Ready For Meat Grown From Animal Cells? A Startup Plans A Pilot Facility

Memphis Meats, a Berkeley, Calif.-based startup, says it’s one step closer to bringing cell-based meat to consumers’ mouths. From a report: The company plans to build a pilot production facility with funds raised from high-profile investors including Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Kimbal Musk, as well as two giant players in the animal protein and feed space, Cargill and Tyson Foods. The company says its latest funding round has brought in $161 million in new investment. “People thought this was all science fiction” when the company was founded back in 2015, Uma Valeti, the co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats, told NPR in an interview at the company’s headquarters. “Everything that we’ve done at Memphis Meats [has] started to show that this can be done,” Valeti said. “This is real.” Interest in cell-based meat production and other meat alternatives has increased amid growing awareness of the environmental impact of traditional livestock agriculture. Valeti and his team walked us through the process of producing cell-based meat. It starts with the selection of specific types of animal cells that can grow to become meat. Next, the cells are fed and put in a “cultivator” — similar to a fermenting tank â” where they can grow and form muscle and connective tissue. The process is analogous to the way breweries grow yeast cells to produce beer. Only here, they’re growing animal cells.