Biotechnology startup TurtleTree wants to change the way people consume milk:
Cows are out—at least as far as milking goes. The replacement: cell-based milk. The company says it is able to create raw milk using cells from mammals. The cells are then grown in TurtleTree's labs and milk is ultimately produced. In giant bioreactors, the cells stick to tiny straws, the fluid is then drawn through the straws, and milk comes out the other end.
[...] Most startups fail, and TurtleTree will need to produce a food product consumers will buy. Alternative dairy products already exist, but Lin said that plant-based milk produces less of important protein components than cows milk.
[...] TurtleTree's products will also need the approval of the federal Food and Drug Administration. Cell-based milk is currently not approved for purchase.
[...] There's been limited research on the market for cell-based milk with one study calling it a niche product. But a niche product with limited sales could still be a financial goldmine in the $871 billion global dairy industry.
[...] But even if everything goes right for TurtleTree, cell-based milk won't be flying off the supermarket shelves without great taste.
[...] Lin sees the production of cell-based milk being at least several years away in part because TurtleTree needs to refine the process of extracting high-value dairy-based bioactives like lactoferrin in a cost-efficient way.
[...] While the $40 million in initial funding will allow TurtleTree to continue its research and development for several years, Lin said more funding is essential to the company's long-term vision of producing environmentally friendly, sustainable milk products.
She hopes that food products expected to be introduced in the marketplace next year will demonstrate to investors that a new funding round is in order.
"We are trying to set ourselves up for success," she said.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Monday October 17 2022, @08:31AM (7 children)
No. Simply no. This is not THX1138. The best milk come organic from grass fed cows. Sure it costs more, but it tastes like really good milk. The rest is genetically engineered water with white food coloring.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @11:02AM (3 children)
The best milk that you know of. Replicator technology can reproduce the best milk from the best cow living its best life.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @11:50AM (2 children)
> Replicator technology can reproduce
Sure, if you have a Star Trek replicator that does an atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule, energy-stete-by-energy-state copy. Present technology not so much.
My wild ass guess is that we don't even have a full inventory of all the different proteins (etc, etc) in raw milk yet, much less the ability to reproduce all of them. Cloning a few cells from a cow isn't going to do it, the biological process is a lot more complex and (again my guess) also involves microorganisms that live in the cow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @01:25PM (1 child)
A commercial incentive could help reach that deeper understanding of milk. And since Americans will eat almost any garbage, we have willing test subjects.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18 2022, @03:49AM
This. Here the armchair experts argue about the single best path forward to the mutual exclusion of other good enough options but most of the sheeple continue to chuck junk down their pie hole...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Monday October 17 2022, @11:09AM (2 children)
I disagree. I want the milk, cheese, creme-cheese, cream, but I don't need the beef, manure, methane, land-abuse. Please give me lab-milk.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by HiThere on Monday October 17 2022, @01:23PM (1 child)
Be careful with that wish. Those cells often require special nutrient baths, enzyme stimulants, etc. to perform properly, and all those inputs need to be soruced. It's not guaranteed to be better.
OTOH, it would allow milk from various sources. Human milk, e.g. Or dolphin milk. (Dolphin milk is, I believe, too high in fat to be very drinkable, but it might be a great source for cream.) For the connoisseur, try platypus milk.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @09:27PM
Platypus milk?
PERRY the platypus milk???
Your timing is impeccable. And by "impeccable," I mean completely peccable!
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 17 2022, @08:42AM (9 children)
Few SN members are likely to remember the flavor of whole raw milk, straight from the cow's teat. That was the flavor I knew and loved, up until about age six. No homogenization, no pasteurization, nothing added, nothing taken away. You typically shook or stirred the milk before pouring, to get the cream to mix with the milk again. Then, laws were passed forbidding the sale of whole raw milk. There were actually gestapo milk patrols, trying to catch farmers selling raw milk.
I promise, if these people can capture the flavor of whole raw milk, they won't be able to produce enough to satisfy the demand! The lowest quality of whole raw milk is far superior to the stuff you get from store shelves today.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday October 17 2022, @10:06AM (5 children)
I remember that stuff, only it wasn't called wholemeal raw organic vegan milk, it was just "milk". It was actually rather unpleasant, way too fatty and creamy. Thing is, milk isn't designed for humans, it's designed to put weight on calves so you don't want to feed that to humans as it comes out of the cow. Some processing to get it closer to what's best for humans is OK, although whatever it is they do in the US to turn into into what's sold there as milk probably isn't.
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Monday October 17 2022, @06:17PM
The "processing" it got back in the time was to heat it till it boils (have to be quick to turn the burner off, or it'll spill over), then when it cools it forms a layer of fat at the top that you can easily remove.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday October 18 2022, @03:03AM (3 children)
Human milk fat content is 3% to 5% depending on how long the infant has been nursing (it goes up from stimulation).
Cow's milk fat content is about 3.5% fat, up to about 5%.
Goat's milk fat content runs 3% to 6%.
