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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on CBS News or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: Illinois-based startup Savor has developed a butter made entirely from carbon and hydrogen, eliminating the need for animals, plants, or farmland
• The company’s process captures CO₂ from the air and hydrogen from water to create fat molecules identical to those in dairy products, achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions and a dramatically smaller land footprint
• Backed by Bill Gates, Savor is already supplying restaurants and food suppliers, with consumer products expected by 2027
🔭 The context: Conventional butter and oils account for roughly 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, driven by livestock agriculture, fertilizer use, and land conversion
• Savor’s technology sidesteps these impacts while avoiding palm oil, a major driver of deforestation
• This approach is part of a broader push toward precision fermentation, carbon capture, and synthetic biology to decouple food production from agriculture, aiming to address both climate change and biodiversity loss
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Scaling carbon-based food production could significantly reduce emissions from one of the most resource-intensive food categories, while freeing vast areas of land for rewilding or reforestation
• The model offers a potential blueprint for sustainable fats and oils without contributing to deforestation, methane emissions from livestock, or soil degradation
• The challenge will be consumer acceptance, cost competitiveness, and regulatory approval in key markets
⏭️ What's next: Savor will launch chocolates made with its carbon-based butter for the 2025 holiday season, targeting early adoption in the foodservice sector
• Broader retail availability is planned for around 2027, contingent on scaling production and securing distribution partnerships
• Continued investment — from Gates and potentially other climate-focused backers — will be key to lowering costs and increasing output to commercial scale
💬 One quote: “This is really about how we feed our species and heal our planet at the same time.” — Kathleen Alexander, Co-founder & CEO, Savor
📈 One stat: Producing Savor’s butter requires 1,000 times less land than traditional agriculture-based butter production
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