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.
There’s a term for that high-carbon butter-like substance. Migraine or something…
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
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.”
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?
Of all things…butter! I’m sure it’ll be more expensive than real butter with the way things work nowadays.
I’m a traditionalist, I prefer my butter silicon based. Maybe germanium or tin if it’s a special occasion
Butter is, like, the one dairy product I don’t miss. Pass.
How
I don’t like how it smells or tastes? 🤷♀️
How?
Fats tend to absorb aromatic molecules. That’s why we want them in food, because those aromatics are what bring out flavor. However, they can also absorb aromatics that aren’t good. This can be an issue with butter stored in the fridge too long. It’s not necessarily dangerous to eat, but you won’t like it.
I’m guessing GP is especially sensitive to the smell/taste that comes off from what the butter has been around.
What kind of question is that? I dunno dawg that’s how my olfactory senses turned out! To me it stinks and kind of makes me nauseated.
Some people dislike cheese, I dislike butter.
How? 😜
😠
Found the owl ;)
Who?
Didnt the Nazis also make something similar using coal?
I must be losing my mind because I thought I saw this post 2 days ago except it said beer.
So when I poop the carbon butter out, how long does it take to decompose? Because unless we make one of those nuclear waste containment salt bunkers for all. the butter carbon poop this kinda seems like a dumb idea.
About as long as meat, since that is also made from carbon.
Or butter.
I can see why some people might conflate Carbon Monomers and Carbon Polymer Chains with plastics, because thats what plastics are after all, but it’s also the basic building block for almost all organic chemistry including proteins, fats (lipids), sugars, alcohols, and sugar alcohols (totally different thing from sugar and alcohol btw). Carbon can even form compounds with Ammonia, such as Carbamides like Urea which can be extracted from Uric Acid using Sodium and then used as agriculture grade fertilizers.
It’s why we’re called Carbon Based Lifeforms.
If you think that’s crazy you should see all the wacky shit that Hydrogen gets up to.
Atoms are atoms. All they are doing here is artificially creating fat molecules rather than getting them from the environment so the decomposing time is not affected.
Yup, should be equivalent to biologically created butter.
This is really about how we feed our species and heal our planet at the same time
Yeah we need more fat. That’s what’s gonna help. More fat. Who owns the Olestra patents and how long until they purchase the artificial fats patent?
Honestly, I think we do need more fat. Everyone seems to be obsessed with less fat and more protein, but fat is an essential nutrient. If you want to lose weight, I recommend increasing your (healthy) fat consumption because you’ll get more satiety per calorie vs carbs, and fatty foods are more likely to have protein than carbs.
If artificial fat can replace dairy or destructivly farmed veggie oil, I’m all for it.
You don’t have to preach nutrition to me, I cook everything from scratch.
The problem here is that obese societies are already over-reliant on fat, so making it more available and cheaper is going to be self-destructive.
No, they’re overly reliant on sugar. If you look at what obese people eat, it’s tons of carbs and fat-free nonsense so they feel like they’re doing something good.
From the description I cannot in a million years assume that it tastes anywhere near butter. And where’s the buttery taste going
“Fat molecules chemically identical to those in butter”. I’ll wait until I hear more third party people try it or I do myself.
Thank goodness we have the assurances of a billionaire oligarch to help steer humanity in the right dietary direction.
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.
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.
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.
