Talk about locally sourced!
A biotech firm that wants to grow edible meat in test tubes is eyeing Brooklyn as a base for its Franken-foodie creations, according to a published report.
The tissue-engineering firm, Modern Meadow, is negotiating a lease at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and could be producing in-vitro beefs and porks for use in food within a couple of years, Crain’s New York Business reports.
The Maryland-based company, started by a Harvard grad, is already making lab-grown animal skins for use in textiles and clothing. Modern Meadow founder Andras Forgacs said he imagines the factory becoming a Brooklyn-style “leather and meat brewery” where loca-vores can sample the animal-free animal products.
Forgacs told Crain’s his process, re-growing tissue harvested from biopsies, is a welcome alternative to slaughter.
“We grow genuine leather without having to kill animals or wreck the environment,” he said. “And we can dial in certain performance and aesthetic qualities that are appealing to high fashion.”
Fabricating meat that tastes like meat is tougher to do, but the technology is getting there, Forgacs said, and he’s excited to set up shop in a capital of cuisine and couture.
Luring the fake-flesh maker here would be a big win for the city’s budding bio-tech sector. The city’s Economic Development Corp., is dangling tax breaks and other incentives to companies like Modern Meadow in hopes of making good on former Mayor Bloomberg’s vision of New York as a biotech center.
Mr. Forgacs hopes to be in his Brooklyn digs by this summer, and told Crain’s he’s already talking to local fashion and textile producers.