None of this represents a significant deviation from what's "good for humans".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 18 2022, @04:51AM (2 children)
Human babies (and calves), not anyone past that age group.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday October 18 2022, @05:13AM (1 child)
By that logic, no one past weaning should ever consume milk.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 18 2022, @05:27AM
You can still consume milk, just not the form specifically designed for babies/calves. Same reason why most adults won't live off baby food.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @11:12AM
We were buying raw milk from a Mennonite farmer here in NY State through the mid-1980s (and other sources before that). It was a pleasant 15 minute drive out into farm country and about once a week we brought our own sterilized glass bottles for him to fill directly from his large milk cans. Most of his milk went to a cheese factory and as far as I know always passed their incoming inspection (which is very strict--all milk is tested before it goes into that cheese factory). It was delicious and if you needed a little cream for something special, it was easy to take a bit off the top. Otherwise, just shake well before pouring. It also made great yogurt.
Sadly all around, the farmer sold his farm (developers/speculators had been after his 100+ acres for years) and left the USA to be a missionary in S. America (Paraguay, I think). That didn't work out very well and he was back in USA a few years later...but didn't have enough money left to get back into dairy farming.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday October 17 2022, @11:20AM
I had it when I was very young, and I agree it was wonderful. I actually grew up on UHT milk and it took me time to get used to just pasteurized milk later in life. Taste is relative, and most people get easily used to new tastes if exposed habitually. To keep pleasure at a maximum, it is beneficial to reduce moments of ecstasy to the infrequent occasion (at least as far as eating is concerned). When viewed this way, bickering is no longer required and freedom abounds.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday October 17 2022, @01:27PM
I, too, remember that taste. It was pretty good, but not that great, in comparison to pasteurized, homogenized, milk. Whether it tastes better is, definitely, a matter of taste. I'm rather on the fence, as I like/liked both, and don't think either was that much better than the other.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dltaylor on Monday October 17 2022, @04:32PM (1 child)
Once you no longer have the requirement of a female mammal, why not replicate human milk? Bovine milk is intended to feed baby cattle, and it has drawbacks for baby humans (see all the ads for baby formula "injuries"). For other uses, a "designer" milk for ice cream, whipped cream, cheese, .... would allow those products to reduce their un-green side effects.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 17 2022, @05:09PM
Real Vegan Cheese: Coming From a Yeast to You [soylentnews.org]
'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist Mulls 'Taboo Against Cannibalism' Ending as Lab-Grown Meat Improves [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday October 17 2022, @05:20PM (5 children)
There was a scifi novel where the primary food for peasants was SCOP, single-celled organism protein. Anyone recall what book that was from? They grew it in tankers floating in harbors.
We have a way to significantly increase the milk output of existing dairy cows with no detectable changes to the quality of the product or the health of the cows. It's called RBST, and the anti-science nuts are the reason we don't use it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Tuesday October 18 2022, @03:10AM (4 children)
Well, there's really no need to use RBST -- dairy cows have been selected to produce so well that we have WAY more milk than we can use. A great deal of it gets stored as cheese (US government has a big stock of surplus cheese, sometimes there are local giveaways).
https://www.deseret.com/2022/2/14/22933326/1-4-billion-pounds-of-cheese-stored-in-a-cave-underneath-springfield-missouri-jimmy-carter-reagan [deseret.com]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18 2022, @04:04AM (3 children)
OK, let's ship that rBST to Russia (barring sanctions...), they're welcome to it as far as I care. We tried to help them once by being generous and basically got nowhere.
According to this master cheesemaker, who spent time in Russia post USSR, the Russian cows were mostly hopeless (poor producers) and the milk was often too contaminated with bacteria to make cheese. And nearly all the business & government people he met were corrupt, looking for a quick fix, or a way to siphon the money out of a new venture. rBST is just the quick fix they need for their dairy industry /s.
https://www.thebatavian.com/howard-owens/book-recalls-tony-kutters-efforts-bring-cheese-business-post-communist-russia/46331 [thebatavian.com] (for some reason there is a long gap on that page, keep paging down to read the whole book review.)
The book needs a good editor to make it more readable, but the stories (some nearly unbelievable) carry the book anyway. Recommended if you are looking for a first hand account of an attempt to set up a small, innovative business in Russia.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday October 18 2022, @05:15AM (2 children)
Interesting, but from 1995, the era of the Soviet oligarchs raping the country... things have changed.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18 2022, @04:31PM
Have they? The oligarchs were established during that time, but these days they seem to be accidentally falling out of hospital windows and falling down stairs, so it looks like a new set will be establishing themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18 2022, @05:13PM
> things have changed.
Pray tell, please elaborate. My take is that oligarchs continue raping the country, but now have to bow before the chief oligarch (Putin).
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday October 17 2022, @05:44PM
Will it be kosher?
If not, there will be a media-fetish push to force people to drink it, much like "everyone will be forced to eat bugs".
If it's kosher, nobody gonna care.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday October 17 2022, @08:05PM
I shutter to think what an udder failure that will be.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2022, @10:26AM
I don't see the point of this. We can make soy milk cheaply and greenly, and after about 3 months of it people generally prefer it and don't want to change back. And it's healthier to boot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2022, @10:30AM (3 children)
Until I can read and respond to messages in a web app, signal is useless to me. Not everyone lives on their phone. I'll be sticking to Facebook messenger and WhatsApp.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2022, @12:14PM (2 children)
Soymilk and Facebook messenger? You might be a gay boi.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2022, @12:47PM (1 child)
What's wrong with being gay?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2022, @11:30PM
They are disease superspreaders.