To create honey without bees MeliBio has developed a unique technology that uses the latest innovations in microbiology. This allows MeliBio to get honey directly from plants without bees as mediators. Bees are endangered globally and their survival is essential for human existence without pollination the world will have nothing to eat. Bees are very important because they pollinate food crops. Pollination is where insects move pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing the plants so that they can produce fruit, vegetables, seeds, etc. If all the bees went extinct, it would destroy the delicate balance of the Earth’s ecosystem and affect global food supplies. With the global population estimated to increase to 8 billion soon, this crisis needs an urgent solution. Hear Darko Mandich, CEO and Co-Founder describes how MeliBio aims to save the bees currently being decimated by commercial beekeeping and other factors.
State of Bees Report – https://www.melibio.com/the-state-of-the-bees-report/
Full Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I think you need to change your name.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I’m trying to change my name.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hey Darko. Hi. So is it Mandich or Mandish? Mandich right. Okay. I thought I had it that way and I was like, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah. Yeah. There’s different spelling. It’s different spelling in English in Serbian. So I just add additional age so that people know how to pronounce.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Ah, it’s very smart idea. Okay. Hi, ma’am I’m back. I’m back. I’m back.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So we’re good. This is better, I think.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah. Yes, yes. Much better. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And we’ll we’ll restream from here or what are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I can try and do that.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Do you want to take a second to do it? So you moved with your family and everybody to, to California, you said your wife?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah. With my wife and the dog, but I still have to have my parents and my brother living in Serbia.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay. How are they? How, how is everybody keeping? Everybody’s okay. How has, how has how’s things in Serbia in terms of COVID?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, it was we had two spikes and then, and now it’s, I think it’s a little bit better, but people are, people are really not respecting all the measures, so I’m, I’m afraid that it can just be a couple of weeks. Great. And then back to back to down, I don’t know.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah. We were saying the same thing. What straight line guy was sending everybody, Oh, look what a great job they’ve done. Only 11 debts and you know, 3000 cases, the numbers are better than New Zealand. And then they’ve had this huge cluster of over a thousand people in, in 48 hours, they were detected. And so they are going into sort of strict social distancing, and they were like, almost back to normal, like people are going to restaurants and nightclubs and all this stuff. And it’s sort of let us know when you’re ready
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Stream is completely down
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Ahead. No, we love the recording. Yeah. All right. So w w you don’t, you don’t need to play that clip, right? I just
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Go straight into my spiel.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Alright.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Hi, good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Everybody. Who’s joining us from across the world today. We are thrilled to have DACA manage from the CEO of Mallee bio with us. And on this version of pandemic funding, putting the plan on the pandemic diet, we are going to learn a lot about bees more than probably any one of you who would care to know, but it is fascinating subject docos company, Millie bio is actually making honey without bees. So this is a fabulous, fascinating experience. We’ve, we’ve done a fair amount of research on the subject prior to talking to Docker. And I must say I was, I, you know, I’ve learned so much in that in research, and I’m looking forward to talking to your doco, welcome to pandemic punditry. Hi everyone. Thank you for inviting me. I’m really excited about talking about bees and honey today and help your audience to understand the, the issue of what’s happening with the bees and the importance of these wonderful creatures for the entire plan that they are.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Yeah. so doc tell us and our audience, why should people care about bees? What is the problem right now?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
As I mentioned, these are wonderful creatures. They help us fall in AIDS. So many crops, they really are important to humankind and what’s happening with the bees is they’re really challenged in terms of their basic survival. If you would ask 10 people if they know if anything wrong is happening with the bees, probably nine people would say, yes, something wrong has happened. We’ve heard this from this article, from this movie, from, from, from this study. But the thing is the problem with the bees is much bigger than than, than we realize. We talk about the colony collapse disorder, that’s happening to mostly honeybees. And that is actually making all of these she thinks the news with you know losing some call on these from beekeepers. And that’s, that’s really getting the, getting the eye of the audience.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It’s, it’s an important thing, but what people don’t realize, which is, I think he was more important that if we talk about the bees, these are not just honeybees. Honeybees are domesticated, and there are just one out of 20,000 bees species out there. So other 20,000 bees species are not honeybees and they are either even more important than honeybees because they’re efficient pollinators. There are specific pollinators, they’re not just a general pollinators. They help us to maintain rich flora and fauna, and what’s happening with them. Is there, they are jeopardized with the honey production that’s that is really expanding to meet the demand for honey. Wow. Wow. I mean, 20,000, huh? I have some big 900,000 these pieces.