Lisa Dyson’s mission is simple but incredibly ambitious: to make food from air.
The scientist turned entrepreneur says her startup’s work is based on NASA research that dates back to the space program in the 1970s, when the government agency was looking at ways to feed astronauts on long journeys. “The trajectory of our work is based on this program,” says Dyson. “[We’re] trying to figure out how to make food efficiently, using minimal space, minimal resources, and whatever you have available.”
In order to do this, Dyson and her cofounder have taken cultures (similar to principles seen in yogurt or cheese making) present in the air, and are converting them into nutrients—the ingredients for food. “It is an economically attractive, scalable process that we are commercializing,” says Dyson.
What was your “aha moment” for founding Air Protein?
In 2005, I was one of many people who went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild the city. For me, that was my first time experiencing the devastating impacts of a huge weather event. Later in life, I began thinking about how climate scientists have been telling us that we are going to have more of these weather events more frequently and that they’re going to be more intense. What became real to me is that this was something that affected the lives of ordinary people, and more and more people would continue to be impacted.
Ultimately, given my scientific background and my business background, I, along with my cofounder, thought that we could combine the two by creating sustainable ways of living that were driven by scientific innovations and that were economically attractive. Fast-forward a few years, and we began thinking about food and how food is one of the key contributors to the greenhouse gas problem. In fact, food is a larger contributor to greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector. It is also the leading cause of deforestation. So, we began to focus on applying technology to solving food issues.
What is your biggest challenge?
Scaling is the focal point of our business now. It is a huge opportunity and a huge challenge: How will we feed the world with nutrients, with sustainable nutrition, and sustainable protein without breaking the planet?
We are excited to have recently announced a strategic partnership with Archer Daniels Midland, a company that is also an investor. Given the great progress we have made and where we are and the promise of this technology, we have entered into the partnership to address the future of food and develop sustainable and scalable solutions together.
What is one fun fact about you that people may not know?
When I was 3 years old, I was in the movie The Wiz with Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, and Diana Ross. I was a snow baby that was behind Lena, "the Good Witch," as she was floating in the sky. So that literally was my moment of fame.
The Fortune Founders Forum is a community of entrepreneurs chosen by Fortune’s editorial team to participate at the annual Brainstorm Tech conference, which took place in Deer Valley, Utah, in July. Our inaugural cohort was selected based on a variety of factors, including the potential impact of their companies, and reflected a diversity of geographies, sectors, and demographics.
