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A company in Batavia, Illinois is producing butter in an unprecedented way. No animals, no plants, no oils; this butter is made from carbon.
The innovative, sustainability-focused approach has won the backing and approval of billionaire Bill Gates.
It looks, smells and tastes like the butter we all know, but it is produced without the need for farmland, fertilisers or the emissions associated with the traditional method.
This unprecedented process takes place at the facilities of Savor, a company based in an industrial area on the western outskirts of Chicago.
Kathleen Alexander, co-founder and chief executive of the company, said:
"You're using this gas right now to cook your food, and we're proposing that we use this gas first to make your food."
The company's pioneering technology relies on carbon and hydrogen to produce blocks of butter that anyone would recognise.
Jordan Beadon-Charles, the company's food scientist, said:
"It's really innovative to make a food that looks, tastes and feels exactly like dairy butter, but without any agriculture at all."
And without a long ingredient list that the average person struggles to pronounce.
Beadon-Charles added:
"It's basically our fat, with some water, a bit of lecithin as an emulsifier, and some natural flavours and colours."
How does the process work?
Fats consist of chains of carbon and hydrogen. The goal is to replicate these chains without animals or plants — and they have succeeded in doing so.
Put simply, the company says it takes carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, then heats and oxidises them, ultimately producing a substance resembling candle wax but which is, in fact, fat molecules similar to those found in beef, cheese or vegetable oils.
The entire process releases no greenhouse gases and uses no land to feed cattle, and despite its industrial appearance, it leaves a far smaller environmental footprint.
Alexander said:
"In addition to the carbon footprint of this process being far lower, the land footprint is roughly a thousand times smaller than what traditional farming requires."
And what about the taste?
The answer: it surprisingly resembles the butter we know and love.
The company also confirms that it uses no palm oil in producing its butter, given that palm oil is a major contributor to deforestation and climate change.
Of the 51 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted annually, 7% comes from the production of fats and oils from animals and plants, which the company says makes its process the more climate-friendly option.
Marketing and future plans
The company currently works directly with restaurants, bakeries and food suppliers, and plans to launch chocolate made with its butter by the 2025 holiday season.
The average consumer is expected to be able to buy it in the near future.
Alexander said:
"We expect Savor Butter, in its current form or with our partners, to be on store shelves by around 2027."
The team in Batavia and the company's lab in San Jose, California, are backed by billionaire Gates, who wrote on his blog:
"The idea of switching to lab-made fats and oils might seem strange at first, but its potential to reduce our carbon footprint is enormous."
The company believes butter can make a difference.
Alexander concluded:
"It's really about how we feed our species while also healing our planet."
Source: CBS