Creating sustainable solutions to our world agriculture problem should be on the top of our collective to-do lists, Isha Datar is helping us put it there.
How is she doing this?
Well “The great thing about animal agriculture, is that it is offensive in so many different ways.” Datar told Fast Company from her office in New York. You see, Isha is the CEO of a nonprofit organization called New Harvest which works to fund a small collection of research projects based around developing lab grown animal products.
Let’s take a look at some of the projects they’re funding:
1. Muufri – Making Milk Without Cows
“Milk is usually made by mother cows kept in a lactating state in an industrial setting. Instead, we can make the exact same milk by brewing it, using a culture that consumes simple sugars to make milk proteins”
Datar helped spearhead the research and development of Muufri by emailing a couple of New Harvest volunteers about starting a company that will produce milk in cell culture.
2. Cultured Beef – Making Beef Without Cows
You may or may not have heard about professor Mark Post’s $325,000 lab grown burger, New Harvest sure did when they provided $50,000 in funding to Dr. Post’s research at University of Maastricht.
Creating the first lab grown ground beef burger is a huge breakthrough as one of the most pressing issues in the world of agriculture is the unsustainability of cow farming.
3. Clara Foods – Making Eggs Without Hens
Isha got a dream team together to launch this company which is centered around creating lab grown egg whites.
“Egg whites are usually made by hens kept in battery cages in an industrial setting. Instead, we can make the exact same egg whites by brewing them, using a culture that consumes simple sugars to make egg white proteins.“
With the U.N.’s recent plea for humanity to move to a plant-based diet people are clutching onto their hamburgers for dear life. We’re glad to see people like Isha and organizations like New Harvest stepping up to the plate to answer for our, sometimes horrific, crimes against animals and the environment.
