\r\n\t\t\t
PIX: In the NASA control room as Apollo 11 prepares to launch. A tense countdown begins. Apollo 11 finally achieves liftoff.<\/p>\n
SOT: Liftoff! We have liftoff on Apollo 11!<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: Imagine that you're on a trip to a distant planet. So you're in a spacecraft, and you have to figure out how to feed yourself and the rest of your crew.<\/p>\n
PIX: Astronauts work in zero gravity as their ship flies into space.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: One idea is to take a packet of seeds that can grow using elements of the air, water, and energy, and they can grow really fast in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n
PIX: Shots of what the now spaceborne astronauts see: earth and the moon.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: It\u2019s a way of making food that doesn't require any arable land whatsoever. You can grow food anywhere, anytime, rain or shine, day or night.<\/p>\n
PIX: Fixing Food teaser<\/p>\n
TITLE: Food From the Air<\/p>\n
L\/T: Lisa Dyson, PhD - Founder + CEO - Air Protein<\/p>\n
PIX: Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans. Entire neighborhoods are flooded.<\/p>\n
Lisa: Being a scientist, thinking about climate science, is why I do many of the things that I do.<\/p>\n
TEXT: New Orleans, 2005<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: I was one of the many people who went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.<\/p>\n
Lisa: My mother\u2019s family is from Louisiana, so I went to Louisiana a lot as a kid. Very fond memories.<\/p>\n
PIX: Hurricane Katrina survivors are airlifted out of the storm by helicopter.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: But going back to Louisiana in 2005 was a very different story. And just seeing the devastation that this weather event created, that had a huge impact. That got me interested in trying to be a part of the solution.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa and Dr. John Reed in a lab.<\/p>\n
TEXT: Soon after Katrina, Dyson teamed up with Dr. John Reed.<\/p>\n
PIX: Aerial views of industrial cow farming; pigs crowded into a warehouse.<\/p>\n
TEXT: They knew that industrial agriculture is a major source of the greenhouse gasses fueling climate change.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: We really looked at the biggest problem and the biggest opportunity, which is alternative meat, replacements for beef, chicken, pork, etc. <\/p>\n
Lisa: And we asked the question, we said, \"If we can solve this, if we can make something like a meat alternative that tastes good, then we can solve many problems.\"<\/p>\n
PIX: Aerial views of barren farmland; forests destroyed by fire.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: And we need to do it in a way that uses much less land, that does not lead to deforestation, that doesn\u2019t emit as much of these greenhouse gas emissions that we have.<\/p>\n
TEXT: During their research, Dyson and Reed found intriguing work that NASA scientists had started 40 years earlier proposing ways to make food from elements in the air.<\/p>\n
PIX: Astronauts and scientists test areas of their spaceships. Shots of NASA diagrams, formulas, research.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: NASA started working on the technical piece, but didn't finish. That's what takes the longest, is figuring out the science, doing all the research, the studies, the scale-up work.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa in Air Protein\u2019s kitchen making beef tacos with Chef Christopher Dumesnil.<\/p>\n
Lisa: Well, this is very exciting. It\u2019s for our Air Protein beef to be infused with Mexican flavors.<\/p>\n
L\/T: Chef Christopher Dumesnil<\/p>\n
Christopher: It\u2019s easy to flavor, it can be pushed into barbecues, into pork dish. . . .<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: We're making food in a whole new way. Food that is highly nutritious, our initial protein ingredients have 80% protein content with all of the essential amino acids and rich in vitamins and minerals.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa in Air Protein\u2019s lab with Dr. Kripa Rao.<\/p>\n
Lisa: What did you think when I first asked you if we can make meat from air?<\/p>\n
L\/T: Dr. Kripa Rao - Head of Technical Programs<\/p>\n
Kripa: I first thought of the structure, the texture of meat, how it feels like when you bite into it, how it tastes, the smell. And then how do I create that in the lab? Taking the powder that we have, the ingredient, that we made from air, and putting that into these various forms, so that when we eat it, it feels like meat, it tastes like meat. There was an element of magic, there was an element of science, there's an element of mystery and history that we all put in.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa in the kitchen with Mark Reed and Christopher sampling their finished beef tacos.<\/p>\n
Lisa: The texture\u2013<\/p>\n
Man: The texture of the protein is really nice.<\/p>\n
Chef: Perfect for meat tacos. Coming from a Mexican.<\/p>\n
Lisa:\tOur process is a new type of fermentation. Fermentation makes beer, makes wine, makes yogurt, makes cheese. <\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa enters the Seed Lab. Scientists are working on projects.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: And now, it makes Air Protein. And will make more things. So if you're dealing with yogurt, your agricultural input is milk. Same with cheese. In our case, we actually feed it the elements that make up those inputs.<\/p>\n
Lisa: So milk is made up of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen. We feed it those elements.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa gives a tour of the Seed Lab. Montage of scientists and machines working.<\/p>\n
Lisa: So here, we have where it all begins.
