CULT Food Science Corp has highlighted the key updates contained in the 2022 Bi-Annual Report issued by its portfolio company, Mogale Meat Co.
Mogale Meat is based in South Africa and was created with the people on the continent of Africa in mind. The affiliate venture aims to produce nutritious cell-based meats while reducing water and land usage as well as conserving wildlife and biodiversity.
“Tackling hunger and water preservation is no easy task, but Mogale Meats is up to the challenge,” said Lejjy Gafour, CEO of CULT in a statement.
“Drive and passion for cellular agriculture and sustainability is what drives Mogale Meats toward reaching its goals to provide Africa with a better future, to reduce hunger throughout the continent and to preserve water, land, and animals across its many countries,” Gafour added.
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The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in more than 40 years and more than 18 million people face severe hunger in countries throughout the continent, including Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya.
CULT Food Science noted that as Mogale Meat develops and grows as a venture, its mission becomes clearer as to why it must prioritize the production of cell-based meat in a country that is not only struggling with climate change but also severe hunger. Cellular agriculture significantly reduces water and land usage by up to 92%, in the production of food, compared to traditional methods.
Specifically in the first half of 2022, Mogale Meat completed a number of milestones including:
- Development of its cell-based chicken breast prototype made from cultivated chicken muscle and fat cells as well as fungal cells, which it debuted on March 30, 2022;
- Welcomed three new experienced staff members, including Business Director Joalien Katerinic as well as new Cell Culture Scientists Bhavana Ramjeawon and Rosa Chinheya;
- Ranked as a finalist in the XTechInternational Competition and received US$10,000 in prize money; it was also selected to participate in the XTechInternational Accelerator program from June-August 2022;
- Participated in Nutreco’s Feed & Food Tech Challenge and made it to the semi-finals as one of the top 15 teams in the Alternative Protein category;
- Accepted and participated in Plug and Play Morocco and UM6P Ventures’ Health and Agtech accelerator program from April until June this year; and
- Worked on the technical submission as the Managing Partner of MeatOurFuture, which is a semi-finalist in the “XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion” competition.
Upcoming endeavours for Mogale Meat include:
- Development of end-to-end modularly scaled production facilities, for which two demo units have already been constructed; and
- Continued cultivation and development of a signature wildlife product that it plans to showcase later this year.
Mogale Meat is headquartered in South Africa and led by CEO and founder Dr.Paul Bartels, a wildlife veterinarian with over 25 years of experience in biobanking, cell culture and assisted reproduction technologies. Mogale is focused on developing a vertically integrated food technology platform to make healthy and nutritious cell-based meat accessible to Africa’s rapidly growing population.
Stock option grant
CULT Food Science also announced that it has granted, effective after market close on August 29, 2022, an aggregate of 3,000,000 stock options to directors and officers of the company in accordance with the company's stock option plan.
Each option is exercisable for a period of five years to acquire one common share in the capital of the company at a price of $0.05 per share, being the closing price of the shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange on August 29, 2022. All options vested as to one-quarter every three months from the date of issuance. This is a normal-course grant that comprises part of the long-term compensation and retention incentives program provided by the company.
CULT Food Science is an innovative investment platform with an exclusive focus on cellular agriculture that is advancing the development of novel technologies to provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution to the global factory farming crisis. The first-of-its-kind in North America, CULT Food Science aims to provide individual investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat, cell-based dairy and other cultured food companies around the world.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com