SuperMeat, a collaborative startup that consists of scientists, conscious meat eaters, vegans, environmentalists and health advocates, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise $100,000 for its new system that will end animal suffering in the meat production industry.
SuperMeat is looking to use small tissue samples from chickens, (note, the company says this won’t hurt the animal by any means) to organically grow real chicken meats in its lab.
“Using tissue engineering techniques refined from regenerative medicine, animal cells are incubated in an environment that mimics the natural body of the animal. The cells are then enriched with nutrients that help the cells thrive and divide, growing into a full meal-ready piece of animal meat.”
Is this process totally legit? According to SuperMeat, it has been tested:
“In 2013, the world’s first cultured burger was cooked and eaten in London. That event triggered our researchers that have been working on developing the unique skill-set needed to take cultured meat to the level of mass-production.”
Yaakov Nahmias, an award-winning biomedical engineer and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is head of the SuperMeat team. He was dubbed winner of the Rapport Prize for Biomedical Sciences for his work on liver tissue engineering and developing nanotechnologies therapies for the diabetes treatments. He also has a two-time recipient of the ERC award and winner of the NIH Career Award.
The company noted that the $100,000 isn’t the total amount it is seeking:
“Our ultimate goal for this campaign is two and a half million dollars. That’s what we need to produce the finished product. We know it’s a lot of money, but it’s the truth. Developing a machine that produces cultured meat is not cheap. We didn’t want to make a make-or-break goal at $2.5M because we know we can make an impact and go a long way on less funding than that. So we decided to set our goal at $100K, because that’s the amount we need in order to really get the ball rolling.”
The team revealed if the campaign reaches $500,000, they will have a proof of concept of our meat making machine. At $1 million, they will be able to have a cost efficient production of small chicken tissues. If it officially secures the $2.5 million, they will reach their cost efficient prototype and get ready for tasting.
Those who back the project will receive the following:
Since its launch, the campaign has raised over $60,000. It is set to run for the next 60 days.
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