Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler, better known as Sia, is calling for a radical change in the food system. Specifically, she advocates stopping consuming conventionally produced meat in the diets of humans and its domesticated companion animals alike.
The nine-time Grammy nominee recently became an investor and advisor of Bond Pet Foods. The start-up uses precision fermentation tech to create nutritionally complete, plant-based food for dogs.
From its creation back in 2017, Bond Pet Food has used ingredients such as peanut butter, pea protein, and oats. Now, the start-up is making its first steps into cultured meat to become the first producer worldwide for cultured chicken protein for pet food.
The product mimics conventional meat in taste, appearance, and nutrition. The company assures that its R&D team created it without harming any animals.
To achieve this, the company gently took cells from a hen, extracting the genetic coding of various chicken proteins from that sample, and then combined these with a strain of food-grade yeast in a fermentation tank.
Then they drain the meat proteins and blend them into pet food. The end result r contains “all of the essential amino acids that dogs and cats require for optimal health.
Bond expects cultured pet food to hit the markets in Q2 of 2023.
Sia’s collaboration with Bond will see the musical artist promoting the company’s social and digital marketing strategies. In other words to help introduce the public to Bond and its humane approach, and to open conversations about pet nutrition.
Co-founder and CEO of Bond, Rich Kelleman, says the team is honored by Sia’s involvement.
Sia spoke more about the implications of meat consumption last week in an article for Fortune. There she noted that humankind slaughters about 200 million farm animals every day for food, and nearly one-third of the planet’s freshwater and more than half of rich land is used for livestock, she says.
Another interesting detail is that 70% of all antibiotics given in the US are given to animals further fueling the rise of antibiotic resistance.
The songwriter announced in 2014 that she was vegan and encouraged her followers to support these “transformative companies.”
