Those Vegan Cowboys: Grassroots bandits on a mission

On World Milk Day, June 1, the founders of The Vegetarische Slager launched their new company Those Vegan Cowboys. Those Vegan Cowboys want to develop new vegan foods with the same taste as traditional milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter. CEO Jaap Korteweg: "The development of a stainless steel cow where grass goes in and milk comes out, without the hassle of animals, is a long cherished wish of mine. Now that Unilever has taken over our dream of making The Vegetarische Slager the largest butcher in the world, we can focus on the next breakthrough in addition to working for the Butcher''.

Making Cheese

Korteweg: “Our cowboys work in our Milklab, within the grounds of Ghent University. Our researchers will collaborate with scientists and players from the traditional dairy industry to develop milkproteins through fermentation. Fermentation allows grass to be upgraded to dairy-identical proteins via microbial processes. In part not new: in 2020 the majority of all hard cheeses are produced with vegan microbial rennet. Those Vegan Cowboys want to also make the casein and other proteins vegan.”

On a mission

Those Vegan Cowboys expect to take seven years to market products on a serious scale. Korteweg: “We hope to present something tasty on a smaller scale earlier. The upscaling and traditional processing of high-quality dairy copies takes time. But if it succeeds, this project will make a very positive contribution to animal welfare, fair world food distribution, nature, the climate and biodiversity.” Animal husbandry currently occupies 70% of the agricultural area. Korteweg: “If you use this area for vegetable meat and dairy products, you only need half or less. Now, large areas of nature are being destroyed daily to feed the growing world population. With vegetarian meat and vegan dairy products, we can reverse this development and give large areas back to nature.”

Riding a stainless steel cow

Those Vegan Cowboys regard the development of the stainless steel cow as a logical development within the dairy industry. From hand milking, via the milking robot of today. Korteweg: “In Ghent, a predecessor of the milking machine was already demonstrated at the agricultural exhibition in 1910. In 1992, a Dutchman milked all of his cows with a milking robot. The modern dairy farm is no more than a factory where machines insert the grass and trucks take out the milk. The cow is an unnecessarily painful part of this industrial process. The Netherlands has a huge tradition of innovation in the dairy industry. For me, this project is no more than a logical next step. The stainless steel cow is an opportunity for the dairy farmers, because they have the grasslands. And it is good news for the climate, biodiversity and in particular for the cows.”

www.thosevegancowboys.com