A recent Fortune article highlights Perfect Day, a startup that makes dairy milk without cows.
It all started when Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya were experimenting with veganism but having trouble cutting out dairy. The two biomedical engineers teamed up and in 2014 founded the startup originally known as Muufri. Now known as Perfect Day, the company brings us the world’s first cow-free dairy milk.
To create their product, Gandhi and Pandya obtained a strain of yeast, which they named Buttercup, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They then took a dairy cow’s DNA sequence, 3D-printed it, and inserted it into a specific location of the yeast. The yeast ferments sugar and makes real milk proteins that the duo combines with plant-based fats and nutrients to make lactose-free milk.
“Your body cannot tell the difference because it’s the same in every meaningful way, says Pandya.
Dairy consumption in the U.S. has been on the decline for decades. In fact, according to a 2013 report by the USDA, sales have fallen a whopping 40 percent since 1970, with each generation consuming less milk than the one before.
This decline is great news for cows and our planet. Cows on dairy farms are treated terribly, often beaten and neglected, and dairy production contributes more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined.
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Thankfully, people will soon be able to enjoy dairy without abusing animals in the process. In the meantime, you can enjoy one of the many plant-based dairy alternatives that are currently on the market. Click here to see our ultimate guide to nondairy milk.
You can learn more about using technology to create a healthy, humane, and sustainable food supply by checking out Mercy For Animals’ sister organization, The Good Food Institute.