Category: Cell-Based News

  • uc davis alt protein
    6 Mins Read

    In collaboration with other institutions and government bodies, the University of California, Davis is launching an Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein to research and accelerate the commercialisation of alternative proteins. Can it help UC Davis shrug off its pro-livestock reputation?

    UC Davis is leading the launch of the new Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP) in collaboration with the USDA, UCLA, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Solano Community College, and the Culinary Institute of America.

    The Center will bring together leading researchers, academic institutions, industry professionals, advocacy groups and food innovators, who will work towards the large-scale commercialisation and technological advancement of alternative proteins. These include cultivated meat, plant-based and fugal foods, as well as blended meat products.

    Globally, our demand for meat is expected to increase by 50-100% over the next 25 years, according to iCAMP director David Block. But meat accounts for 60% of food system emissions and has a much higher impact on land and water use than most plant-based foods. “Expansion of conventional animal agriculture is unlikely to be able to meet demand at a reasonable price,” said Block. “We have to come up with alternatives and create additional sustainable food sources.”

    david block
    David Block. Courtesy: UC Davis

    Targeting future protein’s challenges

    At iCAMP, researchers will explore ways to increase consumer acceptance and preference for future proteins, which will give companies a deeper understanding of their needs and help them develop highly desirable products tailored to a varied set of customers. These applications can be across flavour, nutrition, shelf life and stability, cooking properties, cost, and more.

    The Center acknowledges that the future protein sector continues to face challenges, citing flavour and texture are key obstacles. A recent Mintel survey showed that taste is the biggest reason (48%) for Americans’ reticence to try alt-meat. As a spokesperson for vegan meat leader Impossible Foods told Green Queen this past November: “Taste is the #1 reason why consumers will decide to purchase a product again or not. Many consumers have unfortunately had a less-than-positive first impression of various plant-based products, and that casts doubt on the rest of the category as a whole.”

    Then there’s the price parity question – especially with cultivated meat, which needs significant scaling up to attempt to match the costs of conventionally produced meat. Cultured meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per lb to be price-competitive with traditional meat, and while companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decadeMcKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for these proteins to reach parity.

    This is echoed by Block: “We are not to the point where the product is anywhere near the cost of conventional meat. Widespread distribution of affordable products is likely to take 10 to 15 years.” He also leads the UC Davis Cultivated Meat Consortium, where scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and educators are developing tech to grow animal cells in a cheaper and more efficient manner.

    turtletree
    Courtesy: Turtletree

    Why UC Davis has been criticised for its stance on meat

    While undoubtedly a positive sign for the industry, UC Davis does have a chequered history when it comes to alternative protein. Frank Mitloehner, the head of an agricultural research center at the university, led an online backlash against the 2019 Eat-Lancet report that recommended cutting back on red meat to help save the planet. The same year, he promoted a quiz comparing the ingredients of the Beyond Burger to premium dog food, an online campaign run by meat industry interest groups.

    Mitloehner has emerged as an anti-alternative protein campaigner backed by the animal agriculture industry. According to the New York Times, his Clear Center receives nearly all its funding from industry donations (including $2.9M from the Institute for Feed Education and Research and nearly $200,000 from the California Cattle Council) and works with a livestock lobby group on messaging campaigns.

    But it’s not just Mitloehner who has been perpetuating such ideas. A group of researchers at UC Davis – described as “a well-known Big Ag conspirator“ by the marketing campaign body Changing Markets Foundation – released a pre-print, non-peer-reviewed paper last year claiming that cell-cultured meat is 25 times worse for the environment than beef, which went viral on social media.

    ud davis lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Changing Markets Foundation

    The study suggested that a vegan agenda is causing wildlife loss, barren Earth, and soil damage, going on to accuse “elite organisations” like the WEF of lying about animal agriculture’s environmental impact. These claims have been used to promote the narrative that people should eat more beef, and were promoted by American conservative figures like Donald Trump Jr and Tomi Lahren.

    The paper had an impact on policy too. In Ireland, when the government was considering culling 200,000 dairy cows over three years as part of its push to cut agri-emissions by 25%, the UC Davis study was used to push back on the proposal, as critics blamed cultivated meat for its alleged contribution to the climate crisis. (The 25% reduction target currently remains in place, but proposals to achieve it still need to be confirmed.)

    For what it’s worth, alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute carried out a life-cycle assessment in 2021 showing that cultivated meat can save up to 91% of greenhouse gas emissions when compared to animal-derived meat.

    Collaboration and funding is key

    uc davis cultivated meat
    Courtesy: UC Davis

    UC Davis – which also serves as the R&D headquarters for Singaporean precision fermentation startup TurtleTree – was among the first academic institutions to receive federal funding for cultivated meat research in 2022, when the state of California provided $5M in funding to UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis. The $1.67M received by the latter’s Cultivated Meat Consortium is being used to start iCAMP, with the consortium becoming an internal part of the new alt-protein center.

    iCAMP will focus on workforce development too, which includes cases and education for students and professionals to help propel the sector forward. Here, industry partners will play a key role by directing and financing research projects. Through this atmosphere of collaboration and knowledge exchange, the center aims to develop breakthrough technologies, cut production costs, increase scalability, and ultimately make alternative proteins more accessible globally.

    Additionally, researchers are working with industry and regional developers to build a “more complete ecosystem” of food tech business incubators, pilot facilities and contract manufacturers, with innovative ways to connect with the public. These range from food policy seminars to introducing consumers to novel meat products in campus dining areas and beyond.

    To that end, iCAMP will launch on January 17 with an Innovation Day at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Center for Wine and Food Science, where scientists, programme leads and partners will share research to accelerate alt-protein innovation. It will include discussions on plant-, fermentation-, and cell-based foods, as well as food safety, consumer acceptance, and regulation and policy. Plus, there will be a focus on supporting businesses and academic institution IP, and building regional bioprocessing and workforce capacity.

    The post UC Davis Launches Alternative Protein Center to Advance Commercialisation appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • cultured meat singapore
    8 Mins Read

    Singapore is renowned for its position as an alternative protein leader – a new study reveals how members of the general public as well as scientific experts feel about cultured meat, and its effects on general health and society.

    Soon, it will be three years since the Singapore Food Agency granted Eat Just’s Good Meat the world’s first regulatory approval for cultivated meat. It consolidated the island nation’s position as a flagbearer of food tech innovation and progressive policymaking.

    It has led to an influx of startups across all the alternative protein pillars, with Singapore being home to the highest number of companies across biomass fermentation (39%), cultivated (33%) and plant-based (21%) startups in APAC. In fact, at least 25 non-local companies have a presence in the city-state for R&D and business development, with 24% of all APAC alt-protein startups based here.

    This is according to industry think tank the Good Food Institute APAC’s State of the Industry report for 2023, which also highlighted how consumers in Singapore are the most sceptical of plant-based meat (alongside Malaysians). The country has the highest number of ‘rejectors’ as well, i.e. people who want to reduce their intake of meat alternatives.

    In a similar vein is a recent study published in the Plos One journal, which looked at how the public as well as scientific experts view cultivated meat in Singapore. It relied upon focus group discussions attended by 29 members of the public and 11 experts from research institutes and academia, with each session lasting about two hours.

    What the public thinks

    lab grown meat tasting
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Public members discussed two main health benefits of cultivated meat: functional foods and higher food safety, with the nature of the product meaning it could be engineered to be more nutritious and healthier than conventional meat. Produced in bioreactors, cell-cultured meat is also thought of as cleaner and carries a lower risk of transmitting zoonotic diseases. Additionally, the general public believed that cultivated meat could provide expanded options for meat-eaters, while potentially being more wallet-friendly as increased demand would mean lower prices for conventional meat.

    In terms of societal benefits, food security was identified as a key benefit, especially given Singapore’s heavy reliance on imports – over 90% of its food supply comes from other countries. Cultured meat can help the country grow its own meat and become more self-sufficient, all the while diversifying its food sources, and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities. It could help address food shortages and malnutrition too.

    This, in turn, would bring benefits to the economy, with reduced meat imports, increased foreign direct investments and more jobs being mentioned as three key aspects. Plus, there’s the land use question: GFI analysis reveals that cultured meat grown via renewable energy needs 95% less land than conventional meat. As a land-scarce nation, public participants said cultured meat can alleviate this challenge, further noting wider environmental positives, alongside animal welfare benefits.

    Despite the idea that cultivated meat could help avoid zoonotic diseases and be a cleaner food source, many expressed concerns about the long-term effects of these novel proteins on human health, with apprehensions stemming from the use of additives and preservatives, doubts over nutritional deficiencies, as well as a perceived naturalness. Others are unsure about the science, processing methods, and regulations governing its production. And for many consumers, price is a key barrier, calling it the primary factor influencing their purchasing decisions.

    There were also worries about health effects at a societal level, with questions raised around the transparency and qualifications of cultured meat suppliers, as well as the overconsumption of these proteins, which was likened to high diet soda intake. Finally, resistance from religious communities was identified as a potential societal risk too, as certain racial and ethnic groups could find cultured meat adoption challenging. There is a need for relevant certification to enhance acceptance, as has been the case with cultured meat’s halal certification.

    Mirte Gosker, managing director of the Good Food Institute APAC, compares this situation to the shift to electric vehicles (EVs). “For EVs, initial market hesitations surrounded vehicle costs, battery range, and concerns about a lack of available chargers, which consumers worried could affect how reliably they can get from place to place,” she explains. “Those are challenges that EV producers, researchers, and governments all took seriously and began investing in solutions to mitigate, which has helped alleviate consumer hesitation in many markets.”

    She adds: “There will be a long learning curve as consumers weigh how cultivated meat could potentially fit into their lives with minimal disruption to their existing day-to-day practices.”

    What scientific experts think

    uk sustainable proteins
    Courtesy: Shiok Meats

    In terms of cultivated meat experts, there were two main upsides for personal health: individual health benefits and increased food options. There was talk about how cultured meat could be improved with certain bio-nutrients and mitigate risks traditionally associated with animal meat, such as pesticide exposure. The experts echoed the public’s point about an expansion of choices, providing consumers with a chance to “diversify our diet”.

    When it comes to societal benefits, the predominant topic of discussion was food security, with experts viewing it as a significant advantage of cell-based meat. These proteins can offer stability during supply chain disruptions and ensure the continuity of food production, becoming “a valuable benefit for society”.

    However, the experts did raise concerns about personal health risks, with some feeling the tech is still immature and more long-term research is necessary. Gosker explains that it is “a professional requirement for scientific experts to have questions, especially for a new technology like cultivated meat”. She points to the safety assessments made by the FDA in the US, the FSA in Singapore and the FSANZ in Oceania, as well as a 2023 UN FAO report that concluded: “The food safety risks of [cultivated] meat are similar to those of conventional meat, and they can be contained through proper handling and testing as with conventional meat.”

    “In the study, the open questions outlined by scientific experts – which were outnumbered by the potential benefits they noted for food safety and security – mostly pertain to market acceptance and driving down the costs of cultivated meat production through investment and innovation,” she tells Green Queen. “These are anticipated growing pains and challenges that GFI’s global teams are proactively working to resolve through technical guidance and open-access R&D funding, but there is also a clear need for governments around the world to play a much larger role.”

    There were affordability considerations at play as well, as cultured meat products are much more expensive than their conventional counterparts, which is a major barrier to widespread adoption and acceptance. Investment risks were brought up as well by the experts in focus groups, calling the industry “challenging” and a “commercial liability”, and noting that most vegetarians would not be inclined to eat cell-cultured meat.

    Speaking to this, Gosker explains: “Just as the clean energy transition requires and deserves public investment, so does our transition to alternative proteins. For perspective, the cultivated meat sector has received – over the course of its entire history as an industry – less than $3B in global investment, 98% of which have been equity investments across more than 100 companies. That is less than the cost of one single EV battery plant. This illustrates just how early in the scale-up and cost-reduction processes the industry is at this stage and how much more room it still has for growth.”

    Differences, similarities and misconceptions

    lab grown meat singapore
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Both the public and experts displayed similarities as well as differences in their perception of these novel foods. For example, both sets of focus group participants agreed that cultured meat presents personal health benefits, expands food options, and ensures food security. Similarly, they expressed concern about long-term health risks and affordability.

    But the general public held a much broader view of societal risks and benefits compared to the experts, who did so for personal health risks. For instance, when it came to the societal aspects, the general public mentioned benefits for land use, animal welfare, and the Singapore economy, as well as risks around public health and potential resistance from certain racial and religious communities – ideas not mentioned by the experts, highlighting the key considerations of consumers.

    It’s a topic GFI APAC’s industry-wide surveys have highlighted, given that huge swathes of Asia’s population adhere to such religious standards. “It is essential for religious bodies and third-party certification agencies to work closely with regulators and industry stakeholders to determine how cultivated meat and seafood producers can best align with their requirements,” says Gosker.

    The study also exposed some misconceptions surrounding cultivated meat. Some members of the public associated these proteins with plant-based meat. And while they thought of cultured meat as environmentally beneficial, experts were more sceptical due to a lack of sufficient scientific evidence. “Open-access research publications provide increased transparency about the cultivated meat production process, which could be beneficial in clarifying for consumers how novel foods get to their plate,” says Gosker.

    “Public information campaigns by trusted government agencies and experts can be very effective in dispelling misinformation and educating consumers about the many health benefits of cultivated meat,” she adds.

    Key questions lie for cultured meat in Singapore

    cultivated seafood
    Courtesy: Umami Bioworks

    “In previous consumer perception studies, many Asian consumers have expressed a strong desire to try products that they perceive to be innovative or deliver added values not previously available to them,” says Gosker. “This could give a boost to brands that use novel ingredients and formulations, such as hybrid products that combine ingredients from plants, microbes and cultivated animal cells to create flavourful and nutrient-dense products and ingredients.

    “Such products will have a much easier time achieving price parity in the short term, while scientists continue to refine techniques for cost efficiency on fully cultivated products. Not surprisingly, Singapore has proven to be an early global leader in advancing the hybrid protein space.”

    So, where does that all leave us? Gosker says the study is a useful blueprint for how similar research can be conducted in other APAC countries. She also mentions the importance of tackling food neophobia, and how producers and governments can increase consumer confidence in cultivated meat. Many of these steps were highlighted in a landmark report by the UNEP published during this year’s COP28.

    Ultimately, she notes, the question is: “Can cultivated meat deliver all of the flavour, value, and nutrition that consumers currently get from conventional meat? If it can, and the products come with clearly communicated benefits like a complete absence of microplastics and reduced risk of transmitting zoonotic disease, many consumers will see the value in making the switch.”

    The post How Do Singapore’s Consumers & Experts Feel About Cultivated Meat? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Mins Read

    Editor’s Note: Given the urgency of the climate crisis, the outsized global greenhouse gas emissions footprint of animal protein production and the need to support a variety of future food solutions, including cultivated meat, we believe it is important to fight back against misinformation about these solutions. We are reprinting Upside Foods’ response to a recent article that it says contains inaccurate information and misrepresents the company’s progress and technology.

    By: Upside Foods

    At UPSIDE, we are committed to tackling a fundamental challenge: how to sustainably feed a growing global population without causing harm to the planet and animals. We’ve made exciting progress, including laying an important foundation to scale our technology. As any trailblazer in a nascent industry knows, innovation does not happen in a straight line and we understand people will continue to be curious about our progress as we advance our mission. We’re incredibly excited about what’s ahead for UPSIDE, despite what some recent news articles have suggested, which we want to address.

    For context, a recent Bloomberg Businessweek story about our industry, which featured UPSIDE, contained inaccurate and misleading claims about our business and fundamentally misrepresents UPSIDE’s technology and strategy. This occurred despite our team’s extensive efforts to educate Bloomberg’s reporters over many months and despite outreach to their editors, general counsel, and standards editor to express our concerns regarding the investigative and reporting process. They have refused to fairly reflect UPSIDE’s progress in the story, and the article reads more like an opinion piece.  

