Giving Compass' Take:

• Stanford Social Innovation Review profiles NovoNutrients, which uses bacteria to convert CO2 and other industrial emissions into fish food.

• Could this be a catalyst for other carbon capture innovations? How will it impact our environment and food ecosystem?

• Another area worth exploring: Minerals in soil can hang on to a whole lot of carbon.

Various contraptions fill a cluttered lab in Sunnyvale, Calif. On one side, there’s a large blue incubator filled with flasks. On the center table, brine shrimp swim in circles inside a large cylindrical tank. In the back, a bioreactor tosses and turns a whitish brothlike substance, which becomes increasingly dense. These apparatuses drive the research of NovoNutrients, a startup that seeks to turn carbon dioxide (CO2) into food and feed.

As catches from wild-capture fisheries level off and demand from the emerging global middle class increases, fish farms are projected to produce two-thirds of the world’s fish supply by 2030.

For that reason, there’s a large demand for fish feed, says Heyward Robinson, NovoNutrients’ vice president of corporate development. Current fish meal products are made with anchovies, capelins, or other fish closer to the bottom of the food chain, which contributes to overfishing. Additionally, the supply of these fish is sensitive to climate patterns such as El Niño. In recent years, this has resulted in shortages and price volatility for fish farmers.

Read the full article about capturing emissions for fish food by Rosalie Chan at Stanford Social Innovation Review.