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Science

Biotech Companies Are Trying To Make Milk Without Cows (technologyreview.com) 70

Posted by msmash from the next-frontier dept.
Avian influenza outbreaks on US dairy farms have raised concerns about milk safety, leading some to consider alternatives like engineered milk proteins. Startups like Remilk and Alpine Bio are using yeast and soybeans to produce key milk proteins, aiming to replace dairy cows and reduce environmental impact. However, competing with subsidized dairy industries and their efficient use of cow byproducts remains a challenge for these biotech ventures, MIT Technology Review reports. The story adds: Everyone agrees that cow's milk will be difficult to displace. It holds a special place in the human psyche, and we owe civilization itself, in part, to domesticated animals. In fact, they've left their mark in our genes, with many of us carrying DNA mutations that make cow's milk easier to digest. But that's why it might be time for the next technological step, says Alpine's CEO Magi Richani. "We raise 60 billion animals for food every year, and that is insane. We took it too far, and we need options," she says. "We need options that are better for the environment, that overcome the use of antibiotics, and that overcome the disease risk." It's not clear yet whether the bird flu outbreak on dairy farms is a big danger to humans. But making milk without cows would definitely cut the risk that an animal virus will cause a new pandemic. As Richani says: "Soybeans don't transmit diseases to humans."
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Biotech Companies Are Trying To Make Milk Without Cows

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  • Otherwise it will be udderly ridiculous.
    • No, I won't be cowed by synthetic milk. I think they are trying moo-nipulate the market. We need to keep the cows in the fields so the milk is pasteur-ized! Oh god, someone stop me...

    • Otherwise it will be udderly ridiculous.

      Moooove on Cobber.

  • What a dumb statement. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HBI ( 10338492 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @04:01PM (#64549929)

    "Soybeans don't transmit diseases to humans"

    Someone is going to regret that statement someday. I can think of a lot of ways this could be disproven. Even E.coli from a poorly rinsed crop could falsify this.

    • You can find in news repeated incidents of soybeans giving people listeria monocytogenes, salmonella, fungal toxins...

      That CEO is quite a dumb ass

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by piojo ( 995934 )

        Aren't those mostly due to contamination from water that came from animal production, for example runoff? So if you took the factory farms out of the loop, the water wouldn't be contaminated and the soybeans wouldn't contain those pathogens.

        Except fungi. That's getting worse, as pathogenic fungi acclimate to higher maximum temperatures. Though the worst change isn't the byproducts they produce in grains, but their new ability to thrive at a mammal's body temperature.

        • That certainly is a major way such bacteria get on produce.

          Yet hilariously you can even find yeast companies doing recall for listeria and salmonella.... don't know what happened there, FDA recalls don't say.

          What if the biotech firm making these proteins has problem has contaminated water supply... seems that could do it. maybe that happened to the yeast makers?

        • Aren't those mostly due to contamination from water that came from animal production, for example runoff? So if you took the factory farms out of the loop, the water wouldn't be contaminated and the soybeans wouldn't contain those pathogens.

          Except fungi. That's getting worse, as pathogenic fungi acclimate to higher maximum temperatures. Though the worst change isn't the byproducts they produce in grains, but their new ability to thrive at a mammal's body temperature.

          I'm pretty certain that non-factory farms will even be worse. One of the reasons that milk is now pasteurized is that a fair number of people - especially children, were killed by pathogens in raw milk.

    • Don't forget the PCB's and biomimetic estrogens that will accidentally be discovered.

      • Don't forget the PCB's and biomimetic estrogens that will accidentally be discovered.

        Sometimes I think the Vegan cabal knows about the effects of phytoestrogen overdose and wants it that way.

    • Even E.coli from a poorly rinsed crop could falsify this.

      Raw soybeans are toxic. They contain trypsin inhibitors [wikipedia.org] that block the digestion of protein.

      The heat required to destroy the toxins will also kill any E. coli.

      • Inhibitors are not a pathogen. You fail.

      • Besides this, E coli are a normal gut bacteria, which are in your gut right now. However, the strain of ecoli that cows like to have in their guts are different than the ecoli you like to have in your guts. If there are nasty E.coli 0157:H7 on the soybeans, it probably came from cows.

    • "Soybeans don't transmit diseases to humans"

      Someone is going to regret that statement someday. I can think of a lot of ways this could be disproven. Even E.coli from a poorly rinsed crop could falsify this.

