Jerusalem-based Mermade Seafoods is going to reveal the 'secret sauce' behind its promise to make cultured meat and seafood a commercial reality, starting with the sustainable mass production of scallops. CEO and co-founder Daniel Einhorn will talk about Mermade's breakthrough in OurCrowd's online event 'Investing in the Circular Economy: From Trash to Cash,' but here is the sneak preview.
"We are the first company in the world to use aquaponics in cell-ag," Einhorn told me recently. Mermade aims to adapt aquaponics, using the nutrient-rich water from raising aquatic animals in tanks to provide natural fertilizer for the plants with the plants helping purify the water for the animals, to create a new market category of cytoponics, revolutionizing cellular agriculture.
The most significant cost in cell culture is the need to constantly replenish the growth media, the nutrient-rich environment in which the cells proliferate. But for much of the past decade, the cultured meat industry has been focused primarily on proving the basic concept that it was effectively possible to create meat from cells. As Einhorn puts it, "all the other companies are focused on showing they can grow a lot of cells. No company is showing a scale-up process because the cost of the growth media is prohibitive." It is estimated that 55% to over 95% of the marginal cost of the product is attributable to the cost of the growth media.
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