US startup aims to transform pet food with lab-made chow

BOULDER, US: Cloudy liquid bubbling in glass tubes is key to a US startup’s hopes of remaking the pet food industry by growing nutritional chow in a lab.

Most pet food includes animal protein, which requires the slaughter of animals and is ultimately a source of planet-warming gases.

Rich Kelleman’s Colorado-based Bond Pet Foods, however, is aiming to sidestep both pitfalls by making those same proteins in a biotech process.

His inspiration comes in part from his own disgust over the treatment of livestock on its way to the food supply.

He was also shocked when he read a study showing that pets in the US consume as many calories sourced from animals as France’s population, which numbers more than 65 million.

Livestock’s impact on climate change added…