      Richani is full of the male bovine excreta. Even if not a disease as such, soybeans contain a lot of phytoestrogens, and a lot of people are getting way too much of them. And some are getting them way too young. https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com] Some general soybean effect info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]

      Not to say that we should not eat soy products, but moderation is definitely indicated. And women of childbearing age who plan on getting pregnant should really be careful. https://www.sciencedire [sciencedirect.com]

  • The demand for cows will lower, which means we will somehow get rid of most cows.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • The demand for cows will lower, which means we will somehow get rid of most cows.

      Cows will then become rare and exotic, meaning that we'll suddenly have to protect them with ham-fisted regulations.

      But ... we'll feel good and holy about it! That's what matters.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Robert DeNiro has nipples, Greg. Can you milk him?

  • "Disease Risk" (Score:3)

    by Arzaboa ( 2804779 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @04:10PM (#64549955)

    Disease Risk.

    These guys prey on the weak. People have been drinking milk with very few issues since before recorded history. More people die from stubbed toes than drinking milk every year.

    This guy and anything that comes out of his mouth from this moment forward need to immediately be put into the /dev/null bucket.

    --
    Always do what you are afraid to do. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

    • Re:"Disease Risk" (Score:4, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @05:33PM (#64550117)

      More people die from stubbed toes than drinking milk every year.

      You're thinking of pasteurized milk. People do die from drinking unpasteurized milk. As for stubbed toes, you'd be hardpressed to find a case of someone dying from a stubbed toe. Jack Daniels did, but how long ago was that? in the 1900s, over a 25 year period, roughly 65,000 died from drinking raw milk [healthline.com]. That's 2,600 people dying each year. How many died during that same time from a stubbed toe?

      Between 1987 and 2010 [fda.gov] there were 3 deaths, 6 stillbirths, and 3 miscarriages. That we know of. Most likely there were more due to underreporting. How many died from a stubbed toe during that same time?

      As for a disease vector [sciencealert.com]:

      Out of all the food-borne illnesses linked to dairy products, raw milk and raw cheese are responsible for no less than 96 percent.

      • A lot of that has to do with how rare it is for people to get sick from dairy products, so any problems would stand out. I have never known anyone to get sick, and I was raised on a dairy farm many, many years ago. We drank raw milk all the time.

      • Yeah, raw milk deaths from before proper refrigeration is a rather irrelevant comparison.

    • People used to get sick from milk once in a while. There are even (bad) things a mother can pass to her infant with good old all-natural breastfeeding.

      The reason so few people get sick drinking milk in modern times is pasteurization. And yes, farmers sometimes drink (and promote the drinking of) raw milk, but it remains a dumb idea when pasteurization is available.

      • No, the primary reason so few people get sick from drinking milk these days is electric refrigeration and especially refrigerated trucks. Pasteurization takes that small number and further cuts it down. Without electric refrigeration, pasteurization becomes significantly more important to preventing disease.

    • Disease Risk.

      These guys prey on the weak. People have been drinking milk with very few issues since before recorded history. More people die from stubbed toes than drinking milk every year.

      This guy and anything that comes out of his mouth from this moment forward need to immediately be put into the /dev/null bucket.

      --
      Always do what you are afraid to do. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

      Part of the disease risk is raw milk, the other part is that livestock farming is a common way for novel pathogens to breed and eventually make the jump into humans.

      I also wonder if this tech could safely produce raw milk (it supposedly tastes better), but I'm guessing there would still be a non-trivial pathogen risk.

  • Not far enough (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @04:40PM (#64550009)

    If you're bothering to make lab milk, you don't replicate the milk of cows, you replicate the milk of humans.

    • Re:Not far enough (Score:5, Funny)

      by JeremyWH ( 1354361 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @05:26PM (#64550107)

      If you're bothering to make lab milk, you don't replicate the milk of cows, you replicate the milk of humans.

      100% agree, and make the milk bottles in the shape of human breasts

      • While indeed for some it's a fetish... so long as you can digest lactose, human milk should be better for you than cow milk, being evolved to nourish humans and not cows.

        • What if I'm not a baby? Is milk meant for human babies healthier for human adults than milk meant for calves?