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Wow, wow.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah. Yeah. So why are these bees being threatened? Is it because of agriculture? Is it because of orchards? What, what is the reason behind all of this stuff? And I remember reading in your state of the bees report that every time we have 10% of agricultural land that we sort of set the bees back some 34 million years of evolution or something like that, is that correct?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That is one of the reasons why, why, why the problem would be, is really, we believe it’s large scale and report showed that there are several factors that are helping the P is not survive. And one of them is definitely using more agriculture or land. The other thing is that we’ve noticed is a huge pressure happening on the wild and native bee species and bumblebees prom honeybees. So honeybees are very competitive bee species. And if you have a meadow that didn’t have beehives before, and if you bring 10 beehives to a meadow, that’s around half a million new honeybees. So imagine half a million new honeybees on a small meadow when they go out of their hives and when they start foraging, they just push back on the wild and native VCs. So in a perfect scenario where we, our world would really consume honey, which we believe is a superior product.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
More often, the only way how we make honey is through commercial beekeeping would actually influence that we end up with one B species and those are honeybees. So we believe that if we don’t come up with all kinds of solutions and we are basically focused on the solution on removing the pressure on while the native bees true finding alternative ways to produce and supplies, we believe that if we don’t do that, we would actually create a distortion. We would actually practically cancel be buyers diversity. And that’s really important. That’s really important because people don’t know that people believe, Hey, honey is great. If I eat more, honey, there’ll be more bees. It’s not that simple. Actually, if we would, as I mentioned, eat honey and not find a way to produce it in a different way. Then, then from commercial beekeeping, we would create a huge problem. So, you know, it’s interesting, right? So I see some parallels between, I mean, we’ve talked on pandemic boundaries, I’m putting
Speaker 1 (08:56):
The [inaudible] times about commercial agriculture, the profusion of monocultures industrial farming, right. And in, in common parlance, what people know about is, you know, the dairy industry, the meat industry, the, you know, whatever, the poultry industry, the egg industry, very few people think of bees as an industrial farmed industrially farmed product. Most of them have this thing of, you know, honey, you know, there’s a hive and you get the honey. And yeah, there are some people that, you know, a little beekeepers running around with a few boxes, right? So there’s this sort of I guess myth maybe, or Maloo around the fact that bees are somehow a sustainably sourced product. And I think what was sort of revealing and truly sort of earth shattering was to really understand the, at least in North America, what, how industrialize B production is maybe DACA, you can sort of shed some light into sort of, you know, breaking that whole idea that it’s, it’s this like, you know, artisinal farm the product. What’s real be industry like beekeeping industry, like
Speaker 3 (10:13):
B industry is very is very oriented towards efficiency. And I believe that efficiency is probably you know, I’m sustainable when you have two things that are involved, that’s work of the animal and then the physical labor of, of, of humor and, and meeting efficiency under those circumstances, circumstances. I think it’s really, I think it’s really impossible. Less than 3% of beekeepers in, in, in North America are small beekeepers, less than 3%. And the issue there and the issue there is you have all these big trucks that are packed with millions of bees, and those are moved from one coast to another coast. The bees are stressed. The pathogen spill over is happening from honeybees to while the native bees and understanding all of that. Unfortunately, you get a new perspective on how to look into this industry. On the other hand we, as a company and, and, and, and the founding team, including myself, are always oriented towards finding solutions.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
We are looking at the problem and we are looking at the difficulties of the problem, not to point fingers, but rather to sit down and facilitate a discussion and facilities solutions that would be able to help us to change the industry. I really love bees, and I love funny, but I understand that the part of the evolutionary process is that if we use an animal to get animal product, and if we like it, we don’t need to stop having that product anymore because we know that honey is amazing. We know that the taste is wonderful. When you put a spoonful of honey, it’s a delicious space. It’s a delightful moment, the CUDA experience at that time. And we think that we should have those moments, but understanding that each and every action that we make is influencing our planet and our survival on this planet makes us really think, how can we win to all these ideas and habits, how to have, how to, when to have the product, and also how to Vince to save the planet. So we believe that 10 billion people in 2050 should eat honey, as we eat it today, just us to produce that honey in a sustainable way that will help us to maintain our beautiful planet. Because until today, we don’t have any other planet. If we can easily move there and start a new life and understanding that if we keep our mindset in old times, defending actions from the old times, we are just delaying the actions that we would need to do, and that’s saving this planet.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So I think, you know, w w clearly I have heard this story, you know, when the bees are no longer there, four years, five years later, we will no longer be on the planet either because, I mean, they are so crucial for, for pollination. I think I think people sort of know that, but I don’t know what the really know the impact of it. I mean, four years I mean, do you, do you agree with that statement? I’ve, I’ve, I’ve read it a couple of times in various places. But I think you have a little bit of a nuance on that, don’t you?