It may not materialize in a food replicator like in Star Trek but it comes close. This futuristic meatless meat is produced from the air – and it rivals other food protein sources for its nutrition content.
It’s just basic science, explains Lisa Dyson, scientist and co-founder of Kiverdi, California, a biotech company dedicated to fighting the climate crisis with carbon recycling technology.
The idea was inspired by NASA. In the 1960s they explored how to convert the carbon dioxide breathed out by astronauts into food and create a closed-loop carbon cycle onboard spacecraft for long trips.
It was never commercialized – as we haven’t yet made it to Mars – but Dyson saw the Earth as much like a spaceship, with limited room and resources. So she and co-founder John Reed investigated the research.
NASA identified a class of single-celled microorganisms called hydrogenotrophs, which Dyson calls “nature’s supercharged carbon recyclers”. These little organisms feed on CO2 and, with the help of hydrogen from water, convert it into food by synthesising the gas into cellular material.
It’s just like using fermentation to make foods like sauerkraut, yoghurt and beer. “There’s so many different things you can do,” Dyson explains. “Basically you have different microorganisms – use different inputs and you get different outputs.”
Kiverdi uses a bioreactor to produce the air protein with the hydrogenotrophs, which are fuelled by renewable energy or biomass.
The CO2-reducing bacteria are extremely industrious; what takes plants months can take them a matter of hours. Therefore, Dyson estimates, they could produce 10,000 times more food per land area and use 2,000 times less water than soybeans.
The “air protein” is rich in vitamins and minerals and has a full complement of amino acids, making it a complete protein. It's also very concentrated, starting out with 70-80% protein compared to 30-50% in soy. In more good news for vegans, it contains vitamin B12.
This is timely news for meatless meat restaurants struggling to meet growing demand for popular alternatives that still taste like meat. Impossible Foods, one of two rapidly growing industries in this space, is running out of its Impossible Burgers sought by thousands of fast-food and chain restaurants.
Beyond Meat, the other major supplier, has hit shaky ground recently, but some experts say it has done extraordinarily well overall with 800% stock growth and predict the meatless meat market could reach $100 billion.
The chefs behind these creations are among the experts that Dyson aims to supply. Kiverdi can provide a neutral base ingredient for them to transform into tasty, textured end products such as burgers, protein shakes, pasta, cereals and snacks.
A key driver for this market is public demand for sustainable food.
As a major target to address this, recent years have seen increasing calls to reduce global red meat consumption. But many alternative protein sources such as soy also rely on unsustainable resources such as land and water.
Soybeans are further grown for oil, and together with canola and palm oil crops are threatening global food security. Palm oil, for instance, is used for an astounding number of products including foods as well as detergents, lotions and soaps.
Dyson discovered that the hydrogenotrophs could produce oil, posing another environmentally friendly alternative to current agricultural practices – which is critical as the world’s population spirals towards 10 billion by 2050.
“That’s really where our focus is,” she explains. “We’re thinking about the future; we’re thinking 20 years from now – what will the world look like? What will food production look like? Let’s start making that today.”