    The most glaring omission from the article is the tremendous progress we have made towards commercial scale, including the critical role of large-scale “suspension” products in our strategy. The article concludes that the industry, and UPSIDE specifically, does not have a path to scale its product and has “little to show for itself.” This is inaccurate and is a dated snapshot of our progress from several years ago. Bloomberg ignored our repeated requests (and blog post) stating that our tissue product is not slated for scaling near-term and that we are instead focused on first commercializing our suspension product, which produces delicious blended cultivated meat products. This suspension product was the basis for our Series C fundraise, has been proven out through dozens of successful runs in our 2kL cultivators at EPIC, and is the design basis for our commercial scale processes. We told Bloomberg we produced enough cells in a single cultivator in the last month to produce the equivalent of over 2,000 pounds of delicious finished chicken products. They did not print that and instead focused on the small quantities of the chicken we currently have on the market (our “tissue” product). Below is a full statement we provided about the importance of large scale suspension chicken. They deleted our statement about suspension chicken and our ability to scale, but published the rest of it. We provide that statement in full here (Bloomberg removed the parts in bold): 

    UPSIDE has successfully and repeatedly demonstrated that we can scale our suspension technology to make delicious ground-textured and blended products. This platform is the basis for the commercial plant we are currently building, and will enable large scale production pending regulatory approval. UPSIDE is proud to have established a high-watermark with our whole textured chicken product that’s being served today. We will continue to be pioneers addressing the challenge of sustainably feeding a growing global population while minimizing environmental impact, and remain steadfast in our goal of bringing delicious and safe cultivated meat to consumers. While we know there will be many challenges ahead, UPSIDE chooses to work with optimism, grit and dogged determination towards our vision for a better future, buoyed by the progress we’ve already made and the urgency of the work ahead.” 

    The article also tries to denigrate our technology and the science behind it, and tries to draw conclusions about the safety of our product. It gets both wrong. Our cultivated chicken (made from our small scale tissue process) and our next generation of delicious suspension products have been positively received by external parties. (The Washington Post described it as “the most chicken-y chicken I’ve tasted in a long time”; Eater lauded that “the taste evoked the kind of nostalgic, delicate meatiness proper chicken should provide”; and one of the Bloomberg writers tasted our product in December 2022 and remarked that it tasted like chicken). Our products are safe, and have been reviewed by the FDA. The cholesterol is within the range found in commonly consumed foods. Our lead levels are similar to spinach and grape juice. We have made additional progress lowering lead levels since the time of the FDA approval of our product. We have also made significant progress on our next-generation tissue cultivators, even though they will not be our initial focus for commercialization. 

    Finally, the article relies heavily on discussions with anonymous sources and a single named former employee that worked for UPSIDE for 71 days in 2021 on a special project segregated from the rest of the company, and whose responsibilities and expertise did not include any of the areas that he is quoted on in the story.  Additionally, we’ve heard from multiple experts quoted in the article that they have lodged complaints to Bloomberg because they were misquoted or have had their quotes taken out of context.

    Looking forward, we will not be slowed down by those who want to stall this industry. Our goal is not just to build a business, but to be an industry-defining brand and a significant force innovating for a sustainable future. Our ambition is bigger than a niche business or quick profits. We aim to mirror the impact of other transformative companies whose groundbreaking, unconventional ideas have become foundational. We see parallels for cultivated meat. 

    While we have never guaranteed success, our investors and supporters recognize that the pursuit of change of this magnitude requires a team that refuses to accept the status quo and is willing to take the hard path of tackling the challenges directly. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. You can find more details about what’s next for us on our blog.

    This article was first published on December 21st 2023 on the Upside Foods blog – it is reprinted here with permission.

    The post Addressing The Facts: Upside Foods Responds To Recent Press appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • japan alt protein grant
    4 Mins Read

    The government of Japan has awarded grants worth $19.6M to two alternative protein startups, just after a new report shed light on the country’s consumer preferences around meat alternatives.

    The Japanese government has included two alternative protein companies in the latest round of its Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Innovation Promotion Fund Project, run by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

    Awarding grants worth ¥26B ($209M) to 25 projects, the two alt-protein startups part of the list are Umami United and IntegriCulture, which received funds worth ¥2.8B ($19.6M).

    Umami United bags $6.5M for global expansion

    umami united
    Courtesy: Umami United

    Umami United, which closed a $1.64M pre-Series A funding round earlier this year, makes plant-based egg products using konjac flour, bittern and wood-eared mushrooms. The startup, which is gearing up to launch in the US and Europe, received ¥917M ($6.5M) as part of the government grant.

    The Tokyo-based startup says it will use the funds to improve the functionality of its vegan eggs, and accelerate its full-scale entry into the North American market. It has stated its aim to become a global food tech representative of Japan, “fostering a world where individuals with various backgrounds, including vegans and food allergies, can come together and share a meal at one table”.

    Speaking to Green Queen after the pre-Series A round in August, Umami United CEO Hiroto Yamazaki said the brand was looking to enter the UK and Germany first in Europe: “We are in the midst of discussions with big players in both the UK and Germany to incorporate our egg replacer products into their plant-based food products. They have tested our products and initial responses are positive.”

    He added: “As for the US, we are also in late-stage talks with universities in Southern California to incorporate our products in their vegan menus.” He confirmed that some “big plant-based meat players” are testing Umami United’s clean products to be used as a binding agent. Its product range includes a vegan egg powder, flavouring powder and pudding mix.

    IntegriCulture gets $13.1M for demonstration of cell ag production system

    integriculture
    Courtesy: IntegriCulture

    IntegriCulture, meanwhile, received an even larger investment of ¥1.87B ($13.1M). It has created a cellular agriculture infrastructure platform called CulNet, through which it develops affordable growth mediums and other solutions for cultivated protein. The startup plans to make these developments open-source to accelerate widespread progress and commercialisation.

    In early 2022, it raised $7M in a Series A round to take its total funding to $16.4M. The company has previously been awarded a $2.2M government grant to construct a specialist production facility, and has been working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Tokyo Women’s Medical University on a project involving cellular agriculture and cultivated meat production in space.

    The company claims to have grown serum-free cultivated chicken and duck meat at a fraction of the cost compared to using animal-based growth factors. It says the CulNet platform can drop growth factor costs from the current price of over $200,000 per kg of meat to under $3 by 2025, and under a dollar soon after that.

    Plus, it has debuted a cell-based egg-derived skincare ingredient, Cellament, which is being used by the Japanese skincare brand Essencebase in its L’Oeuf line. “Cell-culture technology doesn’t just change how we source traditionally animal-derived ingredients, it also enables us to unlock nutritional and functional power that was previously inaccessible,” IntegriCulture CEO Yuki Hanyu has previously said.

    What Japan’s consumers want from alt-protein

    japan plant based meat
    Courtesy: IntegriCulture

    The agriculture ministry’s grant comes soon after a Food Frontier report into Asia’s alt-protein sector. It revealed that 91% of Japan’s citizens are regular meat-eaters, while 9% eat plant-based meat. For these consumers, flavour, ease of cooking and high protein content are the most important purchase drivers. As for the biggest barriers, taste and overprocessing are the main issues.

    In terms of cultivated meat, 20% of people surveyed have heard of the term, but only 2% indicated that they’d definitely purchase it, with 10% saying they are likely to do so once it becomes available. Here, unfamiliarity with these novel foods is the key barrier, followed by a perceived unnaturalness and taste concerns.

    While the value of Japan’s alt-meat market is among the highest in Asia (at $247.5M in 2022), it has the slowest projected yearly growth rate, expanding by only 9% annually until 2027. “We are seeing more and more Japanese consumers with changing tastes and preferences and heightened health awareness, and this has also motivated these local food manufacturers to prioritise and launch plant-based food,” Yamazaki told Green Queen.

    Additionally, the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture is part of the recently launched APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum, which aims to facilitate cross-border dialogue between cell-cultured food producers, industry associations and think tanks, and government agencies and regulators in multiple jurisdictions.

    On the regulatory front, Japan’s government is expected to be the next (alongside South Korea) to develop a framework for companies. “Both nations are proactively seeking input from industry groups to craft clear and efficient safety review processes,” said Good Food Institute APAC managing director Mirte Gosker, before adding: “No timeline has been set for when this work will be completed.”

    The post Japanese Government Awards Grants to Two Alt-Protein Startups appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • steakholder foods
    4 Mins Read

    Israeli startup Steakholder Foods has unveiled the industry’s first 3D-printed eel to battle an industry riddled with overfishing and facing the threat of extinction. It is expected to include some cultivated eel cells at a future stage.

    Steakholder Foods, the Israeli 3D-printing and cultivated meat and seafood startup that began as MeaTech, has unveiled a prototype of its 3D-printed plant-based eel, using precision layering and a unique mix of materials to achieve the fish’s complex texture.

    It comes months after the producer debuted the world’s first cultivated grouper fish with Singaporean cultured meat maker Umami Meats, on the back of a $1M grant from the bipartite Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation.

    vegan eel
    Courtesy: Steakholder Foods

    Plant-based for now, but hybrid fish in the plan

    Steakholder Foods’ 3D bioprinting process – called DropJet – allows it to drastically reduce the number of ingredients in its vegan eel – catering to the growing consumer demand for clean-label formulations. In 2020, a global survey by Ingredion revealed that over half of respondents find it important for products to have a short ingredient list, while its latest data has found that 78% would spend more money on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.

    And while the eel is currently made up of fully plant-based ingredients, as a cultured meat company that has previously expressed interest in hybrid meat, it perhaps comes as no surprise that it expects to include cultured eel cells in the product at a later stage, if the “economies of scale allow price-competitive cell development”.

    The news comes a few months after the startup announced a multi-million-dollar strategic partnership with an accredited governmental body based in the Gulf Cooperation Council to create hybrid fish products and tackle food insecurity in the region, with the eventual goal of establishing a large-scale production facility.

    3d printed fish
    Courtesy: Steakholder Foods

    Steakholder Foods, which is currently conducting a life-cycle assessment for its seafood analogue, is exploring collaborations to commercialise its plant-based eel by offering them proprietary 3D printers and ink that can generate revenue in the short term. It claims that its current tech capabilities will allow B2B partners to mass-produce price-competitive 3D-printed eels, enabling them to tackle the challenges associated with the current global costs of eels.

    “This technology is designed to enable partners to generate products on a potential industrial scale of hundreds of tons monthly, not only at lower costs compared to wild eel, but also with the flexibility to create a variety of printed products using the same production line,” explained its CEO Arik Kaufman.

    Why alternatives to eel are necessary

    In Japan, where over 70% of all eel catch is consumed, the fish has always maintained its luxury status, with wholesale prices reaching $40 per kg. But consumption of eels – a $4.3B market – has declined over the last two decades, falling from about 160,000 tons in 2000 to just over 60,000 tons in 2021. And this drop isn’t just limited to Japan – in the EU, eel populations have diminished dramatically, decreasing by 98% from 1980, leading to an export ban on eels in 2010.

    A critically endangered species, eels have reached this point due to overfishing, poaching, black market trading and breeding troubles. Known as mysterious creatures, these fish undergo an unusual metamorphosis, with a breeding process that includes a 6,500-km-long migration to one of two spots: the Sargasso Sea (near the Bermuda Triangle), or off Guam. This makes captive breeding difficult, especially amidst elevating demand for the fish.

    Additionally, the overfishing of eels disrupts the marine and freshwater ecosystems they come from – these fish maintain a balance in biodiversity by preying on smaller fish, ensuring that no marine species takes over the ecosystem. Eels, in turn, are also a food source for birds like the grey heron and the great cormorant.

    forsea foods
    Forsea Foods’ cultivated eel | Courtesy: Forsea Foods

    This makes a pressing case for alternatives to wild eel – including plant-based and cultivated versions. Companies like New York’s Ocean Hugger Foods and Japanese giant Nissin already have vegan eels on the market (using eggplants and soy protein, respectively). And Israel’s Forsea Foods is working on cultured eel, which it hopes to bring to market by 2025.

    Steakholder Foods’ innovation stands out for its 3D-printing tech and potential as a hybrid seafood product, something Kaufman calls “a pivotal moment” in the seafood sector: “Such versatility could significantly boost profitability for food companies and lead the way to a shift towards more efficient and sustainable practices in the industry. This product exemplifies the broader possibilities our technology offers our partners.”

    The post Steakholder Foods Unveils ‘Industry-First’ 3D-Printed Vegan Eel appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • future food quick bites
    3 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Melibio’s UK debut, Canada’s ‘unlawful’ plastic ban, and a game-changing vegan documentary.

    New products and launches

    A year after announcing their partnership, Bay Area alt-honey startup MeliBio and Slovenia’s Narayan Foods have launched a vegan honey product in the UK under the Better Foodie brand. Named Vegan H*ney, it is available at over 200 independent stores in the country, retailing at £5.99 per 300g jar.

    melibio
    Courtesy: Better Foodie/Getty Images via Canva

    French-Belgian digital restaurant and food delivery company No Brainer has launched a hybrid-virtual brand format called Dr Seed, which centres on 100% plant-based food. It offers an app, bypasses aggregators like Uber Eats, and allows consumers to order and pay directly through its platform, starting at 54 Grill in Paris.

    Veganuary launch announcements are in full flow. In the UK, pizza chain Papa John’s is introducing a limited-edition vegan BBQ Chicken offering, which is topped with plant-based cheese from Sheese. It will be available from January 2.

    papa johns vegan
    Courtesy: Papa John’s UK

    Fellow food chain LEON has unveiled its Veganuary menu too, focused on “gut-healing goodness”. It includes a new Bangin’ Bhaji Wrap and Rainbow Squash Salad, which will launch UK-wide on January 10.

    And German alt-seafood startup Koralo has debuted its co-fermented microalgae- and mycelium-based New F!sh filet in South Korea, starting with Seoul restaurants Stylevegan and Monks Butcher.

    koralo fish
    Courtesy: Koralo

    Finance and policy developments

    The Canadian government has officially banned the use of plastic straws, food containers, checkout bags and cutlery at foodservice locations, going against a court order brought in by the oil and chemicals industries calling the regulation “unreasonable and unconstitutional”.

    Elsewhere, Australia’s government has rejected a $55M funding request for the development of an alt-protein research centre for the third year in a row – though industry players remain confident for future bids.

    vegan chicken nuggets
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods

    Seattle startup Rebellyous Foods is accepting requests for proposals for its plant-based meat production system, which it claims can cut manufacturing costs by 60% compared to standard methods and reach price parity with conventional meat.

    Weeks after being acquired by The Compleat Food Group and earning a Waitrose listing, London-based artisanal vegan cheese producer Palace Culture says its sales have tripled in the last month, with a wider retail rollout now expected for 2024.

    Movers, breakthroughs and pop culture

    Brazilian precision fermentation startup Future Cow Technologies has unveiled the first prototype of its animal-free milk, made in 15-litre tanks. The company plans to expand production capacity to up to 5,000-litre tanks for B2B purposes.

    Meanwhile, British plant-based meat manufacturer MYCO has hired former VBites chief David Wood as its CEO, who left his position at VBites following the business’s collapse.

    In the US, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has sponsored two billboards in Salisbury, Maryland, calling on the poultry industry in the area to pivot to cultured meat.

    It’s been over four years since The Game Changers graced our screens, and while a sequel is underway, the original’s director, Louie Psihoyos, is bringing a new vegan documentary to Netflix. Based on a recent dietary study conducted on identical twins, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, takes you behind the scenes of the research. It will release on New Year’s Day, coinciding with Veganuary.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Bee-Free Honey, Co-Fermented Fish & A New Netflix Doc appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • france cultivated meat ban
    6 Mins Read

    Shortly after Italy announced its ban on the production and sale of cultivated meat, France is following up with its own proposal to produce or market cultured meat in the country, with policymakers arguing it goes against French tradition and hurts livestock farming.

