| In May, I visited an aquatic farm an hour outside San Diego to see what could be the future of humanity's protein supply. It looked more like a meth lab out of the drama "Breaking Bad." Decrepit recreational vehicles squat on the property. In one corner, people tended to vials, grow lights and centrifuges in a trailer lab. More than a dozen big ponds filled with duckweed basked in the sunshine. But the only thing cooking there was protein. Within each tiny floating aquatic plant is a molecule colloquially called rubisco, arguably the most abundant protein on the planet. But this tireless molecule is locked inside plants' cells. The company that owns the farm, Plantible Foods, may change that. If it succeeds, duckweed may become humanity's first new major crop in more than a century, a skeleton key to unlock how plants replace animal protein on an unprecedented scale. Why do we need an alternative protein? Meat, at least how most of it is raised today, is the driver behind 57 percent of all food production emissions. Advising people to eat less of it isn't likely to do much. The challenge, then, is how to make plant proteins taste better than their animal counterparts. But as anyone who has eaten a vegan brownie or an Impossible burger knows, plant proteins aren't a perfect substitute. For rubisco, the magic formula is not just replacing meat but making plant proteins like soy, peas and other legumes virtually indistinguishable for people who prefer eating animal protein. What is rubisco? Plants use rubisco protein — technically known as Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase — as the catalyst for photosynthesis, combining CO2 from the air with the building blocks for sugars and carbohydrates. It's also one of the world's most versatile proteins, shape-shifting into forms resembling egg whites, meat, milk, gluten or even steak. "Rubisco does live up to a lot of the hype," says Grant Pearce, a protein chemistry researcher at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Where do you get rubisco? While rubisco is abundant globally, the molecule only represents about 1 percent of a leaf by weight. That means processing enormous amounts of biomass to obtain a relatively small amount of protein. The farm I visited is harvesting it from duckweed which, under ideal conditions, grows at a ferocious rate, doubling in mass every two or three days. That has allowed Plantible to quickly figure out how to grow the best varieties of duckweed. In May, I watched a pond full of duckweed turn into a white powder ready to be used for baked goods within a few hours. So how does it taste? When I stirred rubisco into a glass of water, it tasted like nothing at all. That's the point. The colorless, flavorless all-purpose protein can serve specific needs depending on who's using it. At Plantible's R&D facility, I tried chewy chocolate chip cookies, pound cake and peaky macaroons still warm from the oven. After savoring all of them, I searched my palate for something missing. I couldn't find it. The experience of each bite replicated the rich, soft springiness of the most delicious baked goods. "No one will sacrifice their taste buds to save the planet," says Plantible chief Tony Martens Fekini as we clear the plate, leaving only crumbs. "It's all about taste. People aren't compromising on taste because of the cool technology behind it. Consumers are ruthless." | 
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