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Cargill Inc., one of the largest global agricultural companies, has joined Bill Gates and other business giants to invest in a nascent technology to make meat from self-producing animal cells amid rising consumer demand for protein that's less reliant on feed, land and water.
Memphis Meats, which produces beef, chicken and duck directly from animal cells without raising and slaughtering livestock or poultry, raised $17 million from investors including Cargill, Gates and billionaire Richard Branson, according to a statement Tuesday on the San Francisco-based startup's website. The fundraising round was led by venture-capital firm DFJ, which has previously backed several social-minded retail startups.
They made the first ever chicken and duck meat that were produced without the animals.
The company expects to have a product in stores by 2021.
"They're the leader in clean meat. There's no one else that far along," says venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, whose firm led Memphis Meats' recent $17 million Series A. Before he met Valeti in 2016, Jurvetson spent almost five years researching lab-grown meat and meat alternatives, believing the market was set to explode. "They're the only one that convinced me they can get to a price point and a scale that would make a difference in the industry," he says.
Cargill is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in terms of revenue ($109.7 billion in 2017).
Previously: Lab-Grown Chicken (and Duck) Could be on the Menu in 4 Years
Related: Lab-grown meat would 'cut emissions and save energy'
Producing Beef has the Greatest Impact on the Environment Compared to Other Animal Based Foods
Real Vegan Cheese: Coming From a Yeast to You
Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Lab-Grown Pork Closer to Reality
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 05 2017, @03:39PM (9 children)
Vegetarian and Vegan faggots will still continue to be vegetarian and vegan, they wouldn't dare give up their smug sense of righteousness and ugly bumper stickers on the back of their Priuses.
Chicken is for people who don't know what they want to order. Let's hope that Memphis meats can do seafood and shellfish next.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Sunday November 05 2017, @04:34PM (1 child)
Most of the vegetarians I know stopped because of the cruelty aspect. No cruelty = eat all the meat you want.
(Score: 4, Funny) by RamiK on Sunday November 05 2017, @05:24PM
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/ethical-consumption [smbc-comics.com]
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 05 2017, @04:50PM (3 children)
This shit is for the proles.
Question to ponder. Cannibalism is taboo almost everywhere in the world, right? And, anyplace that it isn't taboo, some more powerful outsiders have put a stop to it. So . . . if they can grow human muscle tissue, would it be alright to fry it up, and serve it with some fava beans and a nice chianti?
Never mind - the proles can't afford a nice chianti. It will be long pig over rice, and mad dog for dinner.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday November 05 2017, @07:01PM
I will happily eat prole-priced lab meat if it can match the meats that are being replaced in terms of quality, texture, and price. Getting the texture of more complex cuts right looks like it will be a hard task, along with scaling up the process, but I am confident that it can be done. Easier stuff like ground beef or meatballs should be a piece of meatcake though.
If done right, these cellular processes could match "Wagyu" levels of quality, at a lower price, with no animals killed, at a fraction of the environmental impact (land/water used), and provide a FRESHER product to the consumer since you could put factories much closer to where people live (while preventing these kinds of incidents [slate.com]).
It could also be used as the basis for a cheaper pink slime... but people already eat billions of pounds of that stuff [yum.com].
Lab grown meat has the POTENTIAL to be better than traditional meat in every way, while avoiding that real prole shit... like Gaaark's mealworms.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @07:14PM
They can already grow human skin, so chicharrones shouldn't be out of the question. Sounds yummy.
Next item to work on are those little sausages
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @06:04PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday November 05 2017, @06:48PM (1 child)
Given their trajectory I wouldn't expect seafood/shellfish anytime soon.
At least, that's what I thought. But it turns out multiple companies are looking at it:
https://gizmodo.com/meet-the-radical-scientists-who-want-to-grow-our-seafoo-1752950596 [gizmodo.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/20/lab-grown-meat-fish-feed-the-world-frankenmeat-startups [theguardian.com]
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/startup-making-synthetic-lab-grown-shrimp/ [iflscience.com]
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53dzm3/lab-grown-shrimp-is-silicon-valleys-latest-and-most-ambitious-frankenfood [vice.com]
https://www.saveur.com/in-vitro-fish-fillets-finless-foods [saveur.com]
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/fake-shrimp/477120/ [theatlantic.com]
Finless Foods [finlessfoods.com]
New Wave Foods [newwavefoods.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @11:16PM
I hope so. These days I wouldn't touch seafood with a stick considering what's in the ocean. I would call such contaminants "crap" but literal crap would probably be a great deal less dangerous.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @07:24PM
Back on your meds please. I know some people complained about your change towards more moderate and less offensive material, but really it was better for your mental state.