Those Vegan Cowboys

🤠 For the Dutchies and Belgians: our CEO Hille van der Kaa had a solid all-cards-on-the-table chat about how Margaret outperforms the cow with Pablo Moleman & Esther Molenwijk of Studio Plantaardig. Listen in here 🎧

Howdy. Here is why all this press about Margaret’s casein makes sense (this will save you a lotta readin’ 👇) - Turns out microbial casein has special qualities: we’ve seen better stretch and lower melting point, and this is just the start - With better functionality, you need less of it to make the same fantastic cheese - Ultimately lowering the price of cheese with this vegan casein compared to cow’s cheese - Which would cause a land slide towards vegan ingredients, even for traditional ‘big cheeses’ (it’s just basic maths!) - With microbial casein as a base, the door is open to healthier cheese made with plant-based instead of animal fats: goodbye bad cholesterol and high amounts of saturated fat. Also, it’s naturally lactose free - We are grateful for & surprised by the positivity we’re met with by traditional dairy industry players. We see much curiosity and openness to work together on next level sustainable cheese - great news for everyone involved 🐮! - Hille announced the first cheese in the USA will be slices on hamburgers 🍔 - the highway to saving a whole lotta cow’s cheese. Big impact, here we come. Thank y’all for the support and stickin’ with us on this wild & crazy ride into the new golden age of cheese 🤠 #ThoseVeganCowboys #precisionfermentation #sustainabledairy

Howdy, we'd like to introduce someone to you folks. We got ourselves a star: meet our new office manager / ranch hand Karin Mussche aka 'The Stitchin' Sage'! Driven by her fierce love for nature and her (grand)young’uns in particular, Karin traded in the commercial hustle for ranch handin' duties here in Ghent. This ma’m now secures our common future one e-mail at a time, beltin' out whatever tune strikes her fancy. Even technicolor whirlwinds like Karin need downtime, and she finds balance in gardenin’, strollin’, knittin’, the works. Let this be a lesson to y’all - one of many this Stitchin’ Sage has in store for ya. Welcome Karin, it's been a joy having you around so far - looking forward to many more good adventures! 🤠 Want to be around Karin too, get your very own cowboy nickname, make a peaceful food revolution happen & on top of that, proud ownership of a share in the company through our personnel participation program? Keep an eye on our vacancies page: https://lnkd.in/dcA2gSEP

🤠 JOBS JOBS JOBS🤠 - Our expanding team of lab cowboys has opportunities for a Downstream Processing strongarm 💪🏼 The Downstream Processing team at Those Vegan Cowboys is responsible for the purification and characterization of recombinantly produced milk proteins. We develop DSP processes, study protein formulation and use our purified proteins in functional studies and cheese making. We are looking for a Research Associate with interest and experience in protein purification! 👉 Know folks for whom this might just be a dream job? Make a crucial difference in their lives and that of billions of cows ‘n calves by tagging/sharing/forwarding the job 🤠 Check out vacancies in full at thosevegancowboys.com/jobs #downstreamprocessing #researchassociatevacancy #thosevegancowboys

The kind folks at Eurogroup for Animals honored Those Vegan Cowboys with an award for our efforts in finding solutions for better animal welfare. As one of Margaret’s closest co-workers in the lab, our CTO Will Van den Tweel had the pleasure of receiving the award in the Residence Palace in Brussels. It’s always humbling to get recognition in the form of an award, but this one does feel special. Because in the day to day hustle, the ‘why’ of Those Vegan Cowboys is not always seen or recognized. With our stainless steel cow, we take the next logical step in dairy. We want to relieve the cow from her job as a milk machine for humans, by building a real milk robot that turns grass into milk protein. So that cows can simply be cows, and grassland farmers can regain their rightful role as stewards of the land. So thank you Eurogroup for Animals - we’ll give the award a special spot on the ranch. And best of luck with your important advocacy work in Brussels, as an all important voice for the voiceless! What a way to celebrate World Animal Day 🤠 #eetgeendierendag #dierendag #eurogroupforanimals #thosevegancowboys #worldanimalday

