This month, blue horizon has invested in MosaMeat, a technology company hard at work at developing meat from tissue cultures. While this technology is not a purely plant-based option, it will add to the cruelty-free alternatives for protein sources.

There’s no debate about whether there will be a coming food crisis: indeed, with the wide-reaching and devastating effects of climate change, it’s not a matter of if, but when. And we need to be prepared for when that time comes. The demand for meat is growing, and projected to increase by more than two-thirds in the next 40 years. But current production methods are unsustainable and have already contributed to health and environmental problems. If we’re going to feed the world, we need alternatives. MosaMeat’s tissue collection technology is one such alternative.

So, what is cultured beef? The team at MosaMeat starts by harvesting muscle tissue samples from a living cow. Then they feed and nurture the cells so that they divide and grow, creating more muscle tissue. The result is a product that is exactly the same biologically as the meat tissue within the cow itself. This method could also be adapted for other animals we eat.

The tissue extraction is nothing more harmful than a biopsy, so the animal can go on living out its natural life free of imprisonment and pain. While the technology is still in development and therefore expensive to implement, the team at MosaMeat hopes that this technology will become cheaper in the future.

Peter Verstrate, CEO of MosaMeat, says: “As a pioneer in the field of clean meat, MosaMeat has been steadily working on further improving the technology behind it. I am thrilled to welcome blue horizon as an investor and look forward to repaying their trust by helping to bring clean meat and its positive impact to the market as soon as possible.”

Roger Lienhard, CEO and founder of blue horizon, adds: “We recognize the need to explore all alternatives when it comes to getting essential nutrition such as protein. MosaMeat’s technology is cruelty-free and environmentally friendly, fulfilling a significant portion of our mission. We hope that with our investment MosaMeat’s process will become cheaper and thus make clean meat more affordable for consumers around the world.”

About blue horizon

blue horizon was founded in 2015 with the vision that profit-oriented strategies and the common good can be united. blue horizon is a global, mission-driven private sector investment firm focused on scalable ventures that accelerates the global transition towards sustainable food and agriculture. In 2016, the blue horizon Foundation was started to support the transformation of farms from animal factories to sustainable plant production facilities.

About MosaMeat

MosaMeat started in a lab at Maastricht University with the goal of perfecting tissue engineering to produce cruelty-free animal protein. The company debuted the world’s first lab-grown burger at a news conference in London, to much success. The team of engineers and scientists is currently working on their first product, a cultured hamburger, and hope to soon bring it into mass production.