    France’s Les Républicains party has submitted a proposal to ban cultivated meat in the country, with a bill introduced in the national assembly hoping to prohibit the production and marketing of these proteins. It comes after a year of aggressive policies that have shunned alternative proteins like plant-based meat and welcomed industrial farming.

    The bill proposes it be forbidden to produce, process or market cultured meat in the country “in the interests of human health, animal health and the environment”, arguing that companies in this space justify themselves by presenting their products as alternatives to “low-quality imported meat produced in poor environmental and animal welfare conditions”. “But replacing ‘junk food’ with another ‘junk food’ is not progress,” it argues.

    The argument behind France’s cultivated meat ban

    cultured meat ban
    Courtesy: Gourmey

    The legal proposal began by outlining the history of cultivated meat and landmark events in the space, including Dr Mark Post’s unveiling of the world’s first cultivated burger 10 years ago, Eat Just’s regulatory approval in Singapore in 2020, and Upside Foods’ premarket approval for the sale of its cultured chicken in the US (received by Eat Just too).

    It uses these developments as context for a report by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs earlier this year, which advised readers to “be vigilant to better supervise and control the technology”. The Republicans party members wrote that the committee “clearly reaffirmed its anthropological, ethical and cultural opposition to the development of cellular foods”, adding that just because a technological innovation is possible doesn’t mean it needs to be developed.

    The proposal stated that cultivated meat poses a “real threat” to livestock farming and French breeding, which has “already weakened”. France is the EU’s biggest beef supplier, as well as its third-largest pork producer. Its citizens ate nearly 85kg of meat per capita last year, double the global average. But food has seen an 11% inflation in France, forcing many to seek cheaper meat – the number of people who can afford premium meat has reduced from 50% in 2017 to 30% now.

    This is the reason put forward by French agriculture minister Marc Fesneau when he called for increased factory farming in the country to take “back the market from imports”, saying that animal welfare only works for the rich. This anti-alt-protein stance is reflected in the new proposed cultured meat ban.

    “Cellular meat, which I also call “paillasse meat” – in other words, a leg of lamb without lamb, a chicken breast without chicken – is, in my eyes, a total loss of direction for our society,” former French food and Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said during a parliamentary debate. “Only a science without a conscience could consider laboratory, test-tube meat as a solution,” he added, perhaps not seeing the irony.

    Reactions from the meat and dairy industry

    cultivated meat ban
    Courtesy: AFP

    The move follows Italy’s ban on cultured meat, which had been months in the making. It was passed last month, with fines between €10,000 and €60,000 for each violation. Italy argued that cultured meat threatened traditional foods that defined Italy’s culinary culture, a rhetoric reflected in the French proposal too. “The purely utilitarian vision of food is, in fact, the opposite of French tradition, which sees food first and foremost as a cultural and social fact,” it read.

    It must be noted that even if the bill is passed into law, France wouldn’t be able to prohibit imports of cultivated meat produced within the EU, its common single market enables the free movement of goods and services. Nevertheless, this idea to “preserve its food and nutritional system, maintaining the relationship between food, land and human labour” has appealed to many quarters.

    Confédération Paysanne and Coordination Rurale are firmly opposed to the production of cultivated meat, while agricultural union group FNSEA has previously stated that it does not see any benefits for farmers, asking for more evidence about cultured meat’s benefits.

    Meanwhile, the Fédération Nationale Bovine (The National Bovine Federation) released a statement asking questions of cultivated meat. “Do we want foods resulting from cell multiplications in industrial incubation reactors, with growth substrates mixing everything into a set of substances? Do we really think that this is a perspective to be proposed for the consumption of our fellow citizens, while questions about human health are being asked, and the the real environmental impact of these facilities remains to be examined?” it asked.

    When Italy moved to prohibit cultivated meat, the legislation included a ban on meat-related terms on plant-based product labels. This is something France did a few months ago as well when its agriculture ministry suggested banning 21 terms like ‘steak’, ‘beef’, ‘ham’ and ‘grilled’ from vegan meat analogues, while listing over 120 meat-related terms that can be used only if products have a maximum share of vegan proteins between 0.5% to 6%.

    One of the groups at the forefront of the move to block cultivated meat in Italy is Coldiretti, one of Europe’s largest farming associations. Its president Ettore Prandini had expressed his pride in Italy being the first nation to ban these proteins. Now, he says the French parliament’s move “confirms Italy’s role as a trailblazer” in health-safeguarding policies: “The battle over synthetic meat is now moving to Europe.”

    Consumer attitudes and funding for cultured meat

    france cultivated meat
    Courtesy: Vital Meat

    France and Italy aren’t the only governments banning cultivated meat. Last month, a Republican representative in Florida introduced a bill to ban cell-cultured meat in the US state, while the Romanian senate has voted to prohibit the sale of these proteins as well, which will need approval from the Chamber of Deputies.

    If the cell-based meat ban is voted through, it will affect companies like Gourmey (which works on cultivated foie gras and has raised €58M in funding) and Vital Meat (cell-cultured chicken), which the draft namechecks. It criticised state-owned bank Bpifrance for backing these companies with €6M “in the form of loans, repayable advances or subsidies”.

    Denormandie has also previously been criticised for a tweet denouncing cultivated meat in 2020. “Is this what we want for our children, as a society? Me, no! I will clearly state it: meat comes from the living, not laboratories,” he wrote. “You can count on me, in France, meat will remain natural and never artificial!”

    “It would be a shame to reject outright an innovative method of production that enables France to compete in the growing field of alternative proteins,” responded alt-protein think tank Agriculture Cellulaire France. “Instead, let’s promote the development of a French sector that guarantees quality.”

    A small 118-person French study last year revealed that 80% of respondents would like to try cultivated meat, but believe it could have a negative impact on the animal industry. Meanwhile, 41% fear undesirable health effects and 29% don’t believe the meat is of high quality. Despite that, 80% of them concede that it “will become widespread more or less quickly, whether they like it or not, mainly because French people’s mentalities are changing”. If the French parliamentarians are anything to go by, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

    The post Au Revoir, Cultivated Meat?: France Follows in Italy’s Footsteps with Proposed Ban appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • lab grown coffee
    5 Mins Read

    Finnish researchers have published details of the process behind its lab-grown coffee, with the aim of developing an ecosystem that can speed up production and commercialisation of the novel ingredient.

    What if you could grow your own coffee in a lab? Two years ago, that’s exactly what scientists at the VTT Research Centre of Finland did.

    Now, they have released the recipe for their lab-grown coffee as a proof of concept. In a scientific paper published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, they describe the exact process used to produce this coffee, in the hope of creating a dedicated ecosystem to accelerate the production and commercialisation of cell-cultured coffee.

    “Our wish is that the publication of this scientific article, which clearly demonstrates proof of concept for lab-grown coffee, nudges forward the creation of an ecosystem or a collective that has the resources, know-how, and drive to pioneer an entirely new type of coffee,” said Heiko Rischer, principal scientist and head of plant biotechnology at VTT. “It is a huge challenge but one VTT is prepared to take on with the right partners and experts.

    How VTT makes lab-grown coffee

    cell-based coffee
    Courtesy: Vesa Kippola

    In 2021, Richter and his team unveiled the first prototype of their lab-grown coffee, whose flavour was described as a cross between coffee and black tea. The researchers began by initiating coffee cell cultures, establishing cell lines, and transferring them to bioreactors to begin producing biomass. Post-analysis, they developed a roasting process, before the new coffee was evaluated by VTT’s sensory panel.

    Now, the scientists have shone a brighter light on the process. They obtained cells from young but fully developed Coffea arabica plants, cultivating them in a wave bioreactor, and freeze-drying them for storage after harvest. This powder was then roasted in a fan-assisted oven in three different conditions and then transferred to foil bags.

    To analyse the lab-grown coffee, the team compared the samples with commercially available coffees and alternatives, with light and dark roasts used for colour and sensory analyses, and instant chicory coffee used for sensory assessments. Green coffee beans were also used to demonstrate that roasting causes similar changes to the pre-ground coffee as it does to the lab-grown coffee.

    This was followed by microbiological and toxicity analyses to ensure the safety of brewed samples, as well as a test to measure the caffeine content (which was almost 40 times lower than conventional arabica coffee beans). Then, brewed samples underwent colour measurement and sensory profiling by a panel of trained tasters.

    VTT says lab-grown coffee can speed up the production of the drink significantly. Traditionally farmed coffee provides one to two harvests annually, but a new batch of cell-cultured coffee can be made in just a month, thanks to the “controlled process and infinitely renewable nature of coffee plant cells”, which removes the need to grow new coffee plants from seeds.

    Novel coffee production methods are crucial

    coffee climate change
    Heiko Rischer, principal scientist at VTT | Courtesy: Vesa Kippola

    Finding alternative ways to grow coffee is paramount. Arabica – one of the two main species of coffee grown and consumed worldwide (along with robusta) and the plant VTT took samples from – is facing the threat of extinction by 2080. In fact, of the 124 known coffee species, 75 (60%) could go extinct. Meanwhile, land suitable for growing coffee is set to be halved by mid-century too. Across the world, coffee growers are suffering from the effects of weather-related climate change. Farmers in Vietnam are questioning the value of coffee as a cash crop, which will ultimately mean more expensive coffee for end consumers. Plus, arabica coffee beans are more sensitive to the effects of extreme weather so coffee drinkers may need to get used to the far more bitter but hardier robusta beans.

    Coffee is also one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases in the food system, behind only dark chocolate and red meats like lamb, mutton and beef. And in terms of emissions per 1,000 kcal, coffee tops the list. According to Our World in Data, coffee beans have among the highest carbon opportunity costs – “the amount of carbon lost from native vegetation and soils in order to produce each food” – only topped by meats like sheep, goat, beef and buffalo, and cocoa beans. And all this doesn’t even take into account coffee’s problematic supply chain ethics.

    Europe is the largest consumer of coffee among all continents, importing over 3.6 million tonnes of green beans in 2021, with an average consumer drinking 5kg of coffee each year. But these climate and supply issues are already affecting the region. Coffee is a major driver of deforestation, and the EU has banned imports of any coffee that is linked to the felling of forests in producer regions.

    This has birthed startups taking novel approaches to coffee production. Some, like VTT, are making use of cell-based processes. In France, biotech firm Amaterra, which has raised €1.5M in pre-seed funding, is using molecular biology to create climate-resilient crops from plant cell cultures, and developing perennial coffee varieties four to five times faster than traditional coffee, while Stem claims to be the world’s first startup developing mass-produced cell-cultured coffee.

    Others are eschewing coffee altogether, instead coming up with beanless alternatives akin to plant-based analogues for meat. This includes Northern Wonder (Netherlands) Atomo, Minus Coffee, Voyage Foods (all US), Zero Coffee (Canada) and Prefer (Singapore).

    But will consumers take to cell-based coffee? A 2019 poll by Dalhousie University revealed that 72% of Canadians wouldn’t drink lab-grown coffee, so there’s some way to go here. Firms like VTT can look to the growing number of foods being made in labs (not including cultivated meat, which has surpassed the lab stage). This includes chocolate, with Israel’s Celleste Bio and California Cultured leading the way, palm oil, animal furleather and fruits.

    Lab-grown coffee is still years away from supermarket shelves. In 2021, Rischer predicted that it could obtain regulatory approval in Europe and the US in four years’ time. If that does happen by 2025, it would be a major breakthrough for a crop that’s on the brink. “It’s one thing to grow coffee cells in a bioreactor. Making it a commercially viable product is a whole other matter,” explains Richter.

    “The raw material derived from different cultivars and species, and the soil, the elevation, climate, and even the year when the particular coffee beans were grown plus the processes of roasting, fermentation, brewing, are all factors that impact the end product. While lab-grown coffee is much more controlled, different approaches to, for example, roasting significantly impact the aroma profile of the coffee which is a key consideration for the consumer.”

    The post How to Make Lab-Grown Coffee: Scientists Publish Recipe to Create New Coffee Ecosystem appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • senara
    5 Mins Read

    German startup Senara has emerged from stealth as the first European company making cell-cultured dairy.

    With a couple of awards already under its belt, the producer hopes to collaborate with farmers for a more sustainable dairy industry and believes cultivated milk could be a standard supermarket option by 2028.

    Based in Freiburg, Senara is the first startup working on cultivated dairy in Europe and is hoping to collaborate with cattle farmers and the milk industry to help them “futureproof their work”, enhance sustainability and efficiency, and develop more inclusive versions of traditional milk.

    Founded in 2022, the company has just emerged from stealth and is backed by PurpleOrange Ventures, Positron Ventures, Partners in Clime, Black Forest Business Angels and SquareOne Foods. “We are at the forefront of a significant shift in milk production, leveraging cell-cultivated technology to address global challenges,” says co-founder and CEO Dr Svenja Dannewitz.

    Taking cells from milk, not cows

    lab grown milk
    Courtesy: Getty Images via Canva

    While French startup Nūmi is also working with cultivated milk, its work is focused on breast milk. This makes Senara the only European startup developing cultivated dairy, joining a handful of others around the world, including Opalia (Canada) and Brown Foods‘ UnReal Milk (US/India).

    But Senara breaks away from cell-cultivation convention taking cells not from the cows or other dairy-producing animals themselves, but from the milk they produce. With a selection process that enables the company to choose the most suitable cells, it allows for minimal intervention with the animals and makes for a more efficient production cycle.

    This is done through a continuous, high-throughput process that helps bring down costs significantly. The company has developed a patent-pending custom bioreactor to cultivate and facilitate the growth of dairy cells, which makes it easier to scale up. Senara is already working at pilot scale with a 100-litre bioreactor, which produces milk that has the same nutritional profile as conventional varieties, but in a much more climate-friendly manner. It aims to set up an industrial-scale bioreactor by 2028.

    Dannewitz explains that the startup’s process “enables us to eat the food we love and aligns with the needs of our planet as well”. “Embracing this technology drives scientific progress and holds the potential for a future where milk is both sustainable and beneficial for our health,” she says.

    The resulting product is free from GMOs or the bacteria and yeasts that normally cause milk to spoil while containing all the essential elements of dairy: lactose, casein, whey and micronutrients.

    “It provides nations with a technology which can help them honour the Global Methane Pledge, which involves reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030 and meeting net-zero commitments,” she adds. This is key, given that methane – a gas 28 times more potent than carbon and carrying a more immediate threat – is responsible for 30% of the current increase in global temperatures. And dairy cattle account for 8% of total methane emissions.

    One study found that the methane emissions of 15 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies are equivalent to 80% of the entire methane footprint of the EU, Senara’s home market. Reducing this gas’s presence in the atmosphere – which has more than doubled over the last two centuries – is a crucial step in tackling climate change. The UN reports that human-caused methane emissions can be cut by 45% this decade, which would avert nearly 0.3°C of temperature rises, a critical figure considering we’re on track for 3°C.

    Product and collaboration plans

    cultured milk
    Courtesy: Senara

    Once it reaches scale, Senara aims to develop a range of milk products, including yoghurt and cream. Its ilk can also be used in ice cream and chocolate formulations. Additionally, it can diversify its innovations to cater to different nutritional needs and allergies, such as milk rich in A2 protein or a lactose-free version (which can be produced directly in its bioreactors without any additives). Eventually, it wants to create a whole suite of milks from different animal cells, including goats, buffaloes, sheep, donkeys and bison.

    The company has seen some early awards success, having won the MakeItMatter-Award and Best Cell-Based Drink honour at FoodBev’s World Cell-Based Innovation Awards 2023. And it was a finalist in the Science Start-Up category for the Falling Walls Award.

    One key goal for Senara is blending tradition with innovation. “We want to innovate in collaboration with the traditional players in the dairy sector,” says Dannewitz, whose grandparents were farmers. The German startup wants to “reimagine dairy production for the modern era”, taking inspiration from cultivated meat companies that are working with conventional producers.

    The aim is to integrate cutting-edge tech with the heritage and expertise of established dairy farmers, producing milk that respects both the planet’s resources and the time-honoured techniques of farmers to create a “paradigm shift” for the dairy industry.

