Over rolling hills past vineyards, wineries, and paddocks filled with newborn lambs sits a narrow country lane scarred with potholes.
A factory stands at the end of the bumpy road in Borenore, a village in central western New South Wales (NSW), where signs warn of snakes, and sleek silver fermenters loom large.
This is the home of Cauldron, a high-tech start-up that raised $10.5 million (US$7.1 million) in seed funding from the CSIRO’s venture capital firm, Main Sequence, and Horizons Ventures, the private investing arm of Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-Shing. 
Cauldron uses precision fermentation to create molecules for animal-free food, fibres and biodegradable plastic, the same well-established process that replaced the need for animal products in insulin….