This article is published as a part of a partnership with Future Food Asia. ProAgni is one of the 11 finalists of the US$100,000 Future Food Asia (FFA) 2020 Award to be hosted from September 21-25.
While global protein demands continue to rise, the animal protein industry is often entangled with issues of sustainability, biosecurity, and ethics. As an increasing number of consumers are taking matters into their own hands by seeking safer, more sustainable, and ethical food choices, there is a clear gap that livestock producers are failing to address.
It’s no surprise that antimicrobial resistance is on the rise when taking into account the growing prevalence of antibiotic consumption in livestock farming. In regions such as Southeast Asia, for example, the lack of policy implementation and infrastructure perpetuate this issue.
Antibiotic use in farm animals has become a structural problem in the industry, as it is directly harmful to human health, and the consequent antimicrobial resistance poses a threat to the economic sustainability of the farmers.
Anti antibiotics
ProAgni, an Australian bioscience startup, is addressing this problem head-on. With a mission to eliminate the use of non-therapeutic antibiotics in intensive livestock production, ProAgni has successfully developed its patented antibiotic-free nutrition range ProTect that optimises digestion.
Their feed additive technology has been developed to influence microbial fermentation and optimise animal performance, such as weight gain and health, by delivering the key types of energy that the animal can utilise. This has led to significant improvements in productivity, while maintaining animal health safety, thus providing an alternative to antibiotic use for growth promotion.
High steaks
The co-founders of ProAgni asked themselves: how do kangaroos thrive and survive on so little food and water? And produce little or no methane? What if farm animals could do the same?
They were inspired by the possibility of reducing methane emissions from ruminants whilst using less grass, water, and time and remove the use of unnecessary antibiotics to contribute to improving the economics and sustainability of farming.
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Co-founder Fiona believes their combined efforts at ProAgni could change the status quo of the industry where there’s waste, wasted time, money, and resources. She believes that adopting their technology means more efficient meat production with fewer emissions and antibiotics and that the technology can be adapted to have applications in agriculture in Western and emerging markets.
The biggest achievement moment for ProAgni was witnessing that the product performance exceeded their initial expectations and was supported by positive feedback from producers and strong sales growth. Another milestone was proof that they could shelf-stabilise obligate anaerobic bacteria.
Fiona believes that as a finalist at Future Food Asia, ProAgni will be able to meet like-minded people who are passionate about change in the food supply, toward triple bottom line solutions.
Mooving on …
ProAgni’s ProTect product lines have been commercially available in Australia for the past two years, where the products have been scientifically and commercially validated. What keeps Fiona up at night is the fact that the industry is not adopting change rapidly enough and is doubling down on solutions that are not sustainable.
But this only fuels ProAgni’s visions as they continue to collaborate, create collective value, and accelerate the adoption of innovation for sustainable food production.
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