This Bill Gates-backed startup is making butter out of thin air: ‘without animal suffering’

A California-based startup backed by Bill Gates is making butter out of carbon dioxide from the air.

A California-based startup backed by Bill Gates says that its butter, made out of carbon, tastes as good as the real thing. Savor claims to have figured out a complex way in which carbon dioxide from the air can be converted into real fat.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has invested in Savor.

The process eliminates the need for the animals and makes butter without animals, farmland, fertilizers, hormones, or antibiotics, the startup claims.

Savor uses a thermochemical process to create animal-like fat that carries all the flavour of butter made from dairy.

On its website, the startup explains: “We start with a source of carbon, like carbon dioxide, and use a little bit of heat and hydrogen to form chains which are then blended with oxygen from air to make the fats & oils we know, love and drool over.

“That’s how we get rich, delightful ingredients without animal suffering, palm plantations, or dangerous chemicals. All in the most efficient, most resilient, least polluting way known to science,” Savor explained.

Good for the planet

Savor says that its products will have a lower carbon footprint than animal-based ones, as livestock is a major source of greenhouse gases.

“Each year, the world emits 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases—and the production of fats and oils from animals and plants makes up seven percent of that. To combat climate change, we need to get the number to zero,” explained Bill Gates in a blog post.

The founder of Microsoft explained that Savor’s process of creating butter by taking carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water does not release any greenhouse gases, uses no farmland and only utilises a miniscule fraction of the water used in traditional agriculture. “I’ve tasted Savor’s products, and I couldn’t believe I wasn’t eating real butter,” he wrote.

The butter is not yet available commercially as the startup is working on acquiring regulatory approval. “We are not expecting to be able to move forward with any kind of sales until at least 2025,” Savor CEO Kathleen Alexander was quoted as saying by The Guardian.