Bill Gates-Backed 'Butter From Carbon' Wins Praise — But The Internet's Reactions Are Not So Smooth

Is a butter that is not made from cows, but from carbon, a good idea? A Bill Gates–backed startup thinks so, arguing its invention could reshape the future of food.

While the new 'carbon butter' is being hailed by some as a sustainability breakthrough, online reactions have been anything but creamy. From cries of 'disgusting' to worries about long-term safety, the internet is struggling to swallow the concept.

A New Kind of Butter, Backed by Bill Gates

A Batavia, Illinois-based company is producing butter in an entirely new way. The company, which focuses on sustainability, has developed a carbon-based butter that does not use animals, plants, or oils. This process has the full support and financial backing of Bill Gates.

The spread looks, smells, and tastes just like the butter we are all accustomed to. Still, it's made without the use of farmland, fertilisers, or the emissions associated with traditional production. This unique process takes place at Savor's facilities in an industrial park just west of Chicago.

From Carbon to a Spreadable Fat

'So you're using this gas right now to cook your food, and we're proposing that we would like to first make your food with— with that gas,' said Kathleen Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Savor. The company's innovative technology uses carbon and hydrogen to create sticks of butter that are instantly recognisable.

'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,' said Jordan Beiden-Charles, food scientist for Savor.

The butter also has a short ingredient list that is easy for the average person to understand. 'It's just our fat, some water, a little bit of lecithin as an emulsifier, and some natural flavour and colour,' Beiden-Charles said.

How Does Carbon Become Butter?

Here's how it works: Fats are composed of carbon and hydrogen chains. The goal was to reproduce those chains without relying on animals or plants. And they succeeded. According to Savor, they use carbon dioxide present in the air and hydrogen from water, heat them, and then oxidise them.

The final result resembles candle wax but is composed of fat molecules, similar to those found in beef, cheese, or vegetable oils. The whole process releases zero greenhouse gases and requires no farmland to feed cows. Despite its industrial look, it has a much smaller environmental footprint.

'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,' Alexander said.

Does It Pass the Taste Test?

How does it taste, you ask? The flavour, to many people's surprise, is just like the butter we all know. The company also notes that the product is free of palm oil, a leading contributor to deforestation and climate change.

In a 2024 blog post, Gates described lab-made fats and oils as 'strange at first' but noted their potential to reduce the world's carbon footprint significantly. Savor believes its product could help change the future of sustainable food.

The Internet's Lukewarm Reaction to Carbon Butter

The news that a company is producing butter from carbon has sparked online interest. A user on the social media platform X wrote, 'Disgusting. They are combining hydrogen, carbon and oxygen to create fat molecules, then manipulating them to taste like butter. Why do this when we already have butter?'

Another wrote, 'Bill Gates' Fake Lab Produced Carbon Neutral Butter can't be good. Why does he want to take everything that's naturally beautiful & destroy it? Why can't Bill Gates leave stuff alone?'

Another X user noted, 'Disgusting. God only knows what consuming entirely artificial products like this does to your body in the long term.'

One person commented, 'Would rather eat real butter from happy cows than lab-made carbon. Some innovations feel unnecessary. Also, why call it butter? Why do they want to usurp the popularity of the butter to push some garbage in its name?'

A Humorous and Scientific Defence

However, others defended the concept. As one person pointed out, 'Quite literally all food is made from carbon.'

A humorous post said, 'My butter is also carbon butter. The CO2 is released from the air and absorbed by the grass through a process called photosynthesis. Then the cow eats it and turns it into dairy fat, which I turn into butter.'

The Future of Food?

The debate over Savor's carbon-based butter highlights a key challenge for food innovation. While the product is a significant step towards sustainability, it has received a mix of praise and criticism.

Savor's approach could sharply reduce land use and emissions if it scales and proves safe, tasty, and affordable.

Whether it wins hearts may depend on transparency, regulation, and price—plus how convincingly it matches the golden simplicity of butter churned from milk.

For now, the debate is lively, and the spread is making headlines.