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah. It’s, it’s a, it’s an interesting statement. People say that Einstein said that even though we weren’t able to find hard evidence knowing that Einstein said that I wouldn’t say that maybe it’s four years, because I, I was really curious about that exact number. I think it was just I think that number was taken to show the seriousness of the situation, but I would definitely argue that if beans would disappear, if we would reduce the biodiversity of bee species, they would definitely be left out of many favorite food that we have, and that we would definitely not be able to enjoy the scenery nature that we can still enjoy today. Bees are such an intelligent species. There was a study recently saying that bees are actually being, are actually able to recognize different puzzles, even though their brain is really tiny, bees are able to be trained.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I also read some studies about some military in the restaurant world, able to train bees to find a way to detect mind landmines. So understanding how these tiny creatures, I really, really, really amazing and important makes us really to think about them in an, in another perspective, the biggest challenge of, of, of our niche of the industry of the food production is that if you have, if, if you’re advocating for eating plant based or cell based meat or advocating for, cause you mean dairy or other milk, that’s not coming from, from the animals, it’s much easier to show people this emotional connection. You just play a video of a cow playing soccer or football, and you can, you can see that people can use the way attached to them. But on the other hand, people are not that attached to bees because they can not see them in a way that could be appealing to them.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
A lot of people are afraid of bees because they will think them, a lot of people are in general are afraid of insects, but I need to reassure you that there’s a, an amazing beauty in those creatures. Imagine how scared they are when you approach, when you approach them, imagine how scared they are when they want to sting you. Understanding that death thing is taking their life. It’s, it’s unbelievable. And, and, and I, I’m really, I’m really obsessed with bees and I’m really studying about the principals. They work together, they collaborate, they communicate, they have this dance when, when they want to show to each other, how can they find food? That’s really amazing. So we, as a company, believe that rather than just putting out there a new technology, our food innovation, and an amazing product, we believe that we are mission driven company that will present these, how they are that will teach the people. Why should all of us love the bees and care about them and how can we eat this amazing product that they made for us, but now capable as an advanced civilization to produce it with, with science so that we can keep these creatures alive. Wow.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah. I was really interested in your state of B’s report doc, where you said like bees honeybees can carry and transmit up to 20 viruses. Is that correct? Six parasites and four, if I’m not mistaken, bacterial and fungal. So what does that mean? Like as humans for us, what does that mean? How does that affect us?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So again, everything is in that relationship with me managed honeybees and while the native BCC. So with the largest number of honeybees that can really bring pathogens to wild and native bees, which are in smaller number, that means that actually with every jar of honey that we eat, that’s made through commercial beekeeping by honeybees. We somehow help couple of native bees to extinct because, because we just support the way how this product is produced and that way of production is not sustainable. So eventually that would definitely lead us to not having, not carrying the bees and not carrying the bee, but by the recipe. So we we are really looking into that, especially there are a lot of new reports coming up here in California, where specially bumblebees are very jeopardized with this pathogen spillover. I think that, I think it’s, you know, sometimes civilization needs to get within it needs to sometimes this fit between the, the advancement of civilization, the consciousness and, and, and, and some problems needs to be aligned so that people can understand.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So, as I mentioned, I really don’t expect people to know everything. We really don’t expect that people have see this in a way that we see it, because this is the thing that we are really obsessed. We are really getting deep into reports. And also I’m, I have a strong connection with bees because I spent the last eight years in hunting industry. That is the industry that I know. And then spending almost a decade in industry, you get to know it, you get to form an opinion about it. And then you get to be surprised with the latest reports. And then you start thinking about your industry in a different way. So I also had a personal evolution of my thoughts in terms of honey and bees. And therefore, I really don’t expect that people would know this. And that is why there is Mellie bio.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
And that is why my cofounder, Aaron sheller, and I decided to really put a spotlight on this topic. And I’m inspired by all these amazing companies that are taking care of other animals. We were really inspired by them when we saw what one impossible food did, what van beyond me just, or other, other leaders of their industry. We were really inspired because we said, Hey, there’s a movement happening. There’s a movement that is that has one single thing in common. And that is opening the consciousness of the customer, understanding that there are other perspective to what we were told. That is the case. And also empowering people that with every purchase, you make a wall, every time you buy either an egg or a plant based egg, you are making a vote. Then your vote goes either to the conscious future that is kind of sustainable and impossible for everyone, or you, your mind is still not open and you are still not aware and conscious.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
