--- title: "All-American Startup Making “Butter” From Carbon in our Atmosphere" description: "What would cuisines the world over be without butter? This is not just a hypothetical — or a paean to the creamy fat. The outsized environmental impact of dairy (and cattle) farming means that we need to be seriously considering the place our favorite foods will have in a more climate conscious future. And to […]" date: "2024-07-14" modified: "2024-07-14" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/startup-makes-butter-from-carbon" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "agriculture" - "climate change" - "food" - "the digest" --- # All-American Startup Making “Butter” From Carbon in our Atmosphere ![The synthetic "butter" not only tastes like the stuff, it's calorically dense and is made out of the very gas killing our planet, too.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Spreading Success What would cuisines the world over be without butter? This isn't just a hypothetical — or a paean to the creamy fat. The outsized environmental impact of dairy ([and cattle]()) farming means that we need to be seriously considering the place our favorite foods will have in a more climate-conscious future. And to that dilemma, a US-based startup called Savor says it has a tantalizing solution that almost sounds too good to be true: a butter-like product that's made from the very CO2 that's heating our planet. "There is no biology involved in our specific process," Savor chief technology officer Kathleen Alexander [told *New Scientist*](). ## Acquired Taste There's no shortage of butter substitutes out there, but few of them can claim to fight climate change. Savor says it uses a petrochemical process called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to eventually turn stuff like carbon dioxide, methane, and coal into hydrocarbons. Those hydrocarbons, in turn, can be infused with oxygen to make fatty acids and then fat. From there, Alexander explained to *New Scientist*, you add it to water, an emulsifier, and some rosemary oil to give the blend a "grassy" taste. And voilà: you have 'butter' — thus future-proofing croissants, [tasty restaurant vegetables](), and whatever else requires obscene amounts of the stuff to satisfy our fat-lovin' taste buds for generations to come. To kill two birds with one stone, this process could be fed by [carbon captured from our atmosphere]() and powered with renewables so that humanity, in a sense, can [eat our way out of our fossil fuel problem](). ## Better Yet... The ambitions of Savor's scientists go beyond butter, however. They posit that processes like this could eventually be used to revolutionize agriculture as we know it. This is explored in an article, titled "[Food Without Agriculture]()," published last year in the journal *Nature* *Sustainability*, that was authored by several of the startup's researchers, including Alexander. "I don't think we will get to the point where we are making all our food synthetically, but if we could make a dent in it by synthesizing things like these otherwise quite-greenhouse-gas-intensive oil crops such as palm oil and soybeans, we could really reduce the amount of land that we need for our food supply," Steven Davis at Stanford University and lead author of the study, told *New Scientist*. And in a "Soylent Green"-ish sounding future, the researchers also suggest that in the face of global food shortages, these high-calorie synthesized fats could hold us over. "If we had an emergency, this could feed the whole planet for a really long time," Alexander told *New Scientist*. Maybe so. But Savor's butter will have to overcome the obstacles plaguing other synthetic foods, like [lab-grown meats](), which are both enormously expensive to produce and are a difficult sell to the public. The company is adamant, however, that it can compete with the cost of real butter. **More on carbon:** *[Scientists Say New Material Can Suck Carbon Out of Atmosphere Faster Than Trees]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()