Cultivated X by vegconomist brings you a roundup of molecular farming startups transforming plants into biofactories to produce alternatives to animal proteins, pigments, next-gen sweeteners, and growth factors.
Plant molecular farming, an additional production approach to plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation, promises unlimited and cost-effective ingredients for food and other industries. Since it doesn’t require expensive infrastructure and bioreactors — only the magic of plants and bioengineering — existing greenhouses and fields can become ingredient factories, ensuring a straightforward industrial scale-up and competitive prices.
North Carolina’s Elo Life Systems, which describes itself as the “next-generation ingredient company,” leverages molecular farming and watermelon plants to produce a monk-fruit-inspired sweetener that is said to be sweeter than sugar while offering zero calories, rendering it safe for people with diabetes.
The company, a 2021 spin-off of Precision BioSciences, is also working with Dole on fungal-resistant cavendish banana to save the popular variety from extinction. Last year, the company raised $24.5 million to accelerate development of its fruit-derived sweetener and $20.5 million this January.
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