And that’s okay because people that don’t understand the industry are yet to I’ve yet to get to know the industry, because I believe this movement that we created in terms of producing our favorite animal products without animals. This is probably this will, I believe in the human history, probably a couple of hundred years from now, this moment in time that we are having this podcast will be seen as a revolutionary part of the humankind history when we took science in order to help us to survive. While we also thought about our future generations of human and also animals and nature that’s really
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Live alongside. Oh, so well-put Darko so well, put, I must say I mean, clearly the passion is there, right? I mean, and it’s interesting that you, you know, you, you spent eight years in, in the bean, you know, the honey industry and then, and sort of, you know, went through an evolutionary process itself to sort of change your perspective on them. Which is, you know, not many people go through that journey. I mean, people go through our industry and sort of exit and retire there, but I think that the light bulbs going, and then that awakening that has happened in you is, is, is, is certainly, you know, inspiring and motivating for sure. You know, I was kind of keen to understand from you the, the, the actual parasites and the pathogens of the bees honeybees April’s metaphors, I guess, right. When you see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Military are spreading. Those are be pathogens, right? This is not peas running around giving people COVID no, no, no, no, no. I know that to be true, but I just want to make sure nobody in the audience.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It’s a great question. I’m concerned. I mean, like we’ve seen what an intersection between animals and humans brought to us and, and, and, and this is an amazing time when actually I think this year it was, and it’s still very difficult. And I think finally, we came to a realization in conclusion that one act of one single person can really, it’s so difficult to know it’s so difficult when one person or couple of people can affect creating of this, what, what, what was created. And, and this is, you know, we’ve always, you know, when we were kids, we were taught in school that there’s this like polarized world where a couple of people have their fingers on the buttons of the mass destruction. And I would say that the children of today would be thought that our mouth and what we put in them are kind of even more deadlier weapons of mass destruction, that, that can really make a difference.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
And, and, and I really urge to everyone to be open, to be open, to take into account that some things it’s natural, that some things are not communicated to us in a proper way, in terms of the society where we grew up, the education we had in terms of the views that we inherited from our parents, family, friends, the streets, where we grew up, but understanding that each and every one of us has a responsibility towards the people you love around yourself, towards you and your life. That we stay educated that we learned that we open our minds. For me, sometimes it’s really difficult to understand, you know we appreciate for example, that that taste is the King. And, and, and, and, and we really appreciate that because I, I, I believe in that as well, but on the other hand, I also believe that survival is actually the King.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are we going to taste a hundred years from now if we don’t survive? Right. So to all people concerning that their favorite animal products, I’m not tasting in the alternative. We produced me either plant based or rather try to race. I want, I want to send a message that companies know that everyone is following that familiar taste, and we are working on it on the other hand, your support and understanding that we have survival that is more important than taste, to understand and respect that we will get to the taste with more and more people giving chances, new companies and new brands, changing the world, voting with your dollars, you’re roofie or Lira, whatever you’re making, you’re helping those companies to innovate, to grow and to satisfy your tastes and save the planet.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Oh, well put, well, put Darko so eloquently put passionately put. And I so agree. I mean, I was just thinking, reflecting as you were talking, you know, if we eat ourselves into extinction, I mean, how are you going to explain that to somebody like, Hey, there was a species called humans and they just ate everything because they couldn’t the T they were driven by their taste buds so much that this ate the planet out essentially and kill themselves in the process. Right. I mean, that seems very stupid for people. Who’ve put men into, into space in our tech talking about being an interplanetary species and going to Mars well, great. But if you eat itself out into extinction, none of that will matter because all that brainpower means zero. Right. So I think what you’re doing here with, with science, right? So let’s, let’s sort of be coupled with, so, I mean, I think, you know, I highly recommend people read the, the, the status, the state of B’s report.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Right. I think that it’s, it’s beautifully illustrated. It’s simply written, there’s no scientific jargon in there. I mean, it’s an eyeopener. I will make it available for anybody interested on, on our website as well as on, on, on this recording. So we’ll definitely make that available, but I mean, I learned a ton and I consider myself quite educated in terms of these alternative forms of diet and food. So I learned a lot, so I can, I can highly recommend that any, every, everybody read that, I think it’s eliminating a document in its own writings. It’s not very long, it’s colorfully presented. It’s very easy. You can even share it with your kids. I think it’s a wonderful piece of information, right? So let’s just switch gears a little bit. I know that you have an answer and the answer is actually, you know, making the honey without the bees.