    Senara is already in talks with other manufacturers to incorporate its cell-cultured milk into their product lines. “Collaboration and deep research are the cornerstones of our story,” said co-founder Dr Philipp Prosseda. “We are working with food technology start-ups around the world.” The startup is working with the University of Hohenheim in Germany, and developing projects with the University of Greenwich and Nottingham in the UK and Stanford University in the US.

    “These collaborations are beneficial for us, and it is also our responsibility to collaborate to develop this novel technology,” he added. Speaking of which, Senara is hoping to advance through the EU’s novel foods regulatory process soon. The company anticipates moving into a broader range of cultivated foods within two years and envisions cultivated milk to be a standard shelf option at supermarkets by 2028.

    “Life truly comes full circle,” reflects Dannewitz. “I recall my grandparents milking their cows, and now I’m applying my years of scientific experience to make milk – a fundamental nutritional building block – sustainable and accessible for today’s world and future generations.”

    The post ‘Blending Tradition and Innovation’: Senara Emerges from Stealth as Europe’s First Cultured Dairy Startup appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 45 Mins Read

    The below conversation is the transcript of the sixth and final episode of the podcast miniseries Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers featuring Uma Valeti, CEO and co-founder of Upside Foods interviewed by show host Sonalie Figueiras. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

    In the sixth episode of Green Queen in Conversation – Cultivated Meat Pioneers, Sonalie Figueiras talks to Uma Valeti, CEO and co-founder of Upside Foods.

    This next interview is with Dr. Uma Valeti, the founder and CEO of Upside Foods. When we first started to plan this show, we did not realize that during our recordings, the US government would grant the final approval for cultivated meat to be sold, and one of the two companies to be given approval was, in fact, Upside.

    The conversation you’re going to hear is very personal, full of moments of life-affirming inspiration. It’s a must listen. Upside Foods was the first cultivated meat company in the world. Uma and the company have played an outsized role in the history of cultivated meat, and there’s no telling this story without them. After chronicling their seven-year journey of building this company, to be able to hear him share his joy, his journey to date, and the milestone of watching the first customer at a restaurant eat the chicken that he and his team grew without animal slaughter was so powerful.

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Uma, it’s so great to be here with you. Thanks for joining us on how are you doing?

    Uma Valeti: I’m great to be here. I’m looking forward to this conversation.

    Sonalie Figuerias: These certainly are exciting times – I’ve been calling it, “The summer of cultivated meat”, because there have just been so many developments. Of course, the most exciting in many ways is, Upside Foods getting US regulatory approval. How did it feel to receive that approval, and how did you celebrate?

    Uma Valeti: Oh, it felt like a dream come true, no question, because this has been in the making for seven years, and less than ten years ago, this whole field was in the realm of science fiction- literally, nobody in the public sector had heard about it. Now it’s out there in the real world, where people can go to a restaurant and enjoy cultivated chicken! So, I can only say it’s like a dream come true, but it’s one of the many dreams that we have as we bring cultivated meat into the world. I’d say this first part of the dream has been completed, we paused for a minute to celebrate, and now we’re back at it, going after the next part of the dream that we have.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So how did the team celebrate? Did you all take a bite of cultivated meat? [laughter]

    Uma Valeti: [laughter] Well, that would be a great way to celebrate, because I think tasting is magical, and it’s absolutely one of the things that every team member comes in and signs up for. We’ve done a few things to celebrate: One, we really celebrated this together with the team on the day of approval from the FDA in November 2022, and the USDA approval in June 2023. Then, the moment of the launch in July 2023, was absolutely fantastic. We had contestants across the US compete to come and do the first-hour tasting of cultivated chicken in San Francisco. We flew in all the contestants from everywhere around the world, and from the US especially. We were there as a team to watch them take their first bite, and hear them tell their stories of how they felt biting into this magical piece of chicken (which was a lot more than a piece of chicken). Just watching somebody else pay $1 to buy something that the team had been working incredibly hard to bring into the world was absolutely magical!

    Sonalie Figueras: You were there with the diners: tell me about the reactions, tell me what people were feeling.

    Uma Valeti: I was there. I think they felt that they were at a place in the world where there was a sense of history being made. You could literally feel that sense in the room, whether you were looking at it, or whether you were seeing the excitement of them hearing the chefs cook the chicken and unveil the dish in front of them. You could literally just feel it in the room with every sense, that history was being made, and it was happening at that moment. After thousands of years, we were like, “Okay, we could bring meat that we love to the table, through a process that we can also fall in love with,” and I think that was very clear.

    As they were waiting for their first bite, they were wondering, “What does it really taste like?” The reactions from that anticipation to the excitement to the trepidation as they were putting their first piece into their mouth were something to watch. They would bite into it, and there would be a pause. Then they took their second bite, and then a third bite, and you can see little neurons flashing in their mind. It led people to start saying, “Wow, this is amazing! Is this really happening?” People had tears in their eyes and used the most delightful, four-letter words of appreciation. All of these reactions were happening at the same time. Then, seeing the chef who cooked it, and the satisfaction on the chef’s face that said, “Look, I served this experience to you!”

    Obviously, we are living in a world of social media, so everybody whipped out their cell phones and started to take pictures and videos of them [the chicken], calling their loved ones and sending them photos and videos. It was just amazing! It was just like, this is food, but it’s bringing people together as it’s always meant to be. You saw all these contestants from different parts of the country, becoming friends and bonding over that meal. So, I couldn’t have scripted this better. We did not know how it was going to go, and it was amazing!

    Sonalie Figueiras: These were people you chose at random? Did they have to fill out an application, did they have any special dietary backgrounds? Or were these omnivores as well as potentially vegans?

    Uma Valeti: We basically announced a contest saying: “Tell us why this matters to you.” Then, we screened the submissions that they had, and the team said, “Hey, these are the best submissions we have.” So, we picked the contestants with the submissions that best expressed why they were excited about this feature for food and invited them to come over. So, there were hardcore meat-eaters, omnivores, people who were vegetarian or vegan – just a mix.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Incredible, what a feeling! It’s been an interesting and long journey to get here. I mean, if you think about it, I think Winston Churchill mentioned the idea of growing meat outside of animals over 100 years ago. Then, the Dutch scientist William Van Eelen wrote about the research. Then, ten years ago, Dr. Mark Post showed the world the first “In Vitro Burger”.

    Now here we are, with multiple companies, with prototypes, hundreds even, three with regulatory approval, with more potentially coming soon. How did you end up on this path in history in the food world, especially since you are a “card at heart”? You are a cardiologist, is that right?

    Uma Valeti: That’s right. Look, I think these are people who have been motivated by an opportunity in the world. Irrespective of which generation it happened in, it’s great to know that people across multiple generations felt like we can do better, we can bring meat to the table in a way that makes ethical sense, environmental sense, economic sense, with people coming from various angles arriving at the same conclusion. I think it’s just incredible. I’d say when Winston Churchill said that in 1932, I think he was looking at how to feed a growing population economically, and he thought, “Why can’t we just grow the parts of a chicken that we really like to eat, as opposed to growing the full chicken?” When William Van Eelen looked at how animals were being raised, he thought, “What if we could do this without having an impact on animals?” Then, ten years ago when Mark Post made the burger, he said: “Well, let’s see if we can do this in a scientific setting,” and I feel it is fantastic seeing different people at different stages.

    About my path: I grew up in India, I grew up in a family that loved eating meat. When I was 12 years old, I went to a friend’s birthday party, and we were celebrating his birthday at the front of the house with fun music and dancing, and just being around family. Then, I walked to the back of the house where they were slaughtering the animals to feed us at the front. It was an incredible moment in my life, where I came face to face with the duality, or the paradox of meat production, where we have this incredibly joyful event at the front, celebrating a birthday, and the incredibly terrifying and scary event in the back, watching a death, and both of them were happening at the same time. That moment stuck with me as a kid, and I didn’t know what to do with it. I think I just kept thinking about it but did not do anything – I kept eating meat, loved eating meat, and still love eating meat.

    When I went to medical school, I came across the same thing again, but in a larger and industrialized slaughterhouse, where there was a confined animal feed operation. We went to the slaughterhouse to pick up meat, to cook in our cafeteria for the medical students, and that’s when I saw the process, and I felt: “Oh my gosh, this is intense!” It was really hard to wrap my mind around, and at that point, I decided that, even though I loved eating meat, I was going to give it up. That continued for 20 years afterward. Then I went to the Mayo Clinic to train in cardiology, and that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I only wanted to train at the Mayo Clinic, and I ended up going there.

    During my training, I was exposed to working on stem cells, and later on, in my practice in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, I was using those stem cells to inject into patients’ hearts to regrow the heart muscles for people who had a heart attack or cardiac arrest. Given this love for eating meat, and the “paradox” of how all this came to the table, along with what I was doing in medicine and cardiology, all of these moments kind of came together where I started asking the question: “Why can’t we grow meat from animal cells?” That was the beginning of the idea in my head, and that was approximately in 2005. Come to think about it, it was almost 18 years ago.

    I kept researching and talking about that with people and saying, “Hey, this should be done, this should be done, this should be done.” People kept saying it was possible to do, and they pointed me to the work already done [on growing meat from animal cells], such as the Winston Churchill code. At that point, Mark Post had not done the burger yet. People kept saying, “Hey, there’s NASA research that’s happening,” where they were growing cells, I think, from a fish, and they started pointing to some of these literature papers.

    So, I decided to see if I could encourage people to start companies in the space, and joined a group called New Harvest, where the founder, Jason Matheny invited me to join the board. I thought I could continue to convince people to do more work in the space, but realized very quickly that people were happy to do this more as side projects in their laboratories. This was around 2013, when the BBC covered Mark Post’s laboratory in the Netherlands, and showed the in vitro beef burger being made.

    However, people were just not willing to take the leap and get this [cultivated meat] into the real world. I felt like if this has been in academia for decades, it would only make a meaningful impact in the real world. So, after failing to convince a number of researchers to do this in the real world, I decided to start a basic science lab myself at the University of Minnesota, and the more work we did in that area, the more it became very clear that this should not just be within academia, it should also exist in real life. It became a call to action. My family said, “Why are you not doing this,” and that was a great question to ask. Personally, that was a moment of truth for me. That’s when my kids asked me, “Why are you not doing it, you’ve been talking about it for more than ten years?”

    Sonalie Figueiras: When was that, exactly?

    Uma Valeti: That was in 2015.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, your kids/your family wanted you to do this? When you started that lab at the University of Minnesota, were they supportive?

    Uma Valeti: I had a very supportive chairman of the department who said, “Look, this is an incredible idea, you should keep working on it!” So, I used all the work that I’d done talking to researchers across the field in this area of growing animal cells, but I was also keeping my eye on cardiology – We were growing cells to reinject into human hearts, there was an entire body of work that’s been happening in medicine, especially in cardiology and what we call, regenerative medicine, or growing organs; I was very close, you know, following that work from the days I was at the Mayo Clinic, to being at the University of Minnesota and continuing my practice there. So, there was already a body of work I had been following, and yeah, once there was this incredible support from my wife and kids saying, “You can go ahead and start doing this,” it just became a lot more freeing and liberating to say, “Yes, I could go there myself and do this!”

    I had a postdoc in my lab, who was my co-founder for the company when we first started. We sent a proposal to one of the venture capitalists in the Bay Area saying, “Here’s the idea. Would you like to learn more about it?” This was one of the earliest things that I had done in 2015, just a simple email, and within an hour of sending that email, the group from San Francisco was on the phone saying, “Hey, could you move the team to the Bay Area?” So, that started our journey. I said, “Okay, let me take a small group there, and let’s see if we can do this, and do a proof of concept.”

    At that point, I wasn’t planning to quit cardiology. I was thinking I could go back and forth. In fact, I didn’t even have a role in the company. I just supported the team that came together. However, these were the very early days, there was not a single company in the world in this space.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Right, you were the first.

    Uma Valeti: Right, there was no one. There were people doing academic research in the laboratories, and Mark Post was doing it from another lens. I think there were a few groups doing adjacent research, but there was no company in the space. No one wanted to make this into a commercial product, go through a regulatory process, start showing that this is an area where investors can kind of come in, and if they can bear the long-term view that this would transform the industry – none of this existed. Those were very scary days when people literally laughed me out of the rooms.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So not everybody bought the idea. You had a very supportive family, your lab, your lab chairman, you had this venture capitalist group that had said yes, but you also encountered some people who thought this was crazy.

    Uma Valeti: Yeah, I’d say I could count on a single hand the number of people who did not think it was crazy. But that was enough because those were the people I deeply believed in and trusted. I fel like: “Look, if we start putting one foot in front of the other, if there is a path, we’ll find it.” However, everybody I spoke to literally said, “You have an incredible career in cardiology. You’re the head of many programs. You’re on the boards of the national cardiac societies. You’re doing medical device innovation, and have started companies in that space! You are just crazy to give that up and walk away from it!” That was nearly everybody that I knew. However, on the other side, the reality was, well, not everybody knows about my work in cardiology, but they were just looking at it objectively as an industry and said, “There is nothing there. I’ve never heard about growing meat from animal cells. No one has ever invested in this. There’s never been a company in this space. There is no regulatory pathway or approval. Everybody’s going to fight you because no one would want you to come up and compete with what exists on the market already.” So, we got laughed out of the room with comments like ”This is a pipe dream. This should remain in the laboratories as a side project.” Those were the early days.

    Sonalie Figueiras: In those early days, the way you’ve explained your story, it feels very much that for you there was this kind of ethical element of watching how the animals were being slaughtered when you were a 12 year old, and then eventually you end up in a CAFO situation seeing industrial meat agriculture up close. Was there any inkling at this point or thinking from your side around the climate side of things, the environment side of things?

    Uma Valeti: Very good question. The initial motivation for me was definitely ethical. My dad’s a veterinarian, I grew up around animals. We come from a farming family, we had animals, we had cows, I used to milk the cows, and there are a lot of my family members who still live in villages that are farming their land. So, that’s where I come from.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s in India.

    Uma Valeti: That’s in India, yes. My initial exposure to this birthday death day experience when I was 12 years old, and then later on when I was 17 or 18 in medical school, seeing intense confined animal feed operations and the mechanized slaughterhouse – that’s when I said, “Okay, look, I love eating meat, but I’m going to have to kind of pause,” and I’ve hit the pause button not thinking too much about it, but that pause button continued for 20 years.

    However, during those 20 years, my life’s dream was to become a trained cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic. Not easy to get there, but I eventually ended up getting there and training. During the training, I started doing a lot of scientific work, and you know, in medical school, you learn about cell biology, biochemistry, microbiology, and then you start applying that in medicine, and cardiology, and we were doing the cutting-edge research on stem cells. So, the science and technology started coming together, and I think that initial ethical inclination helped us with the idea, but then I started exploring and asking, “Is this actually going to make sense on a business scale,” because by then I was starting to develop medical devices, be a part of innovations in medicine and cardiology, and understand the startup world (I was investing in the startup world myself).

    I thought: “There is an opportunity, let me explore it!” That was when I learned about the incredible environmental footprint of raising animals (livestock) to feed humans. I did not know about that growing up. So, when I started looking at the environmental impacts, that just blew me completely out of the water, where I went, “Oh my gosh, we are raising 70 billion animals to feed 7 billion humans right now! So, that’s 10 animals per human every year, and that’s going to become 15 animals for each human in the next 30 years, that means doubling the demand for meat!” There’s just no room for any others like that. It became very stark in front of me. No matter what we dream up, we’re not going to be able to have that many animals to feed that much meat to humans. So, it felt like there was a significant environmental need, but also a business need, and because Minneapolis is a place where Cargill and Hormel and a lot of major food companies are based, I had already started talking to execs in these companies, they saw this coming as well.

