cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/34272214
A California-based biotechnology startup has officially launched the world’s first commercially available butter made entirely from carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, eliminating the need for traditional agriculture or animal farming. Savor, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates through his Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, announced the commercial release of its animal- and plant-free butter after three years of development.
The revolutionary product uses a proprietary thermochemical process that transforms carbon dioxide captured from the air, hydrogen from water, and methane into fat molecules chemically identical to those found in dairy butter. According to the company, the process creates fatty acids by heating these gases under controlled temperature and pressure conditions, then combining them with glycerol to form triglycerides.
This could be great, but “proprietary”. Gates is still the same Gates. If you want to save all the land and CO2 this could, release the IP free to all. Flood the market with cheap indistinguishable synobutter, real butter can’t compete with. Milk, cheese and yogurt next please.
I’m not a scientist, but isn’t EVERYTHING made of carbon?
Source: Joni Mitchell, Woodstock -
We are stardust, we are golden We are billion-year-old carbon
“Made of” can mean “composed of” or “constructed from”. This is the latter:
Savor says they take carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, heat them up, oxidize them and get a final result that looks like candle wax but is in fact fat molecules like those in beef, cheese or vegetable oils.
The entire process releases zero greenhouse gases, uses no farmland to feed cows, and despite its industrial appearance, has a significantly smaller footprint.
“In addition to the carbon footprint being much lower for a process like this, right, the land footprint is, like, a thousand times lower than what you need in traditional agriculture,”
Good example of how choice of words can mislead, particularly when intentional.
but does it actually taste like the real thing? because I can already buy something that, supposedly, I should be unable to believe isn’t real butter, but after doing so I remain suspicious
The first time I had “I can’t believe it’s not butter,” I said “I can believe it’s not butter.”
I’m a traditionalist, I prefer my butter silicon based. Maybe germanium or tin if it’s a special occasion
Of all things…butter! I’m sure it’ll be more expensive than real butter with the way things work nowadays.
Thank goodness we have the assurances of a billionaire oligarch to help steer humanity in the right dietary direction.
Global warming and ecological crises make shifting diets away from animal products a pretty good idea.
Whether it’s antibiotics resistance, deforestation, or greenhouse gas emissions, humanity is paying a very high price for animal agriculture at the current scale.
Problems come up: “BILLIONAIRES SHOULD DO MORE!” Billionaires do more: “WE CANT TRUST BILLIONAIRES!!”
The conclusion ought to be that billionaires shouldn’t exist. Even if they donate most of their wealth, they will still donate in ways that aren’t necessarily solving real problems.
On that we agree
Ruminants creating greenhouse gasses is a problem that can solve itself by returning to huge fucking pastures and cooperative farming.
Instead, we’re getting synthetic food. We’re a decade removed from human grade kibble at this point.
Here again, capitalism is the problem. A capitalist offering capitalism solutions to problems created by capitalism isn’t appealing.
Cyberpunk shit getting real
Butter backed by Bill Gates? Is that the same Bill Gates who became wealthy and famous for his commanding knowledge of butter?
Didnt the Nazis also make something similar using coal?
You’re probably thinking of the Fischer-Tropsch process for making gasoline.
Good ol’ Gates, always around to make a quick buck of the bloodied backs of humanity. Never an advancement meant to aid us all he can’t swoop in to parasitize. That’s right Billy boy, I didn’t forget the COVID vaccine patents. Billionaires must be condemned to the rubbish bin of history.
Were just all their rentboys.
Yeah #govegan, I love it. I am curious to try it. Great invention.
I must be losing my mind because I thought I saw this post 2 days ago except it said beer.
There’s a term for that high-carbon butter-like substance. Migraine or something…
I’m not giving up a small pleasure like butter just so that a billionaire can buy another private jet and wipe out whatever tiny carbon footprint savings comes from giving up butter
I too love participating in the simple pleasure of systemic animal abuse just to spite the billionaires
The cows yearn to be milked.
Is femboy milk butter ok?
Higher protein content than the cow milk variant!
Doesn’t work well in a cake, sadly.
Not w/ that attitude.
How to spot a vegan: They’ll make sure to turn every discussion to a vegan direction with little effort.
We’re literally talking about an alternative to an animal-based food product.
Nice try, VEGAN, but we’re not going to be deluded into accepting an ethical and cost-efficient alternative to a popular but unsustainable food ingredient.
You’ve filled this community with your malicious campaign of compassion towards living creatures and economic sensibility for FAR TOO LONG. Why don’t you take your EXTREMIST VIEWS on practical efficiency, carbon emissions reduction, ecological sustainability, and better treatment of sentient life and HIT THE BRICK, MATE!
Your conscience, your logic, and your morale character might be welcome in VEGANLAND, but around here we’re built different.
Lordy, this comment is so beautifully wet with sarcasm. Thank you for your creativity and the laughs! You’re awesome!
Yet the other user is being scolded for a choice instead of actually contributing to the conversation. Maybe the user was indeed vegetarian and had dietary problems making butter a good source for protein.
Don’t judge other people’s diets. That’s just an ill-faithed attempt at winning them over to your side without having to show any concern for their life. Instead contribute to a conversation, ask and ye shall receive.
The diet isn’t the issue here. The OP was saying they prefer animal-produced butter to this because… billionaires? Do they think billionaires don’t profit from the dairy industry?
The comment makes no sense. This artificially-created butter would have equivalent nutritional content to biologically-created butter, and there’s a decent chance it can mimic the flavor as well. So it absolutely makes sense to point out the silliness of the opposition, which seems to be based on Gates’ involvement, when Bill Gates isn’t really in business anymore, but more into philanthropy, so buying this is unlikely to enrich Gates by any meaningful amount.
How to spot an asshole: things can only be about what I want them to be about.
You want them to have a slightly smaller mansion on Nantucket island?