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So I guess in this whole process is that I guess the B takes nectar from flowers and other things. And then through a process, transforms it into honey. So you’re taking the bee out of the equation. So the beacon go back to being a B right. Be pollinators. Right. For example, I think you’ve said the super pollinators are the sweet bees, the Mason bees, the minor bees and the Bumble bees. So I learned about three additional bees edition of the Bumble bee that I’d never known about. So, so these are better pollinators, much better pollinators than honeybees, right. So if you were to really talk about pollination, then we should be promoting those bees, not, not the honeybee. So you’re what, you’re, what you’re trying to do at Mellie bio is exactly what, when you say you’re taking the B out of the equation you know, this is not cell-based thing you’re not going to like, you know, make the bee, the honey inside the bee like, you know, some of our people are doing for breast milk, for example, this is, this is something completely different, right? So as much as you can reveal and understand you’re in the middle of R and D, so there are, you know, stuff that you can commercially discuss in the open as much as you can give our audience a sense of what is it that you’re using. And I know it’s a revolutionary, so please whatever you can share will be appreciated.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yep. Thank you for that question, living there. I would just take a small step back just to just also mention people as us, but, you know, these, they love to produce honey, what, what would they do if we wouldn’t take that extra scrutiny from them and like consume it, actually, that’s not the case. The honey production is taking all the County from bees and giving them sugar and water, and maybe a little bit Connie over the winter so that they can survive so that there wouldn’t be excess honey, if beans would just produce what they need for themselves. And that’s, that’s the case. That’s, that’s the thing that we really need to question, you know, it’s not that Carlos would sit down and be limited somewhere and give milk every day or be with your family, or it, it’s not that case. And we need to rethink that relationship with them in terms of our science, our goal, and what really makes us up in the morning and stays and helps us stay awake in late evening, we are not settled until we produce honey.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
That is indistinguishable from being made honey, in terms of delicious States, in terms of amazing unique texture and in terms of fantastic functional benefits. So we are making grill, honey, just without the bees with the help of science, with the help of art technology that we are developing on, that is based on the latest advancements of synthetic biology. And this reminds me of, of the video that I saw yesterday about Jeff Bezos talking about, you mentioned the space travel and going to other planets. And he said, one really powerful thing. And that is the future generation will build our existence beyond this planet, but it is up to the current generation to build that infrastructure because of the infrastructure that we have. Now, we have this live podcast, which was much easier to organize them five years ago when we would need to purchase some equipment that we would need to purchase some expensive software.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
And that is what infrastructure is doing. And we see contenting biology and advancements there as this amazing infrastructure that is yet to empower people. I guarantee this, I know that probably Beth in court is a better person to talk about this, but I think when he mentioned, and I totally agreed that biology and the investments that we have now is probably compared to where some internet companies and online companies were in 95, 96, 97, we are yet to see the amazing results of the advancement of the humankind and civilization that will help us to use science, to do good, to do good to people, to animals, to be efficient, to be affordable to be accessible to everyone. I, I, I don’t like when people say honey is premium. I don’t like that because in a way that shows respect to the high quality of the product, but the premium is kind of limiting it’s limiting in terms of, Hey, only certain number of people can afford it. Maley bio wants to bring this premium product to everyone, to 10 billion people that really exist in this planet in 2050. And that’s what they require to have their diet full of functional products. And where would you be able to find a better functional sweetener than honey, but honey produced by the bees wouldn’t be accessible, maybe not even to a billion people look at menuca look at these honeys that are really amazing. They cost a hundred dollars per pound. We believe
Speaker 1 (34:15):
For you on Monica. I just found, so Monica is, you know, hundreds of dollars and, you know, it’s, it’s crazy, right? But I found this statistic just today that says that officially New Zealand, which is where Monaco honey is mostly produced, efficiently produces honey, 1,700 tons of menuca honey a year officially again, official number 10,000 tons of Monaco, honey are sold everywhere in the world, including 1,800 tons in the UK alone. So obviously this is not Monaco that people are buying, right.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Super light blends,
Speaker 1 (34:53):
The, and it’s adulterated, right?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
So yeah, people are buying blends of, of wildflower, honey and Manuka. And this is, this is really unfortunate because we are living in a big lie, you know, and realizing how unaware we are. You know, we have all these people when we publish something on LinkedIn, they approached us with our comment. Are you crazy making company without bees, Connie, without bees, it’s not honey, you know, bringing all these things up. And I, I just tell them, Hey, the honey that you’re buying, there’s a big chance that you’re not actually either buying honey or buying the type of honey that you’re buying. So this is the true of ignorance of knowledge that unfortunately is widespread. And again, not pointing fingers because pointing fingers is just living in, in, in, in, in, in living in the moment that you don’t appreciate, that can change being part of the solution is living in the present, realizing and hearing all these feedback and comments and providing solutions.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
