Name: This company is transforming air into meat
Uploaded: 2023-08-09
Duration: 3 min 42 s
Description: Air Protein CEO Lisa Dyson's mission is to find a sustainable solution to the world's demand for protein.

Air Protein CEO Lisa Dyson's mission is to find a sustainable solution to the world's demand for protein.

This company is transforming air into meat

Venture

The way that we make food today. It has led to the clearing of an amount of land equivalent to the size of South America and Africa combined and it emits more greenhouse gasses than the entire transportation sector. So how do we make food as we continue to grow in our population in a way that doesn't break the planet air protein is focused on being a part of that solution. In 2005, I was one of the many people who went to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina hit and that experience impacted me in many different ways. One of the ways is that I knew that my work had to have an impact in this world and fast forward a few years, the fact that I'm trained as a scientist I began to think about and study what the climate, climate scientists have been saying about the fact that these types of weather events were going to be more intense and more frequent seeing when I was there in 2005. Just how that affected people's lives directly made me want to be a part of the solution. So ultimately, we built Air protein as a way to try to be a part of the solution. We were very creative with the science, but with the name, we're very straightforward, we make protein from air. And so how does one do that? You might ask? Well, it's based on work done by NASA during the space program where they were trying to figure out how to feed astronauts on long space journeys. This is back in the sixties and seventies during the Apollo Space Program. And as you can imagine, if you're on a long journey to Mars or a distant planet, you don't have acres and acres of farmland to deal with. So you have to figure out how to feed astronauts in a way that's super resource efficient use what you have available and it can grow quickly, very quickly, very fast. And so the process that we have, we are commercializing based on their pioneering work is a process that's very similar to fermentation. But the difference is there's no agricultural inputs whatsoever. We use elements of the air, air, water and energy and we make protein from that, we have raised 107 million to date in the beginning. People ask is this science fiction, you know, is this real? Can it be real? How can you make protein from air? So we had to prove it. So the challenges are always initially around demonstrating that this was actually possible. And once we demonstrated it, it was possible. That's when we were able to start building this ecosystem and that we're getting more and more companies and partners as is really around the table to help us create the future that we're working to create. And we've just opened our first air farm in San Leandro, California where we're excited to bring to the world a way of making nutritious proteins with no arable land, no farmland, no agricultural inputs required whatsoever. George Bernard Shaw has this quote that goes something like the reasonable person adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable person persists in trying to adapt the world to him or herself. And therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable person. As a founder, we're doing things that haven't been done before. And so as there are these highs and low lows along the way, it's important for founders to keep their eyes on the prize and inspire the people around them and tap into what inspire them and bring them along on the journey. The only way to predict the future is to create it. And so the future that I'm working to create is a future where more and more and eventually all of our protein is sustainably sourced. The first day when I was able to take a bite of air protein was a day that I realized that this can have the impact that we wanted to have