Odi et amo: The arrival of Zero Acre Farms

The remarkable story of Zero Acre Farms leaked into the public domain this week with the news that the company, focused on the production of “healthy, more sustainable oils and fats” from sugars has raised $37 million in an oversubscribed Series A. Co-founders include Steve del Cardayre, Jay Keasling and Jeff Nobbs.

If it’s starting to sound a little familiar, you might remember LS9, which was founded on the premise of making fuels out of oils made from sugars. Jay and Steve were two of the rock stars in that epic company development story, until it didn’t exactly work out, primarily because the economics did not sizzle after oil prices crashed.

The technology was good, the problem was the economics, and investor disinterest in climate change dogged the venture as it developed. The company ultimately was sold to REG and became REG Life Sciences, with a mission to make chemicals out of oils made from sugars, until it didn’t exactly work out. The assets were acquired by Genomatica.

Solazyme tried to make transformative foods out of oils made from sugars, which worked out great until it didn’t. The assets were acquired by Corbion, which now makes super products like AlgaPrime DHA, now competing vigorously in the 50 Hottest Projects in the Bioeconomy.

So, there is reason to be hopeful about this technology approach, the co-founders are deeply experienced in the art of making oils from sugars. Apparently, healthy oils and we hope scrumptious ones. But let’s be cautious, the sweetest fruit is often high in the tree and will not yield to maladroit plucking.

There’s one more cautionary note that ought be offered, and it comes back to the tone of the company’s denunciation of, well, just about anybody else in the food chain anywhere near an oilseed.

Let me quote. Boldface is mine.

“We’re proud to be the first company stepping up with the mission to completely remove industrial vegetable oils from our food system.” says co-founder and CEO Jeff Nobbs.

The attack continues.

“The increase in vegetable oil consumption is the single largest dietary change of the last hundred years and is linked to increased rates of obesity and chronic disease, including heart disease—now the leading cause of death in the world.”

And it goes on and on.

“Vegetable oils also take a massive toll on the environment. More vegetable oils are produced globally than all beef, chicken, shrimp, and cheese combined, contributing to record rates of deforestation and carbon emissions. In fact, two of the top three drivers of global deforestation are vegetable oil crops, soybean and palm oil. Zero Acre Farms is brewing up a new category of healthy oils and fats, made by fermentation, not deforestation.”

So, let me paraphrase. 

Go right to hell, you growers, oilseed-based companies and the supply chain. Right to hell, right now. Especially you, George Washington Carver, to hell with your 150 ways to make foods from an oilseed like the peanut, you go right to hell and we’re giving you a smelly room there, you bad person.

I hope I got that right.

I suppose I would have bought into this attack, if a great friend and leader of the bioeconomy, Jay Keasling, had mentioned any of this while accepting the 2013 George Washington Carver Award for Lifetime Achievement. After all, the award is named for a guy who is famous for promoting the cultivation of plant oils for an expanding set of food uses.

I was there when he gave the speech. It was vintage Jay, a moving origin story about ultra low-cost malaria treatments, and his hopes that synbio development timelines will be crushed down via innovation. Brilliant, humble, hopeful, personal. No mention of foods except a fleeting reference to developing plants that will need less water or fertilizer.

Here are some George Washington Carver “more ways to use plant oils in food” inventions that Jay could have sent right to hell.

Salted Peanuts, Peanut Butter, regular, Breakfast Food, Butter from Peanut Milk, Pancake Flour, Peanut Flour, Peanut Surprise, Malted Peanuts, Bisque Powder, Peanut Meal, Meat Substitutes, Chocolate Coated Peanuts, Chili Sauce, Peanut Cake, Peanut Brittle, Dry Coffee, Cream Candy, Instant Coffee, Peanut Flakes, Peanut Hearts, Chop Suey Sauce, Mock Oysters, Mayonnaise, Worcestershire Sauce, Peanut Meat Loaf… The list goes on and on.

Personally, I don’t wish to condemn Dr. Carver, but to bless him. Showed us the way on a lot of vegan ideas before they were in vogue. Showed the way so that some struggling American farmers could pay the bills. The world is not becoming obese because of Carver’s innovations, or plant oils. People are becoming obese because they are consuming too many damn calories. People should cut out the snacks, exercise more, lower their stress levels. Of course we should. Get on that Peloton! Put down that cupcake!

Yes, probably food companies should spend less time trying to seduce people into a big bowl of Captain Crunch and more time figuring out how to sell healthy veggies to a hungry public. It’s a tough challenge. Some marketers try, some strike out, some take the all-too-easy road of selling what tastes good or what can be made cheaply.

You could say it of everyone, in all walks of life, that we sometimes do not listen to the better angels of our nature. Not living up to our potential is the original human disease. Pointing fingers at niche offenders for the ills of the world is a piss-poor way of selling a new technology. 

Back to Zero Acre Farms and the mission “to completely remove industrial vegetable oils from our food system”? Completely remove. Really? 

Let’s consider some hard data. There are, I read, 199 million tons of vegetable oil demand. Zero Acre Farms does not propose that people should remove oils from their diet, just use healthier ones. So, let’s go to the Digest Calculator and add up the externalities.

The capex for advanced synbio industrial facilities runs at least $1300 per ton of annual capacity, more or less, so think about raising $259 billion to build out the production. OK, not all of usage is food. But think of the cost to put in the infrastructure. Figure out how to obtain millions of tons of sugar to make oils from, it’s not lying around by the side of the road.  And figure out how to keep the rural banking system from collapsing when a lot of oilseed collateral becomes worthless, and farm prices go through a convulsion. And, the costs could be much higher. A guru of advanced fermentartion, Jeff Lievense, writes:

“I’ve been involved in a few that are commercial (1,3-propanediol, farnesene, 1,4-butanediol) with more in the works and have good colleagues who have been involved in others (e.g. Solazyme’s Moema plant). I would have put the capex at 2-3x your [$1300/ton] figure or even more, depending on the almighty details such as capacity, process complexities, location, site infrastructure, integration synergies, etc.”

In that scenario, the capex rises for this “rid the world of veggie oils” scenario to as much as $777 billion. That’s Billion with a B.

So, let’s be frank. Here is a group of very smart people, the founders and early investors at Zero Acre Farms, who have what is in all probability a fine beginning to a technology. They probably don’t have a finished industrial process, detailed engineering, the techno-economics of their ambition, or any idea of how to accomplish the industrial transformation they are messaging about. So, shut up, show some humility, deliver something, think good thoughts, practice yoga if necessary.

Let’s be positive about the arrival of a new technology. I’ll raise a cheer for Zero Acre Farms, and I’ll be happy for their success. I think the company can do better on messaging, humility, and humanity.

We need to work on carbon reduction, yes. Healthier diets, yes. This technology is worth following, these founders are serious people. As Peter Paul & Mary once sang, “They Got A Good Thing Goin’ When The Words Don’t Get In The Way.”