Bill Gates-Backed Company Is Now Producing Butter Made from Carbon

MOLINA: “It looks smells and tastes like the butter we’re all familiar, but without the farmland, fertilizers or emissions tied to that typical process. And this butter breakthrough, it’s happening right here in Batavia.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “In the middle of an industrial park in a suburb west of Chicago, something unprecedented is happening.”

ALEXANDER: “So you’re using this gas right now to, like, cook your food, and we’re proposing that we would like to first make your food with that gas.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “The company is called Saver, and you better believe it. Their pioneering tech uses carbon and hydrogen to make the stick of butter you see on this plate.”

BEIDEN-Charles: “This is pretty novel, to be able to make food that looks and tastes and feels exactly like dairy butter, but with no agriculture whatsoever.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “And no long ingredient list the average person can’t pronounce.”

BEIDEN-Charles: “It’s really just our fat, some water, a little bit of lecithin as an emulsifier, and some natural flavor and color.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “How? Fats are made up of carbon and hydrogen chains. The goal here: replicate, those chains without animals or plants. And they did it. They tell me, to simplify, they take carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, heat them up and oxidize them. The final result?”

BEIDEN-Charles: “It looks like a wax, like a candle wax at first.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “But they’re fat molecules, like the ones in beef, cheese or vegetable oils.”

ALEXANDER: “Sustainability is why we are here.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “It’s all done releasing zero greenhouse gases, using no farmland to feed cows.”

ALEXANDER: “We’re, like, not at full capacity in this facility.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “And even though we’re standing in a factory setting — “

ALEXANDER: “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.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “I know what you’re thinking.”

MOLINA: “I think we need to taste this.”

BEIDEN: “I would love for you to taste this.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “How does it taste?”

MOLINA: “I love butter, so I’m gonna take a really healthy amount.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “Admittedly, surprisingly, like butter.”

MOLINA: “Cheers... It tastes like butter.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “Another reason they say this makes an impact: no palm oil, a significant contributor to deforestation and climate change. That’s not all. Of the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted every year, 7% is from the production of fats and oils from animals and plants. So when could you get a taste yourself? Right now, they’re working directly with restaurants, bakeries and food suppliers, releasing these chocolates made with their butter in time for the holidays.”

ALEXANDER: “Saver butter in either its current manifestation or with our partners, we expect that to be on the shelves kind of more like around 2027.”

MOLINA (voice-over): “Their teams here in Batavia, Illinois, and their home lab based in San Jose, California, backed by Bill Gates, who wrote in his blog: ‘The idea of switching to lab-made fats and oils may seem strange at first, but their potential to significantly reduce our carbon footprint is immense,’ believing butter can make a difference.”

ALEXANDER: “This is really about how we feed our species and heal our planet at the same time.”

MOLINA: “I put more information on food sustainability and how this could impact our food industry moving forward in the story that’s up on our website right now, where you’ll also find more information about this company. Reporting inside Saver’s facility in Batavia, I’m Tara Molina, CBS News Chicago investigators.”