pt 2
Agronomics estimates the size of the opportunity to be $5 trillion (ÂŁ3.5 trillion) and last week raised ÂŁ62 million, which it will invest over the next nine months.
The story of cultured meat goes back to 2013, when Mark Post, a Maastricht University researcher, created the worldâs first âin vitro burgerâ. The cost: $325,000. This showed what was possible, but it was not until three years later that the first culture meat start-ups were founded by Post (Mosa Meat) and Uma Valeti, a cardiologist, who created Upside Foods â or Memphis Meats as it was known until last week. Valeti said: âBack then, it was all in the realm of science fiction.â
Today there are over 70 companies across Asia, Europe and America working on everything from salmon to lobster, and pork belly to bacon, beef, duck and chicken. The boom has been driven by synthetic biology, which takes an engineering approach to cells, pinpointing the ones necessary to grow a desired meat and then instructing them to produce muscle, fat and connective tissue by âturning onâ, or off, certain proteins.
The industry has also nearly put behind it a key vulnerability: its reliance on foetal bovine serum. FBS, blood drawn from a living foetus that has been removed from a slaughtered cow, was the industryâs secret sauce because it was packed with the components required to supercharge cell growth. It was also hugely problematic for the self-styled âclean meatâ industry.
After years of tinkering, FBS has largely been replaced by other plant-based proteins. The industry is also leaning into the climate change argument. A fingernail- size tissue sample can be cultured into 7,000 pounds of beef within six weeks. A cow eats, burps and poops for 28 months before it goes to slaughter.
The meat lobby is not standing idly by. Cattle ranchers have helped pass laws in seven states restricting the use of the words âmeatâ and âbeefâ to describe plant-based and cultured alternatives.
Another challenge is scale. Beyond the hundreds of millions of dollars to build a single manufacturing plant, the mix of nutrients to grow the cells, or media, as they are known, are costly, accounting for 99 per cent of material costs. Slashing prices or finding alternatives will be key to reaching âgriddle parityâ.
What appears certain is that great fortunes will be made â and lost. Mellon said: âNone of these companies existed until a few years ago. None of them has ever turned a profit ... [But] I donât doubt that the industry will succeed â itâs a question of who will succeed in it.â
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/is-lab-grown-meat-the-answer-to-the-chicken-shortage-jzxvxv8gx
s lab-grown meat the answer to the chicken shortage?
Start-ups growing meat in petri dishes could make poultry shortages a thing of the past. But will consumers be happy to tuck in?
The chickens are coming home to roost. The price of boneless, skinless breast has doubled in a year to just over $2 in America amid an acute supply shortage.
Independent restaurants have had to go without for weeks, while chains have begun removing chicken dishes from menus. The shortfall â driven by a chicken-sandwich war among big fast-food chains, slaughterhouse labour shortages and âunderperformingâ roosters â is an unnerving sign of the fragility of a food system under pressure to produce ever more poultry and meat.
An answer to the squeeze lurks in the food compartments of scooters motoring through the streets of Singapore. Foodpanda last month became the first delivery firm to offer dishes made with âculturedâ chicken â that is, flesh not from a bird, but brewed in a stainless- steel vat.
Last year Singapore became the first country in the world to approve lab-grown meat. Eat Just, a San Francisco alternative-protein start-up, became the first to sell it to the public.
Josh Tetrick, Eat Justâs chief executive, reckons the Singapore experiment is the start of a revolution. âWeâre going to look back and tell our kids ... âIn the year 2021, a third of our habitable land was used to plant soy and corn to feed the animals we eat. We literally turned our planet into an animal farm. Can you believe that?â â
His vision: the multitrillion-dollar industrial agriculture and meat-packing industries will be wiped away. In their place will rise factory-made beef, pork, fish and poultry. The production process for all is broadly the same. A small sample of flesh is extracted from a live animal, from which stem cells are taken. These are put in a petri dish with a broth of nutrients that help the cells divide and grow. This is then moved to a bioreactor with a batch of minerals, sugars, hormones and growth factors â and eventually becomes meat.
