A pet food startup backed by Peter Thiel is pursuing lab-grown mouse meat — but some people are worried about the consequences

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• An animal-free pet food startup called Wild Earth recently scored $450,000 from tech mogul Peter Thiel.
• The company's current products are made with koji, a type of fungus, but Wild Earth has plans to make pet food from cultured mouse meat.
• That idea worries the founders of other cultured meat startups, who say marketing cultured meat as dog food could destroy its appeal for human consumers.

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Entrepreneur and scientist Ryan Bethencourt doesn't like the idea of feeding his foster dogs ingredients that he wouldn't eat himself. So the long-time vegan, who previously founded the Silicon Valley biotech startup hub IndieBio, created a startup called Wild Earth that's making animal-free pet food using koji, the same organism that gives miso soup and sake their pungent kick. 

The company attracted the attention of tech mogul Peter Thiel, who on Thursday announced he is investing just under half a million in Wild Earth.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• A startup backed by Peter Thiel has churned out 20,000 doses of magic mushrooms, and is making more

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from Business Insider https://ift.tt/2LpIA0s