American dairy farmers, who are dealing with a 35% decrease in mammal-milk consumption over the past 4 decades, have new competition: Lab-grown milk.
Startups such as Perfect Day and Motif have raised big bucks ($61.5m and $90m, respectively) to develop cow-free dairy products.
These companies use microbes to grow dairy proteins that make their milks taste like, well, milk — and they’re also working on developing cow-free cheese, yogurt, and sour cream.
Petri dishes may pose a threat to mainstream milk down the road, but plants are the biggest threat today.
Plant-based milks now account for 13% of the entire milk market, and sales in the $16B plant-milk industry rose 6% last year.
Almond milk still accounts for ⅔ of all plant milk sold. But as consumer thirst for “alt-milk” continues to grow, plant-milk startups are winning over an increased “share of mouth.”