EATING AWAY CLIMATE
EATING AWAY CLIMATE CHANGE? Fermenting George Monbiot: ‘Precision fermentation’ has the potential to do two astonishing things. Source: Wikimedia a revolution I believe precision fermentation is the most important environmental technology ever developed. It might be all that now stands between us and Earth systems collapse. By GEORGE MONBIOT What do we do now? After 27 COP summits and no effective action, it seems that the real purpose was to keep us talking. If governments were serious about preventing climate breakdown, there would have been no Cops 2-27. The major issues would have been resolved at Cop1, as the ozone depletion crisis was at a single summit in Montreal. Precision fermentation is a refined form of brewing, a means of multiplying microbes to create specific products. Nothing can now be achieved without mass protest, whose aim, like that of protest movements before us, is to reach the critical mass that triggers a social tipping point. But, as every protester knows, this is only part of the challenge. We also need to translate our demands into action, which requires political, economic, cultural and technological change. All are necessary, none are sufficient. Only together can they amount to the change we need to see. Let’s focus for a moment on technology. Specifically, what might be the most important environmental technology ever developed: precision fermentation. Precision fermentation is a refined form of brewing, a means of multiplying microbes to create specific products. It has been used for many years to produce drugs and food additives. But now, in several labs and a few factories, scientists are developing what could be a new generation of staple foods. The developments I find most interesting use no agricultural feedstocks. The microbes they breed feed on hydrogen 39