\nPIX: Dr. Mark Held explains what\u2019s in a half filled beaker.<\/p>\n
L\/T: Dr. Mark Held - Director of Food Applications<\/p>\n
Mark: These serve as cultures to grow out larger lots of material that we can then refine and purify to produce protein-rich ingredients. It really comes down to this culture being the start of the process, going through multiple refining steps.<\/p>\n
Sue v\/o: Just so that I understand, in these little beakers are the microbes to which you add hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and you mix it all around, and you can make pasta or meat or bread?<\/p>\n
Mark: In a nutshell, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
PIX: Mark puts the beaker into a machine.<\/p>\n
Mark: All right. Now we're going to transfer our cultures to a controlled growth environment to propagate this culture.<\/p>\n
Sue v\/o: How long will they stay in there?<\/p>\n
Mark: Anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, depending on the culture. At that time, they're ready to go into a larger reactor.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tExterior shots of the Air Protein facilities.<\/p>\n
TEXT: In 2019, more than a decade after they began, Dyson and Reed started a new company called Air Protein.<\/p>\n
TEXT: They raised over $107 million, enough to build a full-scale research and production facility.<\/p>\n
PIX: Lisa back in the kitchen to prepare Air Protein bread with Chef Christopher.<\/p>\n
Lisa: I have to tell you that I\u2019m super excited. I haven\u2019t tasted the Air Protein bread yet. I love the way it looks!<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o: We're continuously fine-tuning and refining recipes because that's what you have to do. You have your ingredient, now you have to mix it with other ingredients and get your final recipes. So that's an ongoing process.<\/p>\n
Lisa: Okay! Air Protein bread! Cheers! Mm. It\u2019s very good. Thank you.<\/p>\n
PIX: Three food scientists working in a lab.<\/p>\n
L\/T: Vici Thahir - Food Scientist<\/p>\n
Vici: Everyone loves food, I love food and it\u2019s a very applicable, relatable science.<\/p>\n
L\/T: Lucas Wise - Food Scientist<\/p>\n
Lucas: I\u2019ve always been interested in food and I\u2019ve also been interested in all aspects of science\u2013chemistry, microbiology, engineering.<\/p>\n
L\/T: Amelia Chen - Food Scientist<\/p>\n
Amelia: I was watching a Domino\u2019s commercial, actually, about a new sauce that they were unveiling. And was like, \u201cWho does that?\u201d So Googled \u201cfood science,\u201d quite literally, and discovered it\u2019s a field.<\/p>\n
Vici: Most of it is chemistry, yeah.<\/p>\n
Lucas: Doing food science that has like, a larger purpose, is interesting to me.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tIn a kitchen, Vici gives a demonstration of how to make Air Protein pasta.<\/p>\n
Vici:\tSo I\u2019m gonna make Air Protein egg. This is Air Protein. I\u2019m gonna put the water in now. Air Protein egg is similar with egg in pasta, because it has the emulsification properties, and also water holding, binding. So it helps the dough come together pretty nicely. <\/p>\n
PIX:\tVici uses a machine to measure the firmness of her Air Protein pasta. The machine splits a pasta strand in half.<\/p>\n
Vici:\tSo I\u2019m gonna measure the firmness of the pasta. I\u2019m gonna lay down the pasta right here. We wanna be consistent and we want the pasta to hold up during boiling so it doesn\u2019t mush when you eat it.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tLisa enters a large building to speak to Michael Roland.<\/p>\n
L\/T: \tMichael Roland - Chief Manufacturing Officer<\/p>\n
Michael: \tHey Lisa, how are you?<\/p>\n
Lisa:\tIt\u2019s really busy this morning!<\/p>\n
Michael:\tYeah it is, it is.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o:\tBring me up to speed. What\u2019s happening? <\/p>\n
PIX:\tAir Protein scientists are busy working in the warehouse\/lab.<\/p>\n
Michael v\/o:\tThey\u2019re prepping the micronutrients, if you will, that the fermentation requires. So that\u2019s being prepped. Basically just final checkouts of all the systems.<\/p>\n
Lisa\tThere's a huge food security benefit to this way of making food. And you can make it in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tShots of gleaming chrome machines in the Air Protein warehouse\/lab.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o:\tYou don\u2019t have to wait for the right season. 96 hours later, your system is fully producing.<\/p>\n
TEXT:\tAir Protein is working with the Department of Defense to provide mobile food solutions in war zones and famine areas.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tScientists in the NASA control room watch the moon landing.<\/p>\n
SOT:\tOne small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o:\tWe stand on the shoulders of the NASA scientists, who thought up this idea of making nutrients from elements of the air.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tThe earth from space; the sky.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o:\tWe face lots of scientific and engineering challenges.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tLisa and Mark working in their lab.<\/p>\n
Lisa v\/o:\tIt\u2019s not easy. But we\u2019re seeing the effects of climate change now. The need to act is only getting more important and more urgent.<\/p>\n
PIX:\tClouds.<\/p>\n
TEXT:\tAir Protein plans to be in grocery stores across the nation in 3-5 years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We tour the facility where Lisa Dyson, founder of Air Protein, literally makes meat out of air. She might just transform the future of food. *Named “2024 Best Short Video” by the Newswomen’s Club of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":75902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21512,19644,19483,21511,19731],"class_list":["post-71505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-climate-change-solutions","tag-climate-entrepreneurs","tag-eco-friendly","tag-sustainable-food-production","tag-women-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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