And we know that we as a company, my cofounder, Erin and I, we are sharing this story equally with the same passion on, on every investor called that we are having on every media call with people and, and, and, and living this mission of ours is really, is really a gift that we were given. And very can’t be because of that, because we know that the big things that are happening started small, it started with couple of people and, and, and seeing the community that we are having here in Bay area, getting the support from cell Valley labs, Ryan, Beth, and chord, big idea ventures, Andrew, the eyes, these amazing progressive people. It’s we, we really feel that not even the sky’s the limit, that there is no limit because there could not be a limit in goodness in, in creating something positive and in finding solution that doesn’t damage anyone including.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
And I’m an, it can’t be to say including about the current beekeepers, because we believe that no one needs to feel like that some solution is putting them out of business. We can help bees in many ways, instead of putting beehives, we can put bee hotels and motels for, for bee species in our backyard. We can plant trees. We can, we can look what what Oakley is doing with converting all these dairy farms into plant-based farm. We always have solution. We always, if we want to, if we want to, we can always find way so that the evolution and the progress is humane. But if we, if we if we reject the evolution, the progress we are just keeping in, in, in, we are just standing still, and, you know, the earth is spinning. The other plants are spinning because we are standing still. It’s not possible. So just
Speaker 1 (38:23):
No kind of education. If I may a mechanic, I know you have a bunch of questions as well. So it’s synthetic biology is what I mean. I know you’re not a scientist. You have co-founder is tell us, I mean, why do you think it’s going to be so revolutionary? What is synthetic biology? Is this, you know, sort of genetic modification? I mean, you know what, in a simple way, you know, not, not too long, but just a simple explanation of what is synthetic biology.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I’m very fortunate to be a CEO of a scientific company and not being a scientist myself. And I think that fortunate comes from my deep belief in sharing education and, and sharing knowledge. So I always tend to see myself as the braiser between people that are not scientists and scientists. Also, I’m fortunate that my cofounder is, is a very unique scientist who is able to communicate parallelly in terms of scientific language, and also talking a simple language to people that are not scientists such as myself, how I, how I see synthetic biology and how I would like to translate it to, to people all around the world. Synthetic biology is I think in the one, a beautiful hardware and software that is empowering us, that is empowering us to build things that are efficient, that are kinder, that are healthier, that are more scalable. It is literally if you see the last 20 years and what technology helped us from the transportation to communication and business, see that thing biology is going to provide a similar or even better infrastructure for our nutrition, for our health, for our for our favorite food beverage products favorite pharmaceuticals things that will help us live healthy longer. And that will help us to explore how we as a species can step up on the next level of the evolution. So this is
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Essentially using a biological component, whether it’s a fun guy or yeast or bacteria or whatever in the middle, you sort of program it, or you put an input, for example, let’s say sunlight, and from the other side comes out protein, like, you know, like a protein product or medicine or something, right. I mean, it’s essentially biology working as technology am I oversimplifying?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
You are not also simplifying in my opinion, because I think, I think approaching people with the language they would understand with actually I helped them to look into this industry in a different way. You know, from, to time I hear this, I hear this saying, Hey, if, if the people in white coats and they’re mixing something in the lab, as long as we want to have the approach, it’s some people in white coats mixing something that will increase the gap and the words that you’re using and that I believe I’m using is actually closing that cap and empowering people to understand that biology is in our hands. That is really important to know biology is in our hands and be all biology is something that we should, and we will use for our good, because this is a powerful tool. This is something that will be written in, in the history of humankind and something that’s helped us step up and coupled with engineering and technology and that mindset, it will help us to utilize it in the proper way.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
So I was really interesting when you started talking about producing honey, because the bees, right. But I’m also wondering what happens then to the, also the byproduct that we get from honey, like bees, wax, and me, then, you know, I think there’s Royal jelly and all of that other stuff. So this really battle plan to getting to that space as well,
Speaker 3 (42:59):
There are 220 types of honey main types of honey. So we as a startup, definitely believe in, in, in the focus, focus in early stage makes or breaks the startup. So we are definitely looking into honey at this moment and we are looking into how can we be really efficient there and how can we meet our goal to launch our product and, and of next year. So we, we know the other products are there. I think we’ve seen some synthetic visible wax being produced. Some of the other products that are coming from bees that are fantastic. We haven’t seen we don’t know what will happen with them. I mean, definitely, definitely there will be solutions. We will see how we will engage with other products, but we are definitely focused on funny because it’s a, it’s a very complex product. It will take, it will take time to perfect.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