  • DNA mutations (Score:5, Informative)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Friday June 14, 2024 @04:46PM (#64550019)

    many of us carrying DNA mutations that make cow's milk easier to digest

    This referers to the ability to produce lactose-digesting enzyme once reaching adulthood. This is a Caucasian feature. Most of people in Europe and Northern Amercia have it, but this remains a minority when considering the whole world's population.

    • There an awful lot of white people in Asia too.

    • You sure that's correct? Looks like most people in West Africa can digest milk too: https://images.newscientist.co... [newscientist.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by piojo ( 995934 )

      This referers to the ability to produce lactose-digesting enzyme once reaching adulthood. This is a Caucasian feature. Most of people in Europe and Northern Amercia have it, but this remains a minority when considering the whole world's population.

      I live in a non-white majority country but every convenience store sells milk. Every grocery stores sell milk. Some of the ethnic (non-white) store categories always carry milk. Milk is a major thing internationally, though I can't pinpoint which part of your claim leads to that mistaken conclusion.

      • but this remains a minority when considering the whole world's population.

        That is a kind of myth, that popped up a few decades ago.
        But there is a grain of truth in it. If there is no "milk drinking culture", and eating cheese does not really count, then adults indeed easy get lactose intolerant. But that happens to Europeans/Caucasian, too. But with a bit of diligence: it can be reverted. On the other hands there entire regions or Ethnics in Africa and China that get very quick lactose intolerant during chi

  • I was curious so I looked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] I was surprised by how many people consume milk around the world. I thought it was a mostly European thing with some notable exceptions but it looks like milk is consumed in volume in almost all countries.

    There are already plenty of milk alternatives but admittedly they're mostly shitty, starchy, gummy imitations with low nutritional value. I tried making milk with nuts, i.e. to have similar protein & fat content to cow's milk & i

    • I was surprised by how many people consume milk around the world.

      I have it with my cereal every morning. Have been for over 5 decades.

    • Everyone (almost) consumes milk since birth. Where have you been?
      • I've read that at least some people from sub-Saharan Africa & south-east Asia suffer from uncomfortable flatulence after consuming milk & other dairy products after the age of puberty. Perhaps this isn't as widespread as I'd assumed?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by erasmix ( 880448 )
      I’m in it for the cheese! :)

  • ...where people didn't waste time (and money) trying to fix things that aren't broken.

  • If they do this, they should replace the bovine (cow) versions of certain casein proteins with corresponding human forms.

    Some of the bovine casein proteins mimic regions of myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) (AKA myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)), which is expressed by oligodendrocytes. These are the cells responsible for producing myelin. An allergy to these proteins will sometimes produce antibodies that also attack the body's own MAG/MOG. This is the primary cause of the disease Multiple Scl

    • >This is the primary cause of the disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

      The cause of MS remains unknown. You describe a symptom of the disease, not a cause, and are inferring a link that medical research has so far not drawn.

      • This is the primary cause of the disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

        The cause of MS remains unknown. You describe a symptom of the disease, not a cause, and are inferring a link that medical research has so far not drawn.

        This has been extensively researched for decades. Starting from observations of cow's milk tending to exacerbate MS symptoms and a correlation between exposure to cow's milk and likelihood of contracting MS, and continuing through identification of the particular milk proteins that promote im

  • For those who avoid ultraprocessed food, this is not for you.

  • I don't know if the fats or other parts are important to the experience of milk (nutrition AND texture/taste), but when I forced myself to go dairy free it was obvious none of the replacements felt invisible. With the closest being coconut based products (with those 'dangerous' saturated fats).

  • If they could make it for the lactose intolerant as well as without the protein that can kill those with alpha-gal allergy. Alpha-gal is allergy to mammalian food and drink products. Mammals except humans have a protein that can be made into an allergen by the bite of an infected tick. I know two people with this, who have to be immensely careful to "eat vegan." Very difficult. And many drugs are cultured in animal products that make them deadly to those with the alpha-gal allergy. Milk that didn

  • The next agricultural revolution will bring a better steak without a cow (milk too) and a better apple without a tree. Free of toxins, antibiotics, and emissions.

  • They are trying to make it in yeast and soybeans, unless they've done a lot of engineering .. that won't result in the exact same casein as bovine casein. Casein has post translational modifications that only occur in mammalian cells. Reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]

    The correct way to do this is simply culture breast tissue (ok, mammary cells) and then extract the milk. .. Seriously, they produce casein and milk etc. I've done it (not the milk extraction part). There's only one flaw in it .. and

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