One of the latest companies to come out of Flagship VentureLabs, Essentient Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., is working on an approach to producing nutrients for human consumption that doesn’t require arable land, Essentient CEO David Berry said in an interview.

“This would change the way we think about nutrients, how people source nutrients at the end of the day,” said Berry, a partner at Cambridge-based Flagship.  “We are not trying to change people’s way of living or anything along those lines. We are trying to offer a way to get nutrients independent from arable land.”

Berry said the company isn’t ready to give further specifics about the approach, which has been developed since the founding of the company in early 2010 at VentureLabs. Berry previously served as CEO of Joule Unlimited Inc. and Theracrine Inc., two companies that also began in VentureLabs, the startup accelerator of Flagship Ventures.

Click below to view the full Boston Business Journal article:

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/07/13/flagship-backed-essentient-developing.html