In Bill Gates' latest GatesNotes blog yesterday (Febrary 13), "I’m making big bets on novel fats and oils," the Microsoft founder and entrepreneur makes a strong advocacy for the commercial development of environment-friendly substitutes for animal fats and oils in the human food intake.
He himself admits his fondness for cheeseburgers but wishes this weren't the case considering the impact on the environment of their high animal fat content: "It's what gives so many foods their richness, juiciness, meltability, unique 'mouthfeel' and overall flavor. It’s what distinguishes butter from margarine, dairy ice cream from a plant-based frozen dessert, and a great burger from one made of soy protein or peas.
But Bill Gates says that this high consumption of food with high animal fat content is unfortunately a disaster for the Earth's climate: "Each year, the world emits 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases—and the production of fats and oils from animals and plants makes up seven percent of that. To combat climate change, we need to get the number to zero."
The course of action he is pursuing: "Find new ways of generating the same fat molecules found in animal products, but without greenhouse gas emissions, animal suffering, or dangerous chemicals. And they have to be affordable for everyone. It might sound like a pipe dream, but a company called
Savor (which I’m invested in) is in the process of doing it... The result [of
Savor's development efforts] is real fat molecules like the ones we get from milk, cheese, beef, and vegetable oils. [But] the process doesn’t release any greenhouse gases, and it uses no farmland and less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does. And most important, it tastes really good—like the real thing, because chemically it is."
Read Bill Gates' "Greasy—and good for the planet" blog in full by clicking this link!RELATED EARLIER READING IN THE FORUM:Bill Gates funds developer of feed additive that reduces cow burps and farts
