A San Francisco-based startup is taking a new approach to sustainable meat production: not by feeding livestock with organic feed or producing meat-like, plant-based alternatives, but by growing meat directly from animal cells.

“What is a cow? A cow is nothing but a walking 30 trillion cells covered under skin,” Memphis Meats CEO Uma Valeti said in an interview with BNN.

Instead of breeding and slaughtering cows, for example, Memphis Meats produces meat by extracting animal cells that are self-renewable and then growing those cells in conditions that are rich in vitamins, amino acids, sugars and oxygen. Valeti likens the operation to a brewery.

“You can see that there will be very high-quality cells that are being fed with various types of nutrients and in the production process, the cells are going to become meat,” Valeti said.

A cardiologist by training, Valeti said he hopes his new venture will curb the negative environmental and health implications of traditional meat production.

“In a way, it’s essentially taking the parts of the meat production process and getting rid of things that we don’t like, like slaughter, which very commonly leads to fecal contamination of the meat,” Valeti said.

Memphis Meats has already developed a prototype of sorts — a “cultured meatball” — which they made by turning tenderloin cells into ground meat, which a chef then turned into a meatball at a public demonstration.

The startup has raised over $90,000 from their ongoing crowdfunding campaign, which began mid-November. Valeti said Memphis Meats aims to bring its products to market in the next five years.

“We know there [are] thousands of meat products out there and the demand for meat is incredible,” Valeti said.

“I see this as the beginning of an industry that’s just going to be transformative.”