Sugar for the Planet: Intro
Did you know that artificial photosynthesis can grow plants using less energy than nature does?1 And did you know that food production is about 15% of the climate crisis?2
From there, it’s only a tiny step to the idea that bit me. What if we made food from just CO2 and electricity?
I converged on the following problem formulation:
Cellular agriculture will change how food is made. While there is still lots of work left to productize and scale the technology, the trajectory is already well underway.
There is much less attention on the layer below in the technology stack: nutrients that the cells eat. The carbon impact of the future food industry will be influenced a lot by how the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins) are produced.
Cell cultures primarily consume sugar (as energy source) and amino acids. Today, these are produced with conventional agriculture. A technological revolution similar to cellular agriculture is not yet on the horizon.
There is no consensus on how to synthesize these nutrients efficiently yet, but there are some technologies in research stage to rethink the fundamental chemical reaction pathways. A few companies are tackling protein production, production of sugar seems to receive little attention.
Based on napkin calculations, the key cost is the (electric) energy required. Moving from photosynthesis using free solar energy to production using electricity is probably not economically feasible today. But if a few current trends continue, it might become feasible in the future (say, 10-20y in the future).
If these processes do become feasible, they might underpin the entire food industry and become essential to feeding humanity at scale.
This publication is about working with the garage door open as I dig through this problem. Follow along, and join me on a trip through chemistry, biology, food, engineering, economics, and whatever else we may find.
A summary of the outcomes is available in the One Pager.
Onward, let’s learn to refactor the technology stack for food production.
See A hybrid inorganic–biological artificial photosynthesis system for energy-efficient food production, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00530-x
See Speed & Scale, OKR 3.0: Fix Food https://speedandscale.com/okrs/3-0-fix-food/