Milk created out of thin air
From farm to fork, food accounts for 26% of the global emissions leading to climate change1. Meat and dairy products, in particular, are major contributors. Multiple solutions are being discussed to reduce the impact of food on climate, notably promoting alternatives to animal proteins. A group of startups are working on a very elegant solution: using the carbon in the atmosphere to create a new source of proteins.?
How is that possible??
The idea is as simple on paper as it is complex to materialize. First, you need carbon dioxide, which either has to be captured from the atmosphere, through direct air capture (DAC) or extracted directly from factory output. ? Then, you have to find in nature a bacteria which, through fermentation, will “eat” the carbon and transform it into protein. This process is energy-intensive and extremely complex to master. Nonetheless, a handful of startups, often in association with established research and development centers, are working on doing just that. ?
Feeding humans and fish alike—but is it scalable??
Among the startups working on this technology, we have identified two broad groups approaching the protein application from different perspectives. One group is developing farmed fish food; the other is creating new protein sources for human consumption. ?
Companies like NovoNutrients (USA)2 or DeepBranch (UK)3 are focused on fish farming, with a ?regulatory pathway that seems far simpler than that for human food. On the other end of the spectrum, well-funded human-focused startups such as Solar Foods 4 (Finland) and Air Protein (USA),5 think that the need for a non-animal source of protein that is not only carbon-neutral but carbon-negative, creates a much bigger market.?
This may seem like magic if you are discovering this technology for the first time, but it is commanding serious attention: ?
Now, about that milk…?
In September, Finnish company Solar Foods, one of the industry’s early pioneers, alongside partners, was awarded €5.5M for a project called “Hydrocow”.10 The company has developed a proprietary microbe that feeds on carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen to grow a high-protein food ingredient. The idea is to genetically modify a bacteria that can create dairy proteins while eating carbon dioxide. This could have a far-reaching impact by alleviating pressure on crops production and the associated water consumption, pesticides and biodiversity loss.?
Dozens of startups and more established companies are working on a technology called precision fermentation, which uses genetically modified yeasts or fungi, that can produce dairy proteins through fermentation. Several have products on the market in the U.S. and in other countries. However, these microorganisms get fed with sugars extracted from corn or soybeans.? ?
While these ideas are still in the early stages of development and may take years to bear fruit—or potentially fail to deliver scalable results—we think they are highly relevant as examples of what could be the basis of the future of food. Indeed, they represent a strong mix of biotechnology and food. Further, they go beyond sustainability by potentially answering our need to (literally) decarbonize.?
Reaching profitability and scale will be very complicated for such a technology. It would require massive industrial investments and access to an unlimited source of clean energy. However, as we discussed previously, the introduction of a carbon tax on all consumer goods , and eventually on food products, could boost this source of protein, as it could then get “sponsored” by receiving money for each gram of CO2 it removes from the atmosphere.
Insights from MSCI?
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Footnotes
1 Based on the meta-analysis of 570 studies as contained in Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992.??
6 https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/air-protein , ?https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/solar-foods-oy , ?https?:// www.crunchbase.com/organization/novonutrients , ?https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/deep-branch-biotechnology ?https://solarfoods.com/solar-foods-receives-a-34-million-grant-to-ramp-up-factory-01-and-start-preparations-for-factory-02/ ?