    It helped to have a background in medicine to look at the impact of meat on health. In general, in a lot of the food and diets that we have, it’s very clear that meat is a very nutritious product. It’s got lots of protein, it also has a lot of fat, it has a lot of things that are good for human development. However, there’s also the downside of meat being associated with cancers, cardiovascular disease, and a lot of other things, but I realized we were also confined by an animal to make improvements in making meat better because it would take about six to seven years to breed a single trait in an animal to make some feature or some trait better. However, to improve on every single trait- that would take time, much more than what we have right now. Plus, the animals we use are already highly selectively bred. For instance, the chickens we eat now – they’re three to four times heavier than the chickens we used to eat 40 years ago, and that’s through selective breeding. I felt like if we had an opportunity to make health better – explore the opportunities to improve the features of meat, improve the environmental footprint, and also improve the ethical cost of bringing meat to the table. I thought that would be a triple threat. That’s really what led to me writing to the VC investor.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So it came in stages, as you learned more and as you explored more, that’s interesting.

    Uma Valeti: That’s a good insight, [you are] absolutely right. It started with one thing, but as I started exploring, it became very clear that all of these trends, looking at the next 100 years or beyond, were pointing towards improving the ethical and environmental footprint, making production more efficient, being more available to more people, and opening up the opportunity to make meat better and healthier. The more I dug in, the more it became clear that this was something that should be out there in the world, and it came in phases.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I want to go back to what you said about being in Minnesota, and around companies like Cargill and Hormel. You approached some of these execs, and you’re saying that they saw it was coming, in the sense of this kind of stress on the food supply, to give people more protein but with limited land, water, etc. Did they see the potential of what you were doing?

    Uma Valeti: There’s a lot of really iconic food companies that come from the upper Midwest, and there are several execs who spend their careers there, people that have retired from there, and people that have families there. So, it’s a very rich community, and no matter who we spoke to, it was very clear that these very large companies that have grown over the past 50/100/150 years were in the business of supplying food and protein to people, and they were recognizing the enormous challenges in feeding people what they want.

    As societies get more advanced, as GDPs increase across the world, the first thing people buy when they have some disposable money is meat for their families and kids, because it’s clear to them that meat is very nourishing to the family. So, when somebody has an extra dollar to spend, whether it’s in India, Indonesia, or China, that person is going to buy meat for their family, and to produce that requires an incredible amount of complexity to be orchestrated.

    A part of that solution is the industrialization of agriculture with confined animal feed operations. Those were built by necessity, because the demand on the consumer side was so high, and these companies were trying to meet this demand. It became very clear that there was a significant demand building up, and there was a supply side where people were trying to figure out how to be more efficient. That’s where this opportunity came up. We don’t want to take away the choices of foods that people love to eat, but nearly everybody feels sorry about the process, except there wasn’t a better solution. A potential or partial solution is everybody starts using plants to make plant-based meat alternatives.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Right, which was already happening as you were growing the company, right?

    Uma Valeti: It was. Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Gardein and Boca Burgers- these were brands that were doing plant-based proteins for decades, so I looked into it. In fact, in 2009-2010, I thought about starting up a plant-based company to make something delicious and tasty. However, when I looked at it and saw how many people were doing it, I thought: there’s no need. There are really great entrepreneurs and existing food companies that are already doing fantastic work on it.

    The thing that kept coming back to me, and kept bugging me was the possibility that we could make meat from real animal cells without having to raise animals, and if nobody was pushing that possibility and exploring it, that would always remain unexplored. In our minds, we set up this world, where you are either ignoring the perils of continuing to produce meat at the large scale that we are or you ration it, decrease it, or mandate people from having it, or in this case, take it away and force everybody to become vegetarian or vegan. I just did not think that kind of world was realistic. So, I wanted to explore this other side of trying to pop this balloon of thought that cultivated meat should exist in the world. That’s kind of where it started, as a tiny dot of an idea, and the more we thought about it, the more we started showing conceptual proof and actually growing these products and having people taste it. It’s increasingly becoming a magical moment for people when they taste it, and they understand what the taste of meat is. They are just completely blown away. 

    Then, when we invite them to tour our facility and have them see how the meat is made, that is another magical experience for them. I haven’t met anyone who’s walked out of a slaughterhouse without being scarred for the rest of their life. So when they walk out of a production facility that is producing cultivated meat, and see the facility that we have, they get inspired, they get motivated, and they start thinking: “What are the possibilities if this continues to grow? If this continues to become more and more efficient, and cost-effective, and in local, regional neighbourhoods you can grow meat, it offers an imagination and a vision that’s very powerful.” They leave inspired.

    The third thing we noticed, which was a really magical moment, was when they talked to the people on the team doing the work [at the facility]. There, they realized that they are people just like them – very motivated, purposeful, putting meaningful commitment and time into much-needed solutions for problems that never had solutions like this before. They all leave really important, meaningful careers to be here, and to see that purpose and drive in that team, it feels like, “Yes, this is something to get excited about.”

    Another thing is, we are seven years into it. We also have a track record of doing things that nearly everybody said were impossible or unachievable to do, and it gives the team a bit more confidence to say, “Hey, remember when we climbed that hill and nobody believed in us? Now we’ve climbed seven of those. We know there’s another 10, 20 to 30 more ahead, but we’re ready for this!” When they see that level of grit and optimism, as well as the real-world experience of having done these things that nearly everybody said were impossible, it just creates an environment of feelings that I think is a must-have for starting something like this.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It must feel amazing to do things that everyone thought were impossible. I want to ask you though, why chicken, of all the meats? It’s one of the most affordable animal meats. So, in terms of reaching something like price parity and mass market, it is one of the more challenging options, what made you choose chicken?

    Uma Valeti: I think a couple of things: One is, that chicken is the most consumed meat in the United States, and will soon be so across the world, which means that it’s very relatable – people know how to cook chicken and understand how it tastes, and it is something that is an easy thing to get behind, because you know how to cook it, no matter what ethnicity you are, what country or part of the world you are from. So, we wanted to kind of signify the importance of this innovation at that level. We purposefully took a different approach than maybe some other companies could very legitimately take and say, “Hey, we want to put out a product that is very rare, very exquisite. Most people have never tasted it and only aspire to taste it. So, we’ll start from a very small market segment.” We took the approach of doing something that is not familiar to people, not something that they have been thinking about, and it is so much more important for people to recognize the familiarity of it, the comfort of it, and understand the reasoning behind it, rather than saying we will go and put – I don’t know, pick any type of exquisite meat or cut of meat of our species or something that is just not scalable and does not have a very big market, but you can capture a tiny slice of a very small market – we chose the latter. The reason is familiarity.

    The second one is just as important, because as we come into the market, let’s say the difference between the best quality organic chicken could be priced at something like $10 -$15 at a good retail store, and maybe some other high-end cut or species could be $50 or $80 a pound, for instance; in the initial days of Upside coming to market without chicken, what we felt was we’d be making quantities that will be sold out, no matter where the price of this is going to be set. So, let’s say the best chicken on the market is $10-$15 a pound and we chose to price it 30% or 50% premium on that, we still knew that we could not catch up on the supply and demand that was there for the chicken that was more expensive than the organic chicken. So, we felt that’s what our target was. We’re going to go after it. We’re going to make it very familiar to people. In the early days, we thought, as the price comes down, and we get down to parity with conventional, we’re going to accept that we’re going to have a premium on top of, you know, what a conventional chicken might cost.

    We just said we’re going to accept these two things, that with time as we get to scale, we know inevitably that we are going to get to parity with conventional meat, and eventually better than that. I think that’s going to happen for two reasons: one is we’re going to keep getting more and more efficient, better and better at our production as we scale, and nearly all trends are in favor of supporting our production process. The price of conventional meat is going to continue going higher and higher with time, because of the amount of external costs, direct costs, subsidies and incentives, and all of those things that are needed to support that price to a consumer. It’s going to get unbearable at some point. We felt like as that keeps going up, our price is going to keep coming down, and there’s a sweet spot in which everything will be at parity with conventional and eventually better.

    That’s why we chose chicken, and that has played out well because when people come and taste it, they immediately can relate it to another piece of chicken that they have tasted.

    Sonalie Figueiras: When do you see that parity happening, at least on a production level, even if you were to still have that added premium?

    Uma Valeti: I think there are many products you can do, whether it’s chicken or beef. By the way, our second product is beef, and we have a number of other luxury products that are coming to surround the offering. However, we think that price parity is generally going to happen in the next five to 15 years. That’s the range, because if there is a higher enrollment of public-private partnerships, and the government starts recognizing the opportunity and the potential here, and does similar things to what they’ve done with other transformative industries, whether it’s energy transformation or electrification of automobiles, or semiconductor fabrication units being set up. These are the kinds of things that, if they can recognize the opportunity here and accelerate that, they can help create favorable regulatory environments, and help create a level playing field with existing incumbents that have enormous advantages that are built over time, whether it’s efficiencies or trying to improve the education of their consumers.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Or $38 billion in livestock subsidies…

    Uma Valeti: Yeah, some industries are very lucky to have that. So, if we are given at least some type of that support, I think it’ll be closer to the five to 15-year range. If, in the absence of it, if the industry has to go by it alone, and compete on it alone, I think it’s going to be, you know, towards the later side of it. However, the opportunity cost is huge. If the industry or the public-private partners within the governments don’t recognize it, in that same time period they will have to keep bearing the externalities of the cost of intensive animal agriculture, bringing meat to the table, or having to deal with supply chain disruption. Plus, we are just coming out of that with COVID, so we are not even counting the enormously increased risks that we potentially face with zoonotic diseases in confined animal operations. I think we’re not even building an opportunity to build a hedge into that because if you have cultivated meat, along with conventional meat, it’s an “and solution”.

    We’re not saying that cultivated meat is the only way to feed the world, we’re very clear in saying cultivated meat is a solution. It offers diversification of our food production sources, it offers improvement of our supply chain resiliency, and it protects the ability to keep the choice of eating animal-based meat on the table. With time, over the next several decades, there’ll be enormous amounts of innovations that can be set up on top of it to be able to improve health, make it more regional, and also help countries develop production facilities of their own. At scale, cultivated meat is projected to have a significantly better environmental footprint, with lower use of resources, lower use of water, significantly lower emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, and parts of the world that just cannot grow meat right now, because they don’t have enough water or resources. So, they can start thinking about, “What does it mean if we have cultivated meat production facilities in our region?” They may have enough water for it, they may have enough inputs for it to be locally sourced, for it to create a local economy. So, I think these are all things that get us excited.

    Sonalie Figueiras: In that five to 15-year timeframe, where you feel with or without support, depending on whether you would achieve a sort of price parity, is that kind of a similar timeline for you in terms of a benchmark of getting cultivated meat to be a mass product or to be on shelves in supermarkets? Do you put those at the same thing?

    Uma Valeti: Look, there’s a lot of meat that’s being produced, right? A very good analogy for this is we started getting behind electric vehicles approximately 20 years ago, and people started saying they’ll start buying them, and the largest company in that space, Tesla, went public in 2008, and about 10 years later, turned their first profitable quarter. They basically led the charge in converting all existing manufacturers to become believers in the electrification of transportation. They are now starting to invest more in it and make pledges that by 2025 or 2035 they’ll all become predominantly electric vehicle manufacturing entities. I’d like us to have the same impact on cultivated meat. Ultimately, we want to be able to have a lot of people in the ecosystem producing cultivated meat, with new and existing players saying, “Hey, I see an opportunity here, a portion of my business can be this,” and they can still keep the existing business, because of the one simple reason: the demand for meat is doubling. That means we’ve got to fill the ‘delta’ with production modalities, and if an existing new player starts thinking about that delta, that is very light. That’s a US$1+ trillion market every year, not even counting how to enter the market right now. So, in that space, I think a lot of people can live and coexist, collaborate, and do well economically, for all the other reasons we’ve talked about.

    The first seven years have been successful. We’ve been able to lead, be a pioneer, and help create an environment where there are about 150 companies in the space across the world, in every major meat-producing or consuming country. We’ve got every major food university in the US, and mostly across the world, to start offering cultivated meat in their undergrad, and postgrad courses, and also offering it to PhD degree holders. The major governments, more than ten governments in the world right now – including the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, China, India, and Israel, have started offering research grants for this area of study. California became the first state in America to offer research grants directly to the UC systems. The National Science Foundation and USDA started offering grants to local universities. We are behind supporting all those applications with those primary investigators, and also the legislators at the state and federal level.

    We’re helping on the commercial side too, helping companies be formed, advising them, and collaborating with them. We’re working with education programs to help structure their teaching programs and internships, and offer jobs for their graduates. We are working with the governments to create funding and offer research funding to academia. We are working with, you know, the media to educate people, for example, telling the story of cultivated meat.

    This is all in the early stages, but it’s making an incredible amount of progress, as a way of further being able to say we could be at the table, to further participate in feeding the world, and preserve the choice of eating what we love.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, I hear you on all those things, but we are getting close to time, so there are three questions that I really want to explore with you before we go.

    One is around the government. It’s super interesting to hear that behind the scenes, you’re working with the government in so many different ways and supporting newcomers, that’s exciting, and good to hear because we also hear a lot about the competition. How supportive do you feel the governments in the US and beyond have been, and what did you expect? Did you think there was going to be this kind of support, or did you expect more? Did you think there was going to be more public funding? Interestingly, unlike some of your peers, you did not go to Singapore, where there was more regulatory support and some funding support.

    Uma Valeti: It’s a great question. I want to acknowledge that there could always be more, and we have a wish list, that it’d be incredibly exciting to have funding set aside for cultivated meat already, in amounts that are meaningful enough to move the needle. So, there’s a wish list. However, having said that, we are a US-based company, and we’ve always been laser-focused on working with the US regulators, the FDA and the USDA, and working with them closely from the earliest stages of building the industry, so they understand the work, the science, the technology, the products with us and help us develop those regulations. I could not be more happy or grateful that both agencies have engaged with us over many years and helped us build and bring this product with really great regulatory guidance – very thoughtful, focused on safety, and also focused on educating the consumer, so that they clearly understand what is being put on the plate. So, I’d say the US regulators have been incredibly supportive and rigorous in helping us think through these things.

    Now, this is a very bold move for us to make and say, but we are not going to go anywhere outside of the US, because there are other jurisdictions that we could have gone to, then again, we decided on principle, to make the call that we are a US-based company, we want to work with the US-based regulators, who are held up as the most important, prominent, and credible food regulators across the world, with deep experience in food and science. So, that was a choice we made, and I’m very glad that it paid off because our team is still small. We couldn’t be distracted doing multiple jurisdictions at the same time. While we’re happy that Singapore and other jurisdictions are also excited about this, our plan is to stay laser-focused on the US, even for the foreseeable future.

    However, it’s opened the pathway for almost every company in the world, they can come and apply in the United States, and it could be the place where innovation can move faster. We would like to have governments more involved in funding this though, because there is a manufacturing challenge. Building cultivated meat production facilities is not cheap, it is expensive because a lot of things have to come together under one roof. In the initial stages, it is expensive, but having governments come in with the funding or loans, or some type of grants would be incredibly helpful and accelerant to the industry. We are advocating for that, and we hope that similar to energy transition and the electrification of transportation, we may be able to also get some support from the government.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Notably the IRA, which did not assign a large amount of funding to food systems decarbonization.

    Uma Valeti: Well, we are exploring it, but I’d say we have to start somewhere, and keep in mind that this field is growing rapidly. We have to have enough production data to show that this is now ripe for commercial manufacturing. We believe we are very close to that because, at Upside, we have a production facility that we’ve been operating on a regular basis for the last year. We built it through the pandemic, it is something that we have a lot of data on that we’re working on sharing and starting to show that the time is ripe now to start building the next large-scale facility that becomes industrial-scale. I feel like industries need governmental support at that exact stage, because it’s a very difficult stage, as you can’t keep raising private capital to do that leap. You need to have some amount of private capital, some amount of loans, and some amount of government support, to be able to say, yes, now we are forming an industry, and that is literally why these programs are set up. So, we’re going to keep exploring how we can make this transition and set up manufacturing help, not just for us, but also for everybody in the ecosystem.