Big wheels keep on turnin’! 🧀 A heartfelt Vegan Cowboy thank you to the lovely folks we met at the Future Food-Tech summit today. In a way, it was Margaret’s maiden voyage and we’re grateful for the warm reception! The Gouda wheel you’ve seen us lugging around symbolizes the big news we just discovered about Margaret’s cheese: the microbial casein (milk protein) that Margaret made actually performing better than cow’s casein in certain applications. Among these properties are better melting & a better stretch, which means cheese makers need less of it to get the same quality - eventually not only lowering the price of cheese, but opening doors to healthier cheese without the burden on our environment and fellow animals. As Hille shared in her mainstage session on scaling up, our partners - a major pizza brand, large cheese producers and a dairy cooperative - are as excited as we are to take Margaret’s casein further, and this was mirrored by the many good chats our CEO Hille van der Kaa , CCO Robert van den Breemer & Chief of Staff Belinda Hunziker were lucky enough to have with you all at the summit. FFT was also a great opportunity to throw our brand new CCO Robert in the deep end, by forcing him to talk microbial casein to a knowledgeable international audience on his 2nd day of work. We can proudly say he stood tall to say the least, and safely delivered Margaret’s Golden Wheel to London - we have the pictures to prove it. Want to stay in touch after our talk? Same here! Connect with us on LinkedIn, Insta or Facebook, sign up for The Not So Daily Margaret at https://lnkd.in/edgjWMXz or simply drop us a line at postoffice@thosevegancowboys.com. We’d love to hear from you 🤠 #FFT #FFTLondon #FFT2024 #FutureFoodTech #ThoseVeganCowboys #precisionfermentation #sustainabledairy

🚨🐮 Microbial caseins: already better than the cow? 🦾🚨 Our Iron Lady Margaret keeps surprising us. We knew she can make a unique cheese protein new to the world, with microbes instead of an udder. We knew she does it at least 5x more efficiently, saving land, water, animal lives and CO2/methane emissions. We knew she paves the way for healthier cheese, leaving out lactose, bad cholesterol and saturated fats. We even knew that in some uses, her mozzarella stretch beats that of cow’s protein by 5x. Now we know, her casein can melt better, too - and the cheese biz can’t wait to take her for a test drive. Behind the scenes, we’ve been sharing Margaret’s casein with a pizza producer, a dairy cooperative and major cheese brands. They are trying out the new protein in existing and new cheeses and thanks to the better performance in certain applications, they like what they see: cheese producers will need less of the new protein, with the same result. This will ultimately lower the price of cheese! With better functionality and as a consequence, better price, it is a matter of time before microbial casein is the preferred cheese protein over animal casein - just like 85% of the cheeses today are made with microbial rennet instead of the calf’s stomach juices of yesteryear. We celebrate together with our dairy partners, of course. But most of all, we’re happy because after thousands of years, the next shift has arrived, to relieve both cows and farmers from their burden. So cows can just be cows, and farmers can reclaim their rightful role as stewards of the land. About time, or what? PS: Hille’s presenting the results this Wednesday at Future Food-Tech London - go say howdy if you’re there! https://lnkd.in/dktuX_x 📬We’re sending out a special edition of The Not So Daily Margaret with more details: https://lnkd.in/eaDNP8Bc Press release and such can be found here! https://lnkd.in/eeGPwCRC

Robert van den Breemer had us at “I am considering moving to a workplace where I don't future proof the existing industry, but actually get to work in the industry of the future.” 'The Tall One' is son of more than 5 generations of dairy farmers, trained philosopher, dad of 3 in a family firmly on the veggie trail, grower of food forests, former strategy consultant & Head of Sustainability at one of the largest animal feed co’s of the world and the man who once had beers with Bruce Springsteen. However, what matters most is not his MBA or his international experience. It’s his view on the future of dairy. “I hope to be able to tell my grandkids that back in the days, we used actual animals for cheese. Although the industry is slowly changing, this shift will not come from within existing structures.” What will he do? Well, it comes down to making all the right connections so that Margaret’s Finest becomes the ‘any old cheese’ in everyone’s fridge, asap. Give him a warm cowboy welcome: our new Chief Commercial Officer, Robert 'The Tall One' van den Breemer 🤠 His first mission: get Margaret’s golden 🧀 wheel safely to London for Future Food-Tech...

What Jaap didn’t know at the time of filming: Our head of all things cheesy Annabelle did some serious testing with her team. The results were unexpected, not only for Jaap, but for Annabelle and the rest of us, too. Not only do the cheeses that Margaret made taste like cheese. It appears that under the right conditions, they can actually do better. They can stretch better. They can melt better. And this is exactly why our Margaret focuses all her powers on caseins, the essential milk proteins in cheese. Fat, salt, water & rennet can be replaced. But for real cheese, you need real casein. You need the stretch, the melt and the mind blowing effect on your taste buds. We hoped that Margaret’s casein could do as good as cow’s casein. Turns out, it has the potential to do better than the cow. And we’re just getting started. Hold on to your hats, cowboys. 🎥 Excerpt from interview Het Groene Podium #precisionfermentation #cowfreecheese #freethecow #thosevegancowboys #vegancheese

'Spot the cowboy' level: advanced - as our COO/CTO Will Van den Tweel is without hat in this rare shot. Will Will be wearing his straw Stetson during The Future of Protein Production Summit at RAI Amsterdam this 23/24 Oct? Go ahead and find out - the program is definitely worth the marbles. Will partners up on stage with Formo's Matthias Schmalisch 🤠 All details here: https://lnkd.in/dThnfm9Y