Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are among several powerful names who invested in a start-up company that produces artificial breast milk, according to reports.
Gates and Zuckerberg joined fellow multibillionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson in funding U.S. firm BIOMILQ in 2020.
According to an article published by The Daily Mail in June 2020, the company produces artificial breast milk from cultured human mammary epithelial.
BIOMILQ received $3.5 million from an investment fund that is co-founded by Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Branson to “prevent climate change due to gases created in formula manufacturing.”
As many have been pointing out on social media, details of the investment have come to light as America battles with nationwide shortages of baby formula.
The Daily Mail reported:
An artificial breast milk start-up that offers a green alternative to baby formula has received $3.5 million (£2.8m) from an investment fund co-founded by Bill Gates.
It has been estimated that around 10 per cent of the global dairy industry — a major producer of greenhouse gases — is used to manufacture baby formula.
The $1 billion (£800 million) fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, was established to help prevent the worst effects of climate change arising from carbon emissions.
Alongside Mr Gates, the group’s other members include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin group founder Sir Richard Branson and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.
According to the company’s website, in 2021, they successfully produced the world’s first cell-cultured human milk outside of the breast.
Our team is thrilled to announce that we have produced the world’s first cell-cultured human milk outside of the breast. We find ourselves at the frontier of lactation science, helping to advance the entire field by putting mothers and babies at the forefront.
According to UC Davis Human Milk Researcher & BIOMILQ Technical Advisor Dr. Jennifer Smilowitz, “human milk is tremendously complex in both composition and structure which has made it impossible to replicate outside of the lactating parent.” Until now.
In just 11 months, we have moved the field of lactation science from proof of concept to proof of complexity, producing milk compositions that look more like a symphony than a concerto. We’re a HUGE step closer to empowering parents with another infant feeding option, one that provides much of the nutrition of breastmilk with the practicality of formula.
We can now confirm that BIOMILQ’s product has macronutrient profiles that closely match the expected types and proportions of proteins, complex carbohydrates, fatty acids and other bioactive lipids that are known to be abundantly present in breastmilk.
Candace Owens was among those who found news timely, considering the recent news of the baby formula shortage.
Owens tweeted, “Doesn’t Bill Gates just have the best luck?
“Just like with the COVID vaccine— he makes an investment, and then suddenly there is a pandemic or shortage and everyone must line up for his product.
“Of course he’s invested in lab produced breast milk!”
Doesn’t Bill Gates just have the best luck? Just like with the COVID vaccine— he makes an investment, and then suddenly there is a pandemic or shortage and everyone must line up for his product.
Of course he’s invested in lab produced breast milk! https://t.co/1OzFBFHezy
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 12, 2022
According to left-wing “fact-checker” Politifact, “there is no evidence that investments involving Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg in artificial breast milk have anything to do with the formula shortage.”
“Neither BIOMILQ nor the fund’s investment in the company have anything to do with the current shortage.
“Leila Strickland, BIOMILQ’s co-founder and chief science officer, told CNN on May 3 that the company is still three to five years away from getting a product to market.
“The shortage is due in part to a February 2022 formula recall by Abbott, a major U.S. manufacturer of baby food, that halted production at its Sturgis, Michigan, plant.
“It’s also due to supply chain issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic that were already impacting the infant formula industry,” Politifact claimed in its “fact check.”
“High inflation also appears to have compounded the problem.”
American families are suffering from the baby formula shortage.
Democrat President Joe Biden is refusing to accept the blame for the shortages, despite his FDA shutting down a huge plant that makes baby formula in Michigan.
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Mike Berg said in a statement:
“Before Joe Biden and Democrats took control of our government, it would have been unthinkable that parents would not be able to find baby formula to feed their children. Democrats’ stunning incompetence and mismanagement of the economy knows no bounds.”