It, it will take a lot of resources to get there, but with the right support and with people that believe that this is an important topic as we do, I think we will get there. I’m, I’m really aware. I read about all these other products I read about the bee venom and what’s about the study that there’s a possible positive effect in using B-vitamin breast cancer. I, I really think that bees are unbelievable creatures. I wouldn’t be surprised that we keep discovering more and more new things about the benefits of their product. We, as a company are definitely following that space, but we are not thoroughly working on different products because that’s not impossible in, in this, this stage of ours. So just to be clear, so the, the product you’re producing is in every sense without the B. So it’s, it’s, it’s, I’m assuming Wiegand, there’s no animal involved in the process or any more in the process, because I know you’re vegan as our eyes are the two of us.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
So essentially this is no animal products. This is just like the real honey, right? I mean, it’s got all the potential medicinal properties, the micronutrients, right? This is almost indistinguishable from honey produced by a bee and honey produced by merely bio. Am I correct? You are correct. You just use one word that we would love to eliminate down, down the road with our R and D process the word almost. So our goal is not to have that word almost because we want to make it as be, make B, make it, and down the road we are looking into also making it even better that people hasn’t, what, what means even better. Honey is awesome. Honey is awesome. And some of the micronutrients that are, there are super powerful. We are also thinking about how can we look into honey and, and in some terms, make it even better. So that’s, that’s also our goal. So enhancing or increasing the potency or the availability of a particular nutrient as well, sarcastic.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
No, it’s fine. I love it. So I remember just going back, you said, people say that honey is a premium product, but Mirabai really wants to make sure you give honey to all of the 10 billion people that are going to be in planet. Does that mean it’s going to be at a different price point in terms of like, it will be priced for common man’s wallet?
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Not only that it will be a price for common uncommon man wallet, but it will be significantly lower than them then be made honey. And it will be it will be so widely accessible that I think people wouldn’t be needing to look into more affordable solutions because we’ll deliver the highest quality at the price that will be competitive. We believe that people will really not be needing to look into other sweeteners to use them for delightful moments of, of, of, of pure indulgence of the great space that comes with amazing functional benefits and with a peace of mind, and that you are consuming product that is vegan and that doesn’t include animals or animal work.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
So going back to Monaco for a little bit. So can you actually make a Monaca honey because I use one of the inputs into your process, and if it’s, if it’s commercial in confidence, don’t tell me is, is actually the flowers that, that, and then other things that the bees you know, get their nectar from. And so you could essentially create Monica by having, I guess, the Monica, the plant, or a tree there, or is that something you can do, or is this something else?
Speaker 3 (48:08):
We are looking into menuca County and menuca County is really something that is really special. A lot of people are getting familiar with menuca and menuca is a pea plant that grows in mainly limited parts of New Zealand and Australia. A lot of these parts are under control of I mean, indigenous communities, Murray communities living there. So the production is very limited, but NOCCA have several aspects because it’s really awesome. We are looking at those different aspects and I definitely see Mellie bio having our solution down the road in terms of, in terms of making our product to be the powerful to be the powerful as, as menuca honey Manuka, honey is Manuka, honey has these amazing benefits. I also argued that buckwheat honey is great and other types of honey, I also, there’s a little bit of also promotion done with menuca, which was done fantastically by the government of New Zealand and some of the companies there.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
But I would say that so your question, I definitely believe that everything is possible to be built because understanding the magnitude of the infrastructure we have today, I, I don’t see that something is impossible six or seven years ago. If you tell, if you told someone, Hey, we would produce dairy milk without cow seven years from now, they would say that you’re crazy. And now we’ll at perfect day. So it’s everything, everything is possible. It’s just in my opinion, that you need a great alignment of people resources and time with a clear communication with the clearly communicated message. If all of these things are aligned, I believe everything. Everything is possible. The industry that we are currently in is not, I usually the street, you know, I, I split, I can, I can split my investor calls between people are investors and generalists and understand several industries and the challenges of each and every one of them.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
And on the other side, the investors that are really supporting this space. So for the people that are not understanding this space, I strongly encourage you to understand that this is not an industry like any prom before, in terms of in terms of the phase of development. And in terms of knowing things, you know, in, in, in this space of hours, it’s really common that a lot of things ahead of you in terms of scaling you’re yet to discover. So I’m, I’m really happy that with this mindset, we are actually staying open to see how things can play down the road. It’s not, you build a house, so you understand that you need a plot, you need a foundation to begin to fill it with concrete. You need to add bricks. It’s, everything is not clear in that way, in that sense, but with more and more players joining the space and giving their view and perspective on the industry. I think we are building a common knowledge that helps building ducting for the structure and when the resources, in terms of money and time come. I think that it’s just matter of it’s just matter of couple of years until we get to the fullest level of achievement and, and realizing that synthetic biology is changing our daily life and making it better.