Tetrick predicts that 90 per cent of the meat we eat will ultimately be produced this way. A further 7 to 8 per cent will come from plant-based alternatives. Old-fashioned slaughtered meat will be a high-priced luxury. The question, Tetrick said, is whether that shift will happen in ten years, or 50. âOur job is to get it closer to ten.â
These are the earliest of days, and cultured meat has huge obstacles to overcome, from high costs to convincing the public. Nevertheless, Jim Mellon, the billionaire investor and Brexiteer, has turned himself into the biggest backer of the movement. His publicly traded vehicle, Agronomics, has invested in a dozen start-ups including Mosa Meat, which is developing beef mince.
Cultured meat, Mellon said, would be âbigger than electric vehiclesâ..........................
re...but there's no need to copy and paste my quotes and take them apart quercus.
I'm sorry you feel that questioning your statement falls into the category of 'taking them apart'....that in itself is a pretty moralistic tone..(if I may be so bold).Thankfully we still live a country,where freedom of expression is still sacrosanct,though clearly under threat from some strident,vocal and increasingly intolerant sections of society.
With regard to question..how the company should be marketed ... as the next big money maker or a philanthropic bet.
It seems to me that you are reducing this to a binary choice,which is in itself illustrative of my earlier comments.Dare to question the pod people and you are forever cast out as a disbeliever.....ridiculous and again demonstrates the paucity of your question.
My answer...is clear...I'm in this as I'm in any investment...to make a good return.
Does that mean,,as you clearly imply...that the animals are of no concern .Of course not.
I have farmed livestock ,pedigree and commercial ,cattle and sheep for over 40 yrs....we as a family have been doing so for 4 generations....so.....if you wish to have a serious,intelligent....and informed conversation about animal welfare...I'm listening.
re.... Wouldn't it be great for investors and the sp if Mellon was to announce that his personal gain from his 15% commission was ALL going back into Agronomics on the open market :).
I'm not at all sure I understand the reasoning here.
Presumably everyone here is invested to make a decent return on their capital?....ok...so,the answer is yes.
Why then is there an increasingly moralistic tone apparent?.
...'as many are invested for the sake of cruelty free meat, '....oh really?...for the SAKE of cruelty free meat?.What exactly does this imply?.Which is more important to you?....cruelty free meat or a decent return....or are you now advocating some sort of woolly compromise,the terms of which appear to be determined on some sort emotional scale.
As far as the 15% 'management' fee is concerned.....is this not very similar to the 2+20% fee charged by many hedge funds....or would you choose to avoid them as well?;)
a great perfomance...sp closed last friday 55p.....a classic backtest yday/today.....twas ever thus....a few peeps get wobbly AM...pros come in PM.....you cant buy these in any quantity for love or money.....gd w/e all
.....seems as though the nouveau regime a la Stifel......issuing the last RNS intraday...has fritted the spivery;)
long may it continue...
re..Is it me or are posts disappearing?
same here....so it's not just you....site seems to be ok elsewhere..v strange....
re...Imo one of the wells has come offline.
...presumably if that were the case the mkt wlould/should have been notified....?....
The Swedish company, backed by Oprah Winfrey and known for its plant-based food and drinks, is going public next week.
https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/oprah-backed-oatly-chases-10-billion-valuation-with-ipo-51620741819
that can take traders by surprise.
not before time!
cont....
Ganfeng already owns half of Bacanoraâs Sonora lithium mine in Mexico, which it is hoped will start producing the material in 2023.
Once fully operational, it is hoped Sonora will produce 35,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium a year. In March, Ganfeng said it planned to increase production to 600,000 tonnes a year but without detailing how this would be achieved.
The two companies have worked together for several years, after the Chinese business took a stake in the project itself when lithium prices plunged three years ago, stymying Bacanora plans to fund the ÂŁ320m mine on its own.
Bacanora declined to comment and Ganfeng could not be reached for comment.