    Sonalie Figueiras: My second big question is: a lot of folks in our industry make this analogy with the electrification of vehicles, his idea that cultivated meat and various forms of alternative protein are following the same trajectory, as Tesla et al, and we’re somewhat earlier on in the process, but that’s really the journey ahead.

    I want to push back a little bit on that, just because cars are not food, and food is just such a different product for the average person. There’s tradition, there’s your grandmother’s chicken soup, there’s your identity as a nation, as a family.

    The backlash to cultivated meat and new forms of producing food has been quite extreme in some ways. It’s become a bit of a culture war, you know, the term “lab-grown” is thrown around by the media as a way to kind of get people excited, but not always in a good way. How do you look at this idea of consumer acceptance? How do you think the industry should be thinking about it? Is this something that you worry about? Or do you see that as a distraction?

    Uma Valeti: Look, I understand all of this, I understand the pushback, and I appreciate it. I think a field like ours, is in its early days of infancy, moving to becoming a toddler now requires a lot of nurturing, support, and continuous focus towards the North Star. We do have to accept that constructive criticism is par for the course, and it is okay to have skeptics that will say, “No, it’s not going to scale.” “It’s not going to be analogous to this industry, or that industry.” Also, “food is very different from everything else.” All that is fair, and par for the course, as long as it’s coming in the form of constructive criticism. For innovators that are in the arena, doing this work every single day, looking for that little tiny crack of opportunity to cross that hill of a challenge that people said you could never do- I think that’s all fair.

    I think where the culture wars have gone is distinctly distracting. They are taking on a monster head of their own because it suddenly becomes a talking head or somebody wanting to prove their point is the only point of view and driving that to the ground, while they do that, they take everybody down with them, and I think it’s sad to see that. However, what I keep telling myself and our team is we have a North Star we’re pointing towards. Our goal is to keep working on making our favourite food and be a force for good. It’s not going to be easy, if it was, lots of people would have done it, and real transformative change will take time.

    While we do that, let’s engage in constructive criticism. If we help people come in with the intent of literally proving their point or achieving, it could be a journalistic award, it could be some other award, they’re not presenting all of the facts, or are not interested in knowing except their point of view then I think: “Let’s do what we can, but let’s not spend too much time on that, because we are not going to change their minds, we have work to do.” That’s the direction we are taking because as we move more into the commercial, there will be lots of people who will be writing articles against us. If I step back, that’s happened throughout history for nearly every transformative thing that we take for granted right now. It happened with electric cars, right? Imagine the very early days of the electrification of transportation.

    I’ll address this pushback you had: food and cars are different, of course, but there are a lot of similarities. We trust in both. We put our families in both. We have all our living experiences with both of them being part of our lives. If you look at electric cars, right now, when the very early versions first came out, they had a very short range: They were blowing up in garages catching fire, there were so many safety risks over that period, and there are people that have written the epitaph of that and saying, “This is never going to work, this is never going to scale.” However, look what happened, people figured out how to prevent those things from happening, minimize those things and increase the range. If I step back and offer the same thing, cultivated meat is offering a method for us to continue to eat meat without that choice, and we can’t be everything for everyone all at once.

    Therefore, we’re focusing on what we can do really well to start with. We’ll put a product that we think is safe, and delicious, and has gone through the full force of regulatory reviewing. Then, we’ll put the next product out, and the next product out, and the next product out, and guess what, they’re going to continue to improve with every iteration. What they’re going to show is this incredible opportunity that should be on the table and that people should be aware of. We have to do a really good job educating, but when we take a fall, we also have to just get up and say, “Hey, that’s something we’re going to fix,” and we get up and fix it and keep moving forward.

    I think that’s how I see cultivated meat progressing, because we’ve got to be at the table to put great products, and when the products don’t meet what the consumer is looking for, we can fix it to make it better. I think those are the analogies for cultivated meat that I think are very similar to the electrification of transportation. As I said, we feed our food to our families, and we put our families in these things and drive, right? That means we are trusting them, and that’s what we have to develop.

    We have to continue to do a really good job educating people. Let’s not take the status quo for granted. That’s the third part. If we take it for granted, we know that the probability of us ending in an environmental disaster, rationing, or economic disaster, is very high. We already have an ethical disaster. So, we don’t need to prove any more of that. However, here’s this technology that can be very supportive in helping us transition gradually into better modes of production. Just because there are hurdles or bumps in the way, they should not stop us. If you look at the horizon of time, and what every major industry has had to go through, I’d say cultivated meat is not any different.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Last question – you mentioned that it would be great if the government would focus a little bit more on funding opportunities. You’ve talked about ecosystem support and the idea of public-private collaborations to create progress. What’s needed in order for this industry and for Upside to get to scale? Is it more bioreactors, is the medium or the feed the issue? What’s standing in your way, if you have the money?

    Uma Valeti: I don’t think anything is standing in our way. I believe this is something that requires us to build on the foundation, keep building it, keep getting in front of people, and have people experience those three magical things I’ve talked about.

    We have got to get people to taste it. To get more people to taste it, we have to build cultivation production facilities. We have to build a lot of them, and to build a lot of them we will need funding and time to build them. Referring back to the second magical moment when I mentioned that people come and tour these in Virginia, Houston or Seattle, if you have a production facility that you can go and walk through, and imagine the kindergarten kids, middle schoolers, or high schoolers walking through and seeing how meat is made, that opens up their mind. Then, the last thing is meeting the people that are making it; similarly to when you can go and meet your vegetable producer or farmer, they’re going to go and meet the person who’s producing the cultivated meat – another type of farmer. When they develop those close relationships, these things become a must-have. For all this, you need both funding and time, and you need to be realistic and say these are going to go in phases.

    We are delighted that it took us seven years to go from science fiction to reality, from an idea to the industry, but what we did on July 1st 2003 was simply “the opening bell”. We rang the bell saying, “Hey, we are out here on the market!” So, now we have to get ready for this next phase of the journey, which is going from the first sale of cultivated meat in the United States to a more formidable scale. This means starting to build production facilities that offer a blueprint for people to want these in their zip codes, invest in them, and create jobs with these things.

    Our goal is very straightforward, it sounds simple, but we have to build the most efficient production infrastructure that brings sustainable production to the table while also offering an economic advantage compared to conventional production techniques. I think that’s a process that’s going to keep getting better and better with time because the methods of production we’re using will keep getting better and better as adjacent fields of renewable energy keep getting stronger, as fields that improve fluid handling, robotics, or rapid assays that we can do in the meat before we release it to the market keep getting better because you can’t do all of that in conventional meat. 

    So, all these trends are in our favor. We need time, we need funding, we need to be able to keep proving to people that we are worthy of a seat at the table, and all of these things are ahead of us, and that’s what I’m most excited about.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you so much, Uma. This has been such a wonderful conversation. There’s so much to learn from here. I appreciate your time and your openness.

    Uma Valeti: Thank you, Sonalie. I think this has been one of my most relaxing conversations. Obviously, you’re asking good questions and pushing back, but you’re also someone who’s spent a lot of time in this field. You’ve talked to a lot of people in the field, particularly people that are critics in the field, and you experienced and are probably seeing the culture wars that are coming around it. I really appreciate you asking all those questions, because while all of those things are happening, it is our job to be laser-focused on the North Star, and saying that all of these hurdles are par for the course.

    It requires a set of relentlessly committed people, leaders, and team members coming together to make things like this happen, because we’ve never said it was going to be easy, but we know that it’s completely worth it to go after an idea like this, and none of us should regret looking back 20-30 years from now, saying, “Oh my gosh, we wish we started this in 2015 or 2020,” and then wait till 2050. So, I think those are the kinds of horizons we are thinking of, and I appreciate you taking interest in this field.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you, Uma, that’s the whole point of this series, When I told Joanna, my producer, that I wanted to do it, I didn’t know that the USDA was going to grant you approval in June. I thought there might be more of a delay between FDA and USDA. I was thinking maybe it would come at the end of the year, but I felt that we were on the cusp of this major, as you say, moment in history.

    As someone who’s been reporting on this for seven years, I’m also very aware of how misunderstood the industry is, and how people are making up all kinds of ideas about it, because they haven’t been to Upside’s production facility, and they haven’t tasted that piece of chicken in their mouth.

    So, the idea here was to talk to the six pioneers in the space, and really humanize the story, and just have these open conversations. This series is really aimed at, not the industry but at regular folks. Even someone like Joanna, my producer, who didn’t know much about cultivated meat when we started- she is now so fascinated, because how can you not be when you listen to these stories? This is history being made, and people need to hear these stories and they need more information.

    Uma Valeti: I think all of us have this professional side of the challenges and hurdles, and things we’ve had to put up with. We also have the personal side, our family supporting us no matter what, and lots of sacrifices for the families. We’ve been around for seven years, and half of our lifetime has been during COVID. Despite those challenges or the curveball of COVID that we never anticipated, we’ve been able to move this idea from science fiction to reality, from an idea to the industry, being able to build an entire production facility from the ground up and get to the market and bring along an entire ecosystem.

    Of all the things that have been formed around this idea in the last seven years, there aren’t that many examples of industries that have been through this kind of rapid growth interest. 

    Whilst the idea was being developed into a product, whilst funding was being secured, whilst academic and training programs were being developed, whilst regulators were learning and trying to get guidance issued; simultaneously, the media, of all walks of life, was getting very interested in covering it from different angles, whilst we were getting pushback from many groups or entities or people that did not want us to exist at the same time. This kind of mix of events happens very rarely. I can’t think of the last time it has happened to food, but in general, it happens very rarely, and that’s the kind of moment that we’re living in.

    We’re living it, and sometimes it feels like, “Oh my gosh, is this ever going to get better?” However, I think these are the moments of innovation that have to come together, and there is no precedent or blueprint. I think this is why it’s important to keep saying that none of us have the full knowledge or the full truth, but we have all seen that there is a problem here that needs to be solved.

    This has never been attempted before, and it should coexist along with the way conventional meat is being produced, the way plant-based alternatives are coming up, and the way that we can protect choices of eating meat from animals, whilst preserving a lot of things that we care about in the world. I think they should coexist and not be set up as competitive entities. I think that’s the message I hope people covering this field and writing about it keep in mind, even if they’re critiquing the field, or if they’re sceptical, so it becomes a more constructive endeavour, versus some of the destructive things that we’re seeing. There’s a personal story to these entrepreneurs and the teams that are behind it, who are actually in the arena, toiling, struggling, sacrificing every single day, taking a shot, yeah.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I think a lot of the storytelling is maybe too much on the tech and not enough on that human story.

    Uma Valeti: Look, I really hope you explore both, because I mean, there is a human story for sure.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Of course! That’s why for me, these interviews and this series has been much more about the human story? I can have another discussion with you about the medium, the FBS serum, and the bioreactors and the size of the production facility, but what I wanted to do is tell the story of the person, because you have all these incredible people, humans taking a shot, and everybody can empathize and be interested in that, which is someone taking a shot to make the world better. Who knows? We don’t know where it’s going. So we’re taking the shot, right?

    Uma Valeti: Absolutely. Well, thank you.

    Sonalie Figueiras: My favorite part of this interview was when you told me that your family told you that you should be doing this, I think that is so powerful. I usually hear the opposite, which is people saying, “Oh, my family was like, what are you doing? This is so crazy!” However, the fact that your kids said to you, “Dad, you should be doing this!” That’s amazing.

    Uma Valeti: One of my favorite parts of this whole experience is when I went into my son’s room, and he was eight years old, and after I told him a story about how we were doing research, and there were animals being used in that and I told him it’s hard because you become really friendly with these animals. Then a terminal experiment is done. We had started talking about meat production just a couple of days before. Later, I went to his room and he was just sobbing by himself. Then he asked me the question, “Why does this have to happen?” I didn’t have an answer. So I saw him sobbing, I just held him and I said, “Look, I felt the same way, as you did,” and I told him the story of when I was 12. He said, “Why can’t it change?” That was my son when he was eight. After that, I kept going back to cardiology doing my thing, but I never forgot that moment.

    When my wife and I were discussing this, my kid said, “Dad, why are you not doing it?” That was another big, profound moment in the family to say, “I’ve been asking others to start companies in this space. I’m trying to pick my safe path of: Hey, I’m a cardiologist. Now, I have a well-established path with the research of this company. I got a job. I’m not risking that and asking other people to do it.” They put a mirror on me and said, “Why are you not doing it?” That became a call to action.

    The funny side of this was when we were moving to California, my daughter didn’t want to move. It was around the time this Pixar movie called Inside Out (2015) came out, where the same story of what was unfolding in our family was playing in a movie in front of us, where an entrepreneur dad from Minnesota was moving his entire family to San Francisco and his daughter was 11 years old, and she was fighting the move because all her friends were in Minnesota. That’s exactly what my daughter was going through. She was like, “I don’t want to move. You commute. You go there. I’m not moving.” Then, when she saw all of this, she said, “Okay, I don’t like it, but I’m coming, but you have to promise that you will get me fried chicken for my high school graduation.” [laughter] I made that promise to hurry her up. I had no idea if we would be able to produce anything at all, but that’s what she wanted: fried chicken for graduation. This was back in 2017.

    Sonalie Figueiras: And how old is she now?

    Uma Valeti: Well, she just graduated high school this summer, so on July 1st, 2023!

    Sonalie Figueiras: You mean the cultivated meat restaurant debut was on the same day?

    Uma Valeti: I’m not making this up, she graduated in June, and on July 1st, 2023, she was one of the first testers of cultivated fried chicken! [laughter]

    Sonalie Figueiras: Oh my god, that’s incredible! That’s just incredible.

    Uma Valeti: So, these personal stories are always what keeps us going, and you know, my dad was a veterinarian, he was a big inspiration. I lost him during COVID.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I remember.

    Uma Valeti: So, I wish he was here. These are all the things that keep us going. There’s bittersweetness. Yeah, but I’m really happy to be doing this. There’s still a long way to go in this industry, a lot more twists and turns and hurdles, but: one step at a time.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you so much!

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Green Queen In Conversation is a podcast about the food and climate story hosted by Sonalie Figueiras, the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. The show’s first season, Pioneers of Cultivated Meat, explores cultivated meat, a future food technology on a mission to produce animal protein sustainability. In each of the six episodes, Sonalie interviews the pioneers of the industry, asking the hard questions about one of the most exciting food + climate innovations of our time and sharing the personal story behind each founder’s journey. 

    Green Queen In Conversation is a co-production from Green Queen Media and Cheeky Monkey Productions. This episode was produced by Joanna Bowers and hosted by Sonalie Figueiras.

    The post Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers – Uma Valeti of Upside Foods appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • cop28 food
    11 Mins Read

    After a whirlwind of a couple of weeks, COP28 is finally over – with promises fulfilled and promises broken, often simultaneously. It was billed as the UN’s first food-focused climate summit, but did it live up to the hype? Here’s what food system leaders think.

    This year’s COP28 was always going to be controversial, more so than the rest. It was helmed by the CEO of the host country’s national oil company, who – four days into the conference – claimed that there was “no science” indicating a fossil fuel phaseout would help us tackle the climate crisis.

    It sparked a frenzy, as fossil fuels became the main talking point of the conference – so much so that COP28 had to invoke a reserve day, as leaders couldn’t come to an agreement about the language in the Global Stocktake (GST). And when they finally did, it was deemed historic, but far from enough.

    And that has been the case for food systems too. COP28 was touted to be the first food-focused conference of its kind, with a dedicated food and agriculture day, two-thirds of meatless food, and an FAO roadmap to keeping post-industrial temperature rises under 1.5°C.

    Before the conference, it was reported that this plan by the FAO would encourage a reduction in meat consumption in richer countries, as well as a better livestock output in developing nations. The latter was part of the final text. The former? Not so much. There was a hint, but nothing explicit – and even if it were more direct, it wouldn’t have been good enough, given how crucial food system change is to the climate crisis.

