Colorado Welcomes a New “Mega Ranch” - With No Animals
Meati Foods opens a huge ranch to produce tens of millions of pounds of animal-free meat that’s made from mushroom root - as investors boost the brand with more than $250 million in funding.
Credit: Meati Foods
Colorado has welcomed a new “mega ranch” with a big difference - there’s not a single animal on site.
The ranch is the new production facility for Meati Foods, which produces animal-free, whole-food protein that’s made from mushroom root.
Dubbed the “mega ranch”, the manufacturing operation will cultivate tens of millions of pounds of Meati, which makes it a producer of animal-free meat at a scale that will match and often exceed that of the US’s largest animal-based ranches.
The fermentation area at Meati’s Mega Ranch facility. Credit: Meati Foods
Among the food produced at the ranch will be Meati’s line of animal-free chicken and steak products, which currently includes the Classic Cutlet, Crispy Cutlet, Classic Steak, and Carne Asada Steak.
The company says the next few years will see a seismic shift in how we eat, as more and more consumers increasingly make more sustainable and healthy food choices.
Animal-free companies like Meati are able to produce tons of whole-food protein in just a few days, compared to animal-based protein which requires the resource-intensive production process of breeding, farming, and slaughtering animals over several months.
And Meati’s animal-free meat is not only more sustainable, but it's packed with protein, fibre, and micronutrients too.
The mushroom root-based breaded chicken. Credit: Meati Foods
Meati’s innovative approach to mushrooms has helped it become a hit within the food industry and with investors. The brand’s ‘first-of-its-kind’ breaded crispy chicken cutlet, primarily made from mushroom root, was awarded as one of TIME’s best inventions of 2022.
The opening of the ranch was in part financed by Meati’s overscribed Series C round, which saw contributions from the likes of Rockefeller Capital and brought total funding to date to more than $250 million.
“Our belief that nature already has the answer to many of today’s challenges allowed us to unlock a new food with Meati at a time when consumers are demanding something different and better,” explains Tyler Huggins, CEO and co-founder of Meati Foods. “Meati delivers an unparalleled food with its taste, texture, nutrition, and purity, and we’re thrilled to open this first and subsequent phases of the resource-efficient ‘Mega Ranch’ facility to help even more consumers add it to their diets.”
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