The Department for Business did not reply to request for comment .
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/05/06/china-swoops-london-listed-lithium-miner/
China swoops on London-listed lithium miner
Ministers have been urged to block a planned Chinese takeover of a British lithium miner as fears mount over Beijingâs grip on materials critical for electric cars.
Bacanora Lithium, which is listed in London, said it has received a ÂŁ190m bid from its largest shareholder, Chinaâs Ganfeng Lithium, which is already one of the worldâs largest producers of the material.
Ganfeng controls 17.5pc of Bacanora and in February said it planned to raise this stake to almost 30pc.
The cash offer for the remaining shares is at 67.5p per share - a premium of almost 50pc - and values Bacanora at more than ÂŁ250m.
Shares in Bacanora spiked almost 30pc to 57.9p on news of offer, which its directors said they planned to recommend to shareholders.
But experts warned the potential takeover was âdeeply worryingâ and called on ministers to intervene immediately.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader said: âThe Government should now call this in and block it.
âChina already has three-quarters of the worldâs rare earth minerals and an even larger share of their processing.
âRare earth minerals like lithium are to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century and deals like this are all about taking control of strategic materials to make the West go to China for them.â
Sam Armstrong, of the foreign policy think-tank the Henry Jackson Society, added: "The National Security and Investment Act, which became law just last week, allows ministers to block acquisitions that risk hostile states obtaining a stranglehold over critical resources.
âThere cannot be a better candidate for the first ministerial call-in under the new legislation than this deeply worrying acquisition that risks handing control over a critical resource of the future to a genocidal state.â
Strained relations between China and the West have fuelled concerns that Beijing could turn off the tap on supplies. This risks foiling Britainâs ambitions to transition to renewable power and electric cars, with both batteries and advanced motors reliant on the materials.
On Wednesday the Telegraph revealed how British government is examining how to create strategic reserves of materials such as lithium and cobalt, which are essential in the production of batteries needed for the shift to electric vehicles.
The International Energy Agency has recommended that Western nations consider stockpiling rare earth materials amid fears China could corner the market in them, giving it the ability to create global shortages.
China was responsible for 60pc of world production of cobalt and other rare earth elements in 2019, the IEA said. Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also major producers.
Ganfeng already owns half of Bacanoraâs Sonora lithium mine in Mexico, which it is hoped will start producing the materia
re.... or perhaps he/she knows that news of a large Covid related order is imminent
....any ideas from whom and for what?;)
14:40:58 30.4558 15,000 Sell* 30.00 31.00 4,568
...this trade was a BUY
Wigscoff88, [06.05.21 13:44]
Biotech index going from bull recovery to getting completely trashed again doesnât help us.
Biden supporting the IP waiver for vaccines has crashed the entire sector again and is putting XBI in a very precarious position. People panicking that the IP waiver is setting the bar moving forward for bioâs so the market is in fear of more of those socialist style of calls. I.e if you waiver the IP for a vaccine...how could you not do it in the future for a new cancer drug that might mean life or death for a large group of people?
Obviously this is for vaccines only but the fear mongering is rife.
Very sad Duncan could have listed during one of the hottest biotech bull runs ever as he said he would in Jan.
Instead could now âpotentiallyâ have listed at the beginning of the big biotech bear.
Each time the sector looks set to recover and go bull the US administration has completely ****ed it
90% chance to see XBI capitulate down further now IMO
are announcements concerning LFTs etc subject to EP rules? tx
omg....what?
pls explain .Ty.
fyi...https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3c30d3b9-b4ea-42b4-a35f-6c929f4f7852
Given the unprecedented disruption created by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is currently creating market volatility around the globe, certain measures have been announced today in order to ease the financial reporting and other regulatory requirements that apply to both Main Market listed and AIM quoted companies, albeit in different ways.
etc etc etc......................
edit...+Black pawn
https://twitter.com/BlockEnergyplc/status/1386972475368558592.Picture of a chessboard with 2 queens and a knight in sight..