Now cow’s milk comes from the lab.

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In no other country are cows as part of the landscape and cultural heritage as in Switzerland. According to the “Swiss farmer”, about 20,000 dairy farmers in the country keep about 560,000 cows. Are these right away? Ironically, the Swiss company Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, launched artificial milk produced with the help of genetic engineering for the first time for trial purposes. If the trial is successful in the US, it’s doubtful whether lab milk will soon make dairy cows redundant.

“SonntagsZeitung” reports that artificial milk should be confusingly similar to the original in taste and composition. The basis is provided by the proteins of the US company Perfect Day. This uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce milk proteins.

According to a Nestlé spokesperson, lab milk has been well received by customers. It is doubtful whether other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt can also be made with synthetic milk. Genetics thinks there is great potential in artificial cheese. Young Swiss entrepreneur Raffael Wohlgensinger, also known as the “cheese grower”, is about to launch cheeses whose raw material is grown using genetic blueprints.

Danger to highly subsidized farming and mountain farming?

Wohlgensinger also wants to stimulate the dairy market with artificial cheese. “Microorganisms are more efficient at producing food than cows,” he says, and hopes that “industrial factory farming using concentrates will be less in the future”.

But even if only milk replacer applies for now: industrially produced milk on a large scale will upset all of Switzerland’s highly subsidized agriculture and mountain farming. The Federal Office of Agriculture and Swissmilk, the Swiss Dairy Producers Association, are watching the situation with interest.

Swissmilk sees no alternative to “natural dairy products” in “such highly processed products”. This is so, for example, despite the fact that meat substitutes have become an integral part of the product range and milk consumption has been falling steadily for decades. In 1950, per capita milk consumption in Switzerland was almost five times what it is today. (cut)

Source :Blick