outlined in works like Eric Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation'.