This article was taken from the March 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Andras Forgacs grows meat and leather in a factory, not a factory farm. Modern Meadow, the Brooklyn-based startup he cofounded alongside his father Gabor, creates animal protein using biofabrication: cell and tissue cultures grown from cows' muscle cells. Motivated by the environmental cost of meat production and the growing demand for it in developing countries, Forgacs, 38, developed a new way to make meat. "We are not aiming to make burgers or steaks," says Forgacs. "Our aim is to create new foods that are delicious, healthy and good for the planet."
Currently, livestock uses a third of the world's ice-free land and eight per cent of drinkable water, and produces 14.5 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions. Modern Meadow aims to offer an alternative. "If trying to make better products in a way that does not wreck the planet is considered breaking rules, then we are proud to be doing so," says Forgacs.
Others have also been working to find an alternative method of meat production. Dr Mark Post, for example, made a test-tube burger as a part of Maastricht University's Cultured Beef programme. What sets Modern Meadow apart is its additional focus on leather production. "Growing skin for medical applications is not new," says Forgacs, who previously cofounded Organovo, a company focused on growing human tissue for medical research. "But the application of this type of technology to consumer materials and leather is still uncommon." And Forgacs believes convincing the public to wear biofabricated materials will be much simpler than convincing anyone to eat them.
The tissue can be tweaked for a specific purpose. This means the lab-created products can be grown into a particular shape or thickness, ending up with less waste. "We are particularly keen to tune their design and performance properties to be ideally suited for each application," says Forgacs.
To create the leather, cells are removed from the animal through a biopsy, then isolated and multiplied. These cells, with a bit of coaxing, create collagen; this is spread out into thin sheets, which are layered on top of one another and allowed to mature. The resulting product is then tanned, like traditional leather, but in a less chemically intense process. "We are not looking to create an ersatz leather, but rather truly biological leather materials that are unapologetically original," says Forgacs.
Modern Meadow recently raised $11 million (£7m) in series A funding -- $10 million from Horizons Ventures -- and has grown the size of its team from eight to 15. "Our next step," says Forgacs, "is having a biofabricated leather material that we can unveil initially in high-end and limited-edition pilot applications."
Something they expect to be doing by 2016. Finally, meat and leather even Morrissey can't complain about.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
