Under development Down Under: Lab-cultured yak and kangaroo meat

In Australia, a startup is developing cell-based meat replacements for rarely eaten animals, including kangaroo, lion, tortoise, and yak. Vow Foods, which says it takes about six weeks to grow cells into meat, has already launched dumplings made with cultured kangaroo meat.

“There have been various historical reports of how delicious the meat of the Galapagos tortoise, or the rich fat of the dugong, but if we tried to turn these animals into food, the likelihood is that we would decimate their populations,” Cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer Tim Noakesmith recently told FoodNavigator.

Global consultancy AT Kearney expects 35% of meat to be lab-cultured by 2040. “With the advantages of novel vegan meat replacements and cultured meat over conventionally produced meat, it is only a matter of time before they capture a substantial market share,” the report says.