Coming Soon: Cow’s Milk Made Without Cows!

Green Monsters, you may know by now that milk is not as healthy for us as we have been led to believe. In fact, we do not need milk to develop strong bones, obtain sufficient vitamin D, or get enough calcium. Just check out these 5 Ridiculous Myths About Cow’s Milk to read up on this! The notion that we NEED cow’s milk is one of the largest food myths Americans believe!

So, we’re pretty excited that Muufri, a San Francisco-based start-up, predicts we will all be drinking artificial milk in 100 years. How? Milk without the cow! With the help of genetically engineered yeast, the bioengineers behind the company hope to produce the first glass of artificial milk.

The company has good intentions, too. They care about animal welfare and sustainable agriculture, which is awesome considering that dairy production and meat production wreak havoc on the environment. It takes about 1,000 liters of water to produce one liter of milk, according to the nonprofit Water Footprint Network. Business with good intentions is what we need in the food space, because we need to get better at eating for the planet!

The milk will mirror the formula of the real thing since the yeast cultures will be churning out real milk proteins. Perumal Gandhi, a co-founder of the synthetic dairy start-up, told National Geographic, it will retain the taste and nutritional benefits of cow milk.

“If we want the world to change its diet from a product that isn’t sustainable to something that is, it has to be identical [to], or better than, the original product,” Gandhi said. “The world will not switch from milk from a cow to the plant-based milks. But if our cow-less milk is identical and priced right, they just might.”

It’s awesome to think about the impact this product could have, joining the club of other companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Modern Meadow and Hampton Creek Foods. Sustainable food is the future!

Image source: Caden Crawford/ Flickr