    Of course, there were some positives: the fact that food was even given a spotlight demonstrates progress. One of the biggest headlines was for the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, signed by 134 countries. And 143 nations signed the COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health (which highlighted the importance of agrifood in this context. Meanwhile, over 150 non-state actors signed a Call to Action for food systems transformation, while both private and public sectors pledged billions for more sustainable, nutritious and equitable food systems.

    What do the stakeholders – the insiders at the heart of negotiations and leaders working to create change across global food systems – think about the outcome of COP28? We asked a range of food system players, including non-profit leaders, sustainability experts, think tanks and alternative protein founders, for their reactions. Here’s what they said:

    Oliver Camp, senior associate, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), maximising positive impact for both nutrition and the environment

    Progress at COP28 was necessary, but not sufficient. The Emirates Declaration and the Declaration on Climate and Health represent a major success for the food systems community, but the official negotiations could have gone much further in positioning food systems at the heart of the solution to the challenges we face.

    Nonetheless, taken as a whole, this represents a strong platform to build upon as we continue in our mission to ensure that everyone has access to a nutritious and safe diet from an environmentally sustainable food system.

    Andrew Jarvis, future food director, Bezos Earth Fund, backing climate and nature projects via philanthropic grants

    COP28 was a landmark moment for food and climate. For the first time, food was in the midst of the agenda, and having 158 nations (and counting) sign the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, and having an ambitious call-to-action for non-state actors signed by so many important organisations, was unprecedented. The volume and vibrance of dialogue amongst food system actors was a highlight for me, with controversial topics being openly debated. We need this to continue, unabated.

    Unfortunately, what happened outside of the negotiations was light years ahead of what was discussed inside negotiations. The Sharm dialogue on agriculture stalled, and the GST gave only a cursory nod to food systems. For those of us working in food systems, this is just the start – we must deliver the commitments made in the declaration and calls to action. Implement, implement, implement.

    Mirte Gosker, managing director, The Good Food Institute APAC, advocating for alternative proteins across the food system

    COP28 was a mixed bag. I loved the energy of being together with like-minded people from all corners of the world, working collaboratively towards a more sustainable future. But then again, not all agendas were aligned, and I wonder whether the ‘circus’ that COP turned into had any influence at all on the negotiations. If not, the question is: do we need it?

    If we were to bring in only the top voices – the absolute experts on every topic – and give them the opportunity to make their case to the negotiators, we could save a lot on carbon emissions and might be more effective in reaching our goals. But I realise that approach would diminish the plurality of voices, which is also the beauty of COP.

    The ‘circus’ also allows for building stronger bonds and cross-topic connections, reflecting on new angles and ideas, and forging new collaborations. I’m very happy to see that the food systems were given more attention this year, and I foresee that they will play a leading role in years to come. I’m grateful for people of influence, like UAE climate minister Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Singapore’s minister of sustainability and the environment, Grace Fu, and Dutch MP Rob Jetten, addressing the need for more sustainable food systems and acknowledging alternative proteins as an important climate solution.

    The launch of the UNEP What’s Cooking report was also very promising. Overall, I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction, but I’m also cognizant that we’re running out of time. Change needs to come faster. And we might need to rethink whether the current way COP is organised is the best way forward.

    Irina Gerry, CMO & CCO, Change Foods, making dairy proteins using precision fermentation

    COP28 was a whirlwind filled with panels and presentations, side events, evening receptions and dinners with food innovators. 100,000 attendees buzzing about made it feel like the world’s largest climate pageant. On one hand, it filled me with hope, that so many people showed up to participate in events, conversations and negotiations. On the other, I’m not sure much tangible climate action will come from it, especially on food.

    To be honest, it feels a bit hollow. Yes, there was a big declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, putting “food on the table” in climate conversation, but it stopped short of specific actions or policies. There is broad agreement that the world needs healthy and sustainable diets, and that food systems matter a great deal for climate, but little detail on how to get there. I’m still reading all the different reports and digests, but I know climate action can’t wait.

    We can’t wait for policymakers and politicians to come to an agreement. We must focus on action and impact, whether as individuals or through our businesses and organizations. The future we want won’t make itself. So, as we reflect on the state of climate and the world post COP, let’s think about what we can do and get doing.

    Lee Recht, VP of sustainability, Aleph Farms, producing cultivated meat in Israel and beyond

    I know that COP is criticised by many and, to some extent, rightfully so, but you can’t deny the magic that happens right outside of the negotiations. Hundreds of dedicated experts are pushing for a holistic and inclusive agrifood systems transformation.

    For years, the agrifood systems have been fighting to be at the table at COP28, being responsible for a third of the global GHGs. This year, there were notable achievements. Not only did we witness a government declaration that over 130 countries signed on to, but we were also recognised at the GST level.

    So, yes, the work ahead of us is tremendous, but I choose to remain optimistic and focused on the doing. Aleph Farms and the Global Cellular Agriculture Alliance aim to complement sustainable animal agriculture, and we are actively advocating for climate action, resiliency in our food systems and strengthing food security through protein diversification.

    Elysabeth Alfano, CEO & co-founder, VegTech Invest, investing in public companies innovating with plants

    For me, COP28 was an overwhelming success. At COP27, I could barely get anyone to engage in side conversations around food systems transformation based on the key pillar of protein diversification. Fast forward one year and a food system shift was not only a central part of scheduled panel discussions but how to financially execute that transformation was a part of many panels every day – not just on the food and agriculture day. Only two of my panels were in food pavilions. One was in a business pavilion, and one was in a climate research pavilion. This, I believe, illustrates the broad interest in and understanding of food as a lever for change.

    Currently, only 2%-4.8% of climate finance goes to food systems, but food systems are 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions, and animal agriculture is 60% of that. Financing food fast to have meaningful reductions in GHG emissions, as well as reductions in deforestation, biodiversity loss and food insecurity, was at the heart of the majority of panels I attended and the four panels in which I participated.

    Blended capital was the buzz phrase in my meetings. It calls on governments, philanthropists, and finally, private capital from Wall Street to work together to address the inefficiency of our current food system.  For me, this has always been the only strategy that I see working and I am happy to see that many are unifying around this same approach that we have had for the last two years at VegTech Invest.

    Like everyone, I am deeply encouraged that 154 countries to date have signed on to the Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action. However, I am more excited by the UNEP What’s Cooking paper and video that leaves no doubt about the math of animal agriculture and its destruction for people, planet, and of course, animals.

    If I had a complaint, it would be that countries are understandably fearful of change and, thus, many are still not looking at food as a full systems shift based on the math of utilising our natural resources in a way that feeds everyone on the planet without frying it. Protectionists are still viewing the issue through the lens of how to keep the status quo rather than how to smartly manage the only planet we have for the benefit of all its inhabitants.

    However, this is to be expected. A shift of this magnitude doesn’t happen overnight. Thus, for me, it is impossible not to feel positive about the progress made at COP28.

    Robert E Jones, VP of Mosa Meat and co-founder of the Global Cellular Agriculture Alliance, cultivated meat advocate

    The outcomes from COP28 are no doubt mixed. However, food and agriculture did take a positive step forward. Food systems are finally on the menu at COP, but now countries need to get specific about how they will pay the check. If we are to avoid the worst-case scenarios of the climate crisis, protein diversification needs to be one of the pillars of both resilience and mitigation strategies, especially in the global north. As a united industry, this is the message we delivered in Dubai through hundreds of conversations with ministers, NGOs, farmers, adjacent industry leaders, negotiators, and investors.

    Ethan Soloviev, chief innovation officer, HowGood, advancing carbon and eco-labelling transparency

    Food and agriculture systems took a significant leap forward during COP28 in Dubai – including the first-ever mention of “regenerative” food and agriculture in a high-profile international agreement. Although the negotiations missed a real opportunity to highlight food as a nature-based solution for mitigating the climate crisis, the inclusion of food in the adaptation section bodes well for further advances toward healthy, nutritious and regenerative food systems in upcoming work on the global goal for adaptation.

    Tasneem Karodia, co-founder and COO, Newform Foods, developing cultivated meat in South Africa

    As a first-time COP attendee, I didn’t know what to expect from the event. It was an overwhelming experience with so much to do and see. It was great to see the focus on food – it helped narrow down the focus and bring a concentration of food leaders across the value chain into the same room. I think there is great progress in bringing food to the fore, with the aim of breaking down the silos usually formed.

    The difficulty is how we move this to action and continue collaboration. On a personal note, I have made connections with people I have only seen from a screen and it has helped bridge the gap on what we’re doing in the south and how this could be applicable in the north and vice versa. I look forward to seeing how these conversations progress to action.

    Paul Newnham, executive director, SDG2 Advocacy Hub, drove drive global campaigning and advocacy strategy to promote food security

    I leave COP28 feeling exhausted after a massive year and a big fortnight but encouraged to see food systems rise on the agenda. With 160 leaders signing the declaration on agriculture and food systems and many new initiatives and funds committed, it gives me hope. We have a lot to do to build on this work and turn it into more urgent country-level progress but it was a start. With practical teeth and commitment to CGIAR, IFAD and many others.

    As negotiations come to an end, it’s encouraging to see food making it into the GST and GGA, but we need more for mitigation so that food systems transform to deliver good food for all without damaging our planet. We’ve made progress, but still have a way to go.

    Avery Cohn, partner, food and agriculture at Ode Partners, using data and design to address climate and conservation issues

    The headlines are likely to rightfully key in on the landmark progress on fossil fuels at COP28 and the finance that we’ll now need to mobilise for this. But this summit’s progress on food systems wound up being its second most important outcome, in my view.

    Food employs three billion, causes a third of all emissions, and is the locus of some of the worst risks from our changing climate. Paris’s mitigation and adaptation goals will be totally out of reach without food. Yet although there have been some bright spots, the sector has traditionally suffered from challenging politics and badly lagged on ambition. So, even many of us who have long helped push for the COP28 UAE Food Declaration were surprised by food’s progress in Dubai.

    We closed the summit with 159 countries endorsing a new vision and agenda on food systems and climate. Declarations are non-binding, but the GST and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) decisions have a distributed array of ingredients that together closely align with the Declaration on Food.

    For example, in the mitigation section of the GST, you’ll find references to key food-sensitive issues like non-CO2 gas (including both methane and nitrous oxide), the Global Biodiversity Framework, innovation to reduce unit costs, poverty eradication, sustainable lifestyles, economy-wide absolute GHG reduction targets, and aligning nationally determined contributions with low GHG development strategies. The adaptation section contains a reference to resilient food systems, as well as many promising practices.

    Meanwhile, the GGA has some nice food and agriculture elements too, including strong language on nutrition for all – a crucial goal on its own, which also happens to encompass many of the key elements of resilient and sustainable food systems.

    The sum of everything food-sensitive in the GGA+GST is similar to the COP28 Food Declaration. Each is stronger in some ways, weaker in others. Taken together, I think we’ve now got a rapidly emerging high-ambition agenda on food systems and climate that breaks down the siloes between development, nature, adaptation, mitigation, and nutrition, and provides a resounding mandate to lean in. We’ll now need to turn to implementation and resource mobilisation. It’s time to take the win and get to work.

    The post 12 Food System Insiders Share Their Takeaways From COP28 appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 22 Mins Read

    The below conversation is the transcript of the fifth episode of the podcast miniseries Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers featuring Dr Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Mosa Meat interviewed by show host Sonalie Figueiras. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

    In the fifth episode of Green Queen in Conversation – Cultivated Meat Pioneers, Sonalie Figueiras talks to Dr. Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Mosa Meat. Post is arguably THE original cultivated meat pioneer. It was such a privilege to be able to speak to him, and even more so on the 10-year anniversary of when he and his team presented the first-ever cultivated meat beef burger to the world. That moment set the course for the entire industry, and truly changed the future of food and what was deemed possible. In terms of how we produce meat, Dr. Post remains one of the key voices for the industry, and our conversation is full of insights, learnings, and inspiration.

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Welcome and congratulations on this incredibly momentous day! It is August 5th 2023, exactly ten years after you unveiled the first cultivated meatball to the world! How does that feel?

    Mark Post: Yeah, it’s a nice anniversary. It’s also especially good because a lot has happened since then. The dream that we had at that time actually came true to a large extent.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s so special. Let’s start right there. Are you where you thought you would be in terms of Mosa Meat? Do you feel that the industry has progressed the way you anticipated when you first started on this journey?

    Mark Post: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I hadn’t anticipated that by now we would have 150 or 160 companies, that was something that I never imagined. Or that our own company would grow from 12 to 260 people in ten years, because you know, as a scientist, you think about the scientific problems, and not necessarily about all the other activities around it, but that has been very rewarding to see that. Finally, the development has been diverging in different directions, which I hadn’t anticipated either. We are now seeing a range of technologies and a range of product applications that I didn’t envision in the beginning.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you mean for example that you were working on beef, but now we’re seeing things like pork, chicken, and seafood? Or do you just mean different kinds of supply chain technologies?

    Mark Post: Both, actually. In terms of the products- the species, whether it’s chicken, pork, or fish, I knew that. I kind of expected that would happen. But that early on, people would already start trying to make a full-thickness steak like what Aleph Farms is trying to do? Or that people would use cells as an ingredient in mostly plant-based products? I had expected the steak, but not so soon. However, the cells as an ingredient in plant-based food I had not expected.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Interesting, and what about things like cell-based milk, or you know, coffee, chocolate? That’s really taking the technology and adapting it to all kinds of parts of our foods.

    Mark Post: Right, right. For milk, it makes a lot of sense. There are two technologies, and one of the technologies based on precision fermentation to make milk proteins was actually already there at the time we presented the hamburger, it had already started to be developed. So, that also made a lot of sense to me, because yeah, dairy and beef are the most environmentally damaging animal proteins that we consume. Chocolate and even wood, fur and plant cells? I had not expected that.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Fur?

    Mark Post: Yeah, fur. I got a lot of questions about fur at the beginning. People were asking me: can you make fur? The demand is there, the wish is there. However, for chocolates and plant-based things, is this a supply chain issue? At some point, will we not have enough cocoa anymore? Or enough coffee to secure the supply? Is there an environmental aspect? For the latter, I think not so much- you cannot really be much more efficient than a plant. 

    Sonalie Figueiras: Interesting. It must certainly feel so rewarding to just see all the directions that your work has inspired. How did the cultivated meat journey become your path?

    Mark Post: More or less by coincidence! I was already doing tissue engineering for medical purposes. At some point, there was this guy in the Netherlands, William Van Eelen, who was 82 years old or so at that time. He coerced several scientists to use their technologies to work on cultivated meat. At that time, it was called in vitro meat. I wasn’t even part of the initial consortium, but I stepped in for a sick colleague. So, that’s how I got involved in it. I became very enthusiastic, and I was actually the only one who carried it through after the initial grant had finished.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Oh, wow. That’s so interesting. So, someone had a sick day and your life, and the world, changed forever [laughter]?

    Mark Post: Kind of, yeah [laughter].

    Sonalie Figueiras: What have been some of your proudest moments on this journey? As you reflect on 10 years, you must be in the middle of a lot of looking back and reassessing and reflecting.

    Mark Post: I’m usually not that reflective [laughter]. I think there are a couple of things I’m really happy about. One, as I already mentioned, our initial weird initiative to show this hamburger on international television has sparked this entire endeavor, with so many companies and so many activities around the world. So, that’s what we had not anticipated, and it was the right time right place type of thing. Actually, the presentation of the hamburger in London was more born out of frustration than anything else. That created this entire industry. So, that’s remarkable, and it’s also something I’m proud of, because, you know, we just did that, not anybody else.

    The other thing that I’m really proud of is the forming of a large group of scientists and other workers in a company that has created a very nice atmosphere to work in. Very innovative people, very driven, and very motivated people that make things happen at a much faster rate than I would have done if I had stayed at the university. Being able to do that – of course, it’s not my work alone- there are a lot of other people involved, but having been able to do that is something that I didn’t think that I had in me, and that worked out quite well, I think.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Let’s stay there for a minute, because one of the things that’s most interesting in the cultivated meat history if we can call it that now, is that you and your team were the first to create the burger, but you didn’t incorporate Mosa Meat right away.

    The first official company was Memphis Meats, now Upside Foods in the US. So, how did you go from being a scientist-led project in the university to deciding to incorporate a company? Did you know that Memphis Meat had been incorporated? Did that influence your decision?

    Mark Post: It was completely independent of Memphis Meats. Of course, we knew that they had incorporated and in fact there were two delays: after we presented the hamburger, which as you know was funded by (Google co-founder) Sergey Brin, he said at that time, “Okay, start a business. Bring this to the market in the next two years.” [laughter]

    I said at the time: “Okay, I don’t think two years, I think it takes a little bit more than two years to make that happen.” Anyway, that was the idea. So, this was back in 2013, and there were some delays. I was still working at the university and they considered this an IP (intellectual property) of the university. So, I had to deal with them and with the funding vehicle of Sergey Brin. So it took a couple of years to deal with these external circumstances. I guess my inexperience with starting a business caused that delay.

    Sonalie Figueiras: As a scientist, do you enjoy running a business? In the last 20-30 years we have more and more scientists/researchers leading companies. What do you think about that?

    Mark Post: I enjoy being in a business because I can do a lot more in a shorter time with a larger crew. So, I find myself like a kid in a candy store, where nowadays I can come up with a problem or a question, and a week later I get an answer, whereas, at the university, that same thing could take three months or six months because of the lack of personnel and the lack of funds. As a business, we can do a lot more in a much shorter time, so as a scientist, that’s wonderful. I actually feel that I’m doing more science now than I did at the university just because of the sheer volume and the speed of it.

    I got kind of drawn into parts of running the business because a lot of investors approached me and a lot of other entities approached me, rather than other people in the business who might be more appropriate for that. So, I was kind of drawn into it. There are parts of it that I really like, for example, talking to people about this [technology] and convincing people that this is something that we should do. There are other aspects, such as the whole organizational aspect and the structuring aspect, that I’d rather leave to other people.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yes, you are not the CEO.

    Mark Post: Exactly.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s Maarten Bosch. How does that relationship work? Do you take care of everything to do with product and science, and he takes care of the organizational stuff and operations?

    Mark Post: Yeah, it has become much more fluid than that. So together, Martin, Peter [the COO] and myself are a team that almost organically distributes our tasks. If we feel that something needs to be done that was originally the task of the CEO, or Peter [the COO] but I feel that have the time or I can do this, then I do. So we are not very strict. It’s really a team where we can stand in for each other, and of course, I have an emphasis on the scientific part. Maarten and Peter are less involved in the intricacies of biological science than I am. Maerten is much more engaged with investors and with external relations. So, there is a division of tasks, but it’s really a joint effort.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s been an incredible summer for the industry. After a couple of years of slower progress, we suddenly have two US regulatory approvals that are historic. We have the Dutch government saying cultivated meat tastings are allowed now. Just recently, Aleph Farms, the Israeli company you mentioned filed for regulatory approval in Switzerland. Do you think we’re riding a wave right now, and do you think it’s going to continue? What feels different?

    Mark Post: You know, if you have followed these developments as I have, it’s not a surprise. This was coming. There are now a couple of things happening at the same time, which is kind of a coincidence. If you recall, in 2020, the first [cultivated] product was approved in Singapore, that was a milestone. It’s just a matter of time before a lot of these approvals start coming through.

    We spoke to quite a few governments, and in various geographies and governments, applications have been submitted. So, it’s a matter of time for these things to come through. My guess is that we’re now just seeing the very beginning of it, and in the next half year, certainly next year, we will see a whole flurry of these approvals in different geographies, even in the Middle East, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Europe, maybe and probably in South America (I’m less familiar with that). So this is to be expected, and we are just seeing the beginning of it.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Let’s circle back on the EU, which takes a more cautious approach when it comes to regulatory approval of what they term “novel foods” than other countries. As a Dutch pioneer in the EU, how do you navigate that? Do you wish it were going faster? Do you understand where they’re coming from? Countries like China are looking to other governments, particularly the EU, to wait and see how they regulate this because there is a sense that the EU is cautious, and overall, that is a good thing for consumer safety.

    Mark Post: If you talk to larger food companies, they see the EU as a sort of sign of approval, i.e. a sign of quality if you get approval from there. Not many people know this about the EU, but 12-13 years ago, they already outlined very specifically and precisely how they would regulate cultivated meat, and these documents are public and are used by all the regulatory officials in other countries as an example and guideline for how they would look at this approval.

    There are always two parts of a regulatory approval process: One is the scientific part, where people like me, but in the service of the government [scientists], look at the data and the evidence to determine that this is safe. The other part is the political decision-making. Once there is a recommendation from the FDA or whatever, there is an executive decision by the government to allow the recommendation of the scientific committee or not.

    The scientific part is pretty much the same everywhere, and it should be, because you know, if something is safe for somebody in Singapore, then it should also be safe for somebody in Spain. So, that should be very similar. Unfortunately, as we know, the political decision-making part in the EU is a lot more complex than in most other countries, whilst in a small city-state like Singapore, it’s very easy. In a 27-member-state union such as the European Union, it’s just hard. It takes time, and that’s a pity, because there’s nothing related to food safety- it’s just a political decision.

    Sonalie Figueiras: But as you say, it is a mark of approval, Europe just has that, you know, reputation and validation. So, it’s going to be a really important moment.

    Mark Post: Yep.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I’m assuming Mosa will be one of the first to apply- do we have an idea of when the EU might grant a first approval?

    Mark Post: For that, they will take a year and a half at least. So, as far as I know, there have not been any formal and complete applications in the EU yet, much to their disappointment [laughter]. There has not been a submission yet, as it takes a year and a half at least. When exactly the first submissions are going to be done in Europe is hard to say, but I know our timeline, and this is one of our highest priorities. So, this will be relatively soon. I cannot give an exact date, but it will be quite soon.

    Where other companies stand in this regard is less certain. A number of companies [outside of the EU] that have gotten approval now are either using genetic modification, or they are keeping the option of genetic modification open, and that complicates things in Europe. So, those companies that are heavily relying on genetic modification for their bio-processes will be very reluctant to submit [an application] in Europe, I think.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s interesting that you mentioned seeing potential approvals in the Middle East. I wonder about Israel because it has an inordinate number of cultivated meat companies. Of course, there is an expectation that Singapore will potentially have more approvals later this year. In fact, you have applied in Singapore too.

    Mark Post: Yeah. I think most people do this for reasons of getting to the market sooner and getting an idea of consumer acceptance, and how to market [the product]. Singapore is not a very big market, but they are very enthusiastic and very proactive in stimulating this. So companies obviously respond to that.

    Sonalie Figueiras: You mentioned consumer acceptance. That’s a big topic that I want to dive into. Do you believe a focus on the science and scaling production is enough? Or do you think that we also need to focus on mass behavioral change theory, in the sense that, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs will say to you, “Well, we solve the problem, which is that we give people “no-kills/slaughter-free meat, and we don’t worry about anything else,” because if you’re giving them meat and it’s no-kill, and it’s better, then they will choose the no-kill meat? There have been some doubts around this way of thinking, and I was wondering how you look at that issue.

    Mark Post: Yeah, I’m very optimistic about that. I don’t have that much doubt about this. You need to have a good story and a clear story, and the regulatory approval actually helps in that, because I think the most important question that people have is: “Is this safe or not?”

    Throughout the years, we have seen a lot of change in human attitudes towards cultivated meat and similar technologies based on, you know, the realization that there is environmental impact and that it will be a scarce consumer product, and of course, animal welfare for a long time, has already been kind of on the radar.

    So, my feeling is that people are looking for a credible alternative to meat that still allows them to have the same behavior without the negative consequences. Even if it’s not always voiced like that, you kind of feel that undercurrent of people trying to, or people waiting for a concept that relieves their conscience when they are eating meat. So, you know, we don’t have a term called ‘meat-shame’ yet, but I guess that’s not far away [laughter].

    Sonalie Figueiras: Like the Swedish word for the flight shame!

    Mark Post: Exactly! [laughter]

    Sonalie Figueiras: You should coin that in Dutch! That would be great! [laughter]

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s interesting that you’re very optimistic, that’s so encouraging to hear, but it’s impossible to ignore that the identity and cultural politics brigade has come out in force around cultivated meat and made this into a hot issue in the media using terms like “lab-grown” in a derogatory way. Italy, for instance, said that they’re going to ban cultivated meats [Editor’s note: this has since happened]. Or a couple of years ago, the former French Minister of Agriculture Jean Denormandie said: “In France, it’s no.” Every time there’s an announcement, there’s this undercurrent suggesting that you’re taking away people’s identity by not letting them eat an animal’s red-blooded meat.

    Mark Post: I see these people as, I don’t know how to pronounce this, as Don Quixotes? They’re fighting windmills- basically, [they are fighting] a battle that cannot be won. The whole transition towards a different diet and other kinds of environmental issues is, I think, unstoppable, and should be unstoppable because otherwise, we’re ruining this planet. So, you see the same thing with electric cars. Electric cars are unstoppable, despite a lot of people who are petrol-heads, and it’s for a good reason. I see this in that same vein. For sure, there are a lot of people who want to stick with their old habits and their old consumption patterns, and sometimes governments kind of steer towards sticking to the old stuff too. However, eventually, that’s untenable. It’s an inevitable reality that we cannot continue with meat production and meat consumption the way we have been doing, considering that it’s going to increase in the next 15 to 20 years.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Speaking of 15 to 20 years, what kind of timeline do you have in your head in terms of getting cultivated meat to being a mass product on shelves in supermarkets at an affordable price?

    Mark Post: Well, there are two main conditions for supermarkets: One is that the quality is good, and the other is that the price is maybe a little bit higher than regular meat, but not by much. So, we see that happening in the next four or five years, that prices will come down to the price of regular meat, assuming that the price of meat will stay stable, which is somewhat unlikely, I guess.

    Sonalie Figueiras: You mean you think meat is going to get more expensive?

    Mark Post: It has to. It’s a very simple economic law: Production is not going to increase, because we can hardly increase it, and consumption is going to increase, the demand is going to increase in China, India, Africa, and maybe some parts of South America. So, it’s just a very simple economic law that if the demand increases, but the supply does not, the price goes up, and that’s not even talking about how some very progressive governments may institute a meat tax.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That was gonna be my next question. That’s very unpopular politically from all the research we have.

    Mark Post: Yeah, it is, and I’m actually not really in favor of it myself.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Why not?

    Mark Post: Because it creates inequality between consumers. I will still be able to consume meat, but you know, other people in a different socioeconomic situation may no longer be able to.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I see where you’re going. So, it becomes an economic equity issue. 

    Mark Post: Right, which in my mind is problematic. Unless you use that tax for a lot of environmental measures, right?

    Sonalie Figueiras: So what’s the timeline of getting cultivated meat into supermarkets?

    Mark Post: In addition to quality and price, there is one other thing that will take time- the production capacity. If you think about this, this is a huge production capacity that you need to build.

    So, the estimate is that you have to increase the current fermentation capacity in the world by a factor of one and a half. That may not tell you much, but if you think about the fermentation capacity like beer, wine, industrial fermentation, and pharmaceutical fermentation, there’s a lot of fermentation capacity currently out there. To increase that by a factor of one and a half is going to be a huge endeavor. A lot of factories will have to be built, people will have to be trained and capital will need to be raised. This takes a lot of time.

    Predictions by AT Kearney that in 2040 we will have 35% of the market occupied by cultivated meat- this is pretty optimistic. I hope that we will eventually get there, at that 35% of market share, in the next decades, because we need it.

    Sonalie Figueiras: What else does the industry need? Do we need more talent? Is it that we simply just need more funding? I’d love to understand that better. Do you think there should be more public sector money in cultivated meat? Did you think more governments would give more money to the sector?

    Mark Post: I’m surprised and disappointed. I have been lobbying for public funding from the very beginning. Mind you, before I started doing this, I was a university professor and was completely dependent on public funding, and nothing else. I see the value of that, I see the continuity, I see the independence, the dissemination of knowledge, but also the training of people. So, there are a lot of aspects of the cultivated meat scientific field that require public funding, and you cannot only rely on private funding.

    I see this as a scientific field that will evolve, improve, and expand over the next 30 years. So that, for sure, will require a good base of scientific activity – training of people and dissemination of knowledge. So yes, I see a big role for public funding and publicly-funded research in this.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you do any work in encouraging younger scientists to get into the field of cultivated meat? Is talent a concern at all?

    Mark Post: Scientific talent, not so much. We [Mosa Meat] may be somewhat exceptional, because of the publicity. We never really advertised a job opening, we just put it on the web, and we get applicants from all over the world. Sometimes people apply five times because they really want to work in this field. So, we don’t have that issue.

    What will become an issue is once you have those factories, you need a lot of people who are trained to operate bioreactors, and would be working in that part of the food industry, and that will indeed require specific training systems to get there, or retraining of people from other industries.

    Sonalie Figueiras: One of the biggest criticisms that has been lobbied at all of the alternative protein and food technologies is: what about farmers? How do we better involve them? Farmers are the bedrock of our agricultural system all over the world. They have difficult lives. They often do not see the upside of the big food companies. What does the future look like for them?

    You mentioned that we’re going to need all this new training to help operate these bioreactors. Is that something that we could retrain farmers to do? Do you think about farmers in the future and how we, you know, redirect their skills?

    Mark Post: Well, believe it or not, we think about farmers a lot [laughter] and we have been doing this since, pretty much right after the presentation of the hamburger, because obviously you get these questions. I also live in a farming community more or less. My neighbour is a farmer. So, we think about this a lot.

    First of all, farmers are entrepreneurs. They go where they can make money off the land. Of course, the cells that we culture also need to be fed. So a lot of farmers, if they are now cattle, farmers or dairy farmers will eventually change their way of farming, while still extracting value from their land. They require time to make that transition, it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a couple of decades. So, they can transition to that. My neighbor is actually a good example, because he used to be a pig farmer, and then he switched to potatoes. Why? Because he could make more money with potatoes than with pig farming. That’s the essence of a farmer – It’s an entrepreneur who extracts value from the land, and they can still do that.

    Hopefully, over the decades, part of this is we will eventually require less farmland because we take a lot of the inefficiencies out of the food system. We require less farmland and less farming. This is a good thing. If you look at the number of farms in the Netherlands where I’m living, that number is steadily going down. Fewer and fewer people are interested in taking up the farming business. It’s just not appealing enough for young people.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That tends to be happening a lot in the developed economies, but less so in regions like Asia, South America, and Africa.

    Mark Post: Right, but that may be a matter of time, right? The other thing that you see is that farming is becoming more and more industrialized. The farmer in the Netherlands nowadays is more like an organizer than actually somebody who puts a spade in the ground.

    Sonalie Figueiras: As you look ahead, what are your major goals for Mosa for the next five years? What do you want the company to achieve in the short term?

    Mark Post: Like for any other company: scale up production, get regulatory approval, but most importantly, have a high-quality product on the market that is a lot better than any of the current alternatives for meat, so that it can fill that void of meat alternatives. We see that plant-based meat alternatives are kind of plateauing and this is somewhat of a concern. It’s good to analyze what is happening here. However, I cannot help thinking that part of it is that people just want to have meat, that the meat alternative has to be meat and nothing else. So, the foremost goal of the company is to create a high-quality alternative that is sufficiently credible for consumers to change their behavior away from traditional meat.

    Sonalie Figueiras: What’s the format for your first product? Are you doing ground beef?

    Mark Post: Yeah, it’s beef, and it’s ground. As a tissue engineer, I love to work on a full-thickness steak. As a practical person, I see that this has more challenