'Artificial egg' made from PLANTS backed by Bill Gates goes on sale at Whole Foods

A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today. Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise - without a chicken ever coming close to the production process.

The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California - and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide. We want to take animals out of the equation,’ said Josh Tetrick, the firm’s founder. ‘The food industry is begging for innovation, especially where animals are involved - it is a broken industry.’

Tetrick’s idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg. This, he believes will allow the firm to produce its substitute for mass market foods - and to allow developing worlds to grow their own versions with added nutrients.

‘Eggs are functionally incredible, they do everything from hold oil and water in mayo to making the muffin rise and holding scrambled eggs together,’ he said ‘I started to think what if we can find plants that can do this. We have about 12 plants pre-selected, including a pea already widely grown in Canada. There’s also a bean in South Asia that is incredible in scrambled eggs.’ Read more >>

Wealthy Eye London, New York as World’s Rich to Increase by 50%

London and New York will be the top destinations for the world’s wealthy elite as the number of people worth more than $30 million swells 50 percent over the next decade, according to Knight Frank LLP’s Wealth Report.

The two cities will remain the favored locations for the world’s richest people until 2023 even though the fastest wealth creation will be in Asia and Latin America, according to the London-based property consulting firm.

The wealthiest 100 billionaires’ net worth rose by $241 billion to $1.9 trillion in 2012 in spite of Europe’s debt crisis and a stalling U.S. economic recovery, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 100 wealthiest individuals. Carlos Slim, the telecommunications magnate who controls Mexico’s America Movil SAB (AMX), is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $71 billion, followed by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) founder Bill Gates and Amancio Ortega, founder of retailer Inditex SA. (ITX)

“Wealth creation has not been dented by the global economy slowing, nor has this affected the demand for prime property as the search for safe haven investments has continued,” said Liam Bailey, global head of residential research at Knight Frank. “These factors will likely drive prime values higher in the short to medium term.” Read more >>