A plan to save the cows and make milk in the lab could ease the environmental footprint of the dairy industry.(Reuters)

If the plans of a vegan duo materialise, cow's milk will soon be made minus the cow.

Genetically engineered yeast will churn out milk proteins in a liquid that tastes and feels like cow's milk.

Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi who founded Muufri, a synthetic dairy start-up in San Francisco, started lab trials early this year and hope to have their synthetic cow's milkready by early 2017.

The duo want to save cows from the harrowing trials of modern-day industrial farms that feed them growth hormones, artificially inseminate them and take away the calves to make the milk available for humans, they told National Geographic.

They plan to insert DNA sequences from cattle into yeast cells, grow the cultures at a controlled temperature and harvest milk proteins.

While the proteins will come from yeast, the fat will be extracted from vegetables. Minerals, like calcium and potassium, and sugars available in the market will be added to the brew.

They intend to use healthier fat than found in natural milk and a sugar more suited to people who are lactose intolerant.

Water makes up almost 87% of milk. Casein protein, whey proteins, fat, lactose (the milk carbohydrate), glucose and some trace elements make up the rest.

Not everyone is enthused by the idea or believes it will work.

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Genetic Engineering: Synthetic Milk May Be Next After Synthetic Meat