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Vegan numbers are on the rise. To try to encourage everyone and their dog to join the movement, a startup in California are growing fungus-based dog food in bioreactors. Wild Earth touts its vegan food as ‘clean protein’ that has all the nutrients a dog needs, hoping to appeal to people concerned about the significant carbon footprint of pet food, as well as the use of low-quality animal byproducts.
The company makes the unusual food by pumping sugar into a bioreactor, a large cylindrical apparatus for growing fungi. This allows their fast-growing fungus called Aspergillus oryzae to thrive,…
