by Keren Setton
JERUSALEM, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Far away from green pastures, in a sterile lab in central Israel, researchers are working diligently to create milk products in a new scientific fashion.
Nurit Argov-Argaman, founder of a lab-cultured milk company Wilk, has been studying milk production by different mammals for more than a decade. Beginning her career at a lab in the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she eventually decided to devote herself to cellular agriculture.
"It's obvious that the dairy sector will have to find new ways to produce the same thing. If we want to keep the benefits of milk while reducing its impact on the environment, some novel technologies have to be involved," she told Xinhua.
Argov-Argaman founded Wilk in 2018, where researchers have been working to take cells from milk-producing mammals and isolate the most important components of milk.
The aim of the company is to establish an extensive independent cell bank that will take the first sample from a cow and multiply the cells in a laboratory. The company will then sell the components to manufacturers where milk will be produced without resorting to traditional methods.
The cells Wilk takes are from mammals' mammary glands. Once viable, they offer the fats, unique proteins and special carbohydrates that invest the milk with a similar taste of what we know today. According to Argov-Argaman, milk has more than 2,000 components and unique properties that can only be produced by milk-producing mammals.
The cells Wilk has isolated are grown in the lab through the proprietary technology Argov-Argaman has developed in recent years, from which dairy products and infant formula can be made. The company also uses donated breast milk from two Israeli hospitals in order to learn how to make lab-produced breast milk.
Milk consumption is growing as the world's population expands, raising concerns about how the rising milk demand will be met in the coming decades only through the traditional way.
According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), cow's milk and fresh dairy products consumption are expected to increase in the coming years in China, India, Pakistan and African countries.
Meanwhile, the production of milk and meat products is considered a growing environmental problem, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate climate change. According to the FAO, cattle account for about 65 percent of the livestock sector's greenhouse gas emissions.
With the rising population, the emerging cellular agriculture will serve as a complement to the dairy industry, according to Argov-Argaman.
"We want to continue consuming milk as an important component of our diet. It provides benefits no other food can, and we need to have more of it," said Argov-Argaman.
Her company has already partnered with major firms in the industry in order to perform pilot productions of milk and other dairy products.
One of the challenges Wilk is facing is making the cells accurate enough to keep the familar taste and appearance of the milk products when they are combined with other components.
"We'll have to educate the consumers, eventually they eat what they are used to or what's tasty for him or for her," said Argov-Argaman. ■