Speaker 4 (52:08):
Sorry, I, I really I just have an observation because I mean, we featured a lot of companies obviously lobby on the show. And one of the sort of the hurdles that the company such as, you know, salivates companies and beacon companies face is that it’s like a lifestyle choice. Most people can’t afford to have it. What’s different about what you are proposing is everyone can afford to have it.
Speaker 3 (52:39):
I, I come from a, I have a interesting interesting family background and story. And, and, and when I was, when I was a kid, I remember that we weren’t able to afford product, a lot of the products that we wanted to have. And I remember that that, you know, going into a supermarket with our parents, when we were really like really young, we realized that we cannot just be, you know, the kids that take the product off the shelf and putting them in the basket and because our parents wouldn’t be able to afford it. And, and I remember that time, it was, it is really strongly built in within myself. So what really moves me is that the work that Aaron and I are support is by the team is actually the work that we’ll be able to empower everyone. We believe that everyone should eat nutritious food. We believe that everyone should consume tasty food. That’s beyond the taste. It comes with functionalities. So understanding that yes, you can be a premium brand with premium company and build their own the lifestyle. I believe that our lifestyle is that we don’t want to see any other kid that is not able to have access to food that is tasty and attrition, because if we succeed and there are still people that are hungry, that success was was nothing in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Wow. Thank you for sharing that sort of personal aspect and the motivation behind that. I mean, that’s a, you know, it explains a lot of the passion that I think what got, again, feeding on this conversation today. I mean, it’s, it’s it’s incredible. So, so actually what I’m seeing, and I don’t know whether the investors are things and I hope they are. We, we usually have a few investors watch our podcast on a regular basis is that you’re not just, this is not only about making honey without bees. This is actually potentially you’re going after the sweetener market, right? I mean, this could be, you could, you could change the entire sort of industry of everything from Stevia to sugar cane to, you know, whatever else out there, right. Fructose all of that stuff, corn syrup, all of that could really be a potential you know, potentially disrupted if not from this sort of particular honey that you’re making, but it could also be the fact that once you’ve cracked honey, which is like the premium and the hardest sweetener to produce with all of its functional nutrition you could make any kind of sweetener, I assume, through the same process you know, by just moving various synthetic bio program parameters.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
I’m not maybe, maybe I’m talking too much there, but, but yeah, I mean, this, I see this as a huge game changer, just not about be about honey anymore. It just could be about something way bigger than that. I’m sure you’re thinking along the same lines.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Well, I mean, thank you for bringing that up. We, as a company, we see this better future coming for bees or for humans, and we see it and, and, and as we imagine it today, we are building it. So we know where we want to get, we know the world is we want to build in, in that time span of 10 or 15 or 20 years, things change companies, pivot companies try new products. We really stay open-minded, but we stay humble and what we are doing in the next five years, and we know what we are doing. So definitely what makes us up is, is the positive impact that we are making on everyone with the great people, we will make great things because founding team is, is, is key and is crucial, but it is not enough amazing themes, amazing companies have Thompsons of, or, or, or, or, or dozens of thousands of people working on making things better.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
And we believe that from day one, Mally bio is built to be that company that will attract the positive people, kind of people, people that understand that they will one day leave this world. And at that moment, it wouldn’t be that important if they made three X or 300 X, but they would know that what they did is that they help this world to be a better place for themselves while they are here. And for the future generation, they are leaving behind perfect place to end DACA. If I, I don’t want to even add to that because I think that’s a beautiful sort of cherry on the top for what this discussion has been. Do you agree?
Speaker 3 (57:51):
So we’re going to leave it there so that you get the last word in on that one, because that was a beautiful way to stop today’s conversation. Thank you again, Darko for, for taking the time and you know, sharing your vision, your passion. It’s, it’s just been a humbling experience to listen to you completely inspirational. And we wish you the very best of luck in your, in your race. You know, we’ll hope, hopefully spread the word as much as we can on our channels, but all the very best, please keep in touch with us. Love to have you back when you can maybe share a little bit more about the process in some detail and you know, hopefully one day we will, we will taste your honey. Thank you so much. Thanks again. Thanks Darko.
Speaker 2 (58:32):
Yeah.
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