Good news. If you are one of those tourists who thought your trip to Yellowstone was perfect except that you would have preferred to eat Old Faithful, then you’re in luck.
A Chicago-based company which makes vegan products has been working with volcanic microbes found in Yellowstone National Park to make meat-like substances such as hot dogs and hamburgers.
The company, Nature’s Fynd, told VegNews last week that its founder identified a microbe can survive extreme conditions —like Old Faithful — and then you can feed the microbes glycerin and starches while fermenting them.
That process, they say, creates something called “Fy” which is an “animal-free protein that contains all nine amino acids and is high in fiber and vitamins.”
So in other words, you can get a steak or a pork chop and maybe even a double cheeseburger without any land, soil, or animal slaughter. It’s like magic.
“There is a revolution going on in protein product and in the future I don’t think if people care if the cells are from cows or microbes,” Thomas Jones, the CEO of the company, told VegNews.
A video produced by the company claims the Yellowstone microbes can produce “really delicious all-purpose foods that are perfect for feeding anyone, anywhere, anytime without the need for sun, rain, or soil.”
“Perfect for all 8 billion of us,” the narrator said. “Which means together we can give the earth a breather and let it rest.”
So how did all of this happen in the first place?
Karuna Rawal, CMO for Nature’s Fynd, tells Cowboy State Daily that back in 2009, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of the company, Mark Kozubal, was a Ph.D. student researching extremophiles at Yellowstone National Park under a research permit, support by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
“He collected samples from an acidic hot spring without causing any negative impact on the area,” Rawal said. “In fact, we never have to go back to Yellowstone for another sample because we ferment the microbe called Fusarium Strain Flavolapis to create Fy, our nutritional fungi protein.”
So, if you think there will be conveyor belts attached to Old Faithful with a non-stop supply of microbial hamburgers coming out, think again.
“I’m happy to say that there will be no conveyor belts near Yellowstone. We never have to go back to Yellowstone and we produce our complete, fungi-based protein in Chicago,” Rawal said.
So far beef producers from Wyoming don’t appear to be concerned with any new competition. As of this publishing deadline, we haven’t seen any press releases expressing concern over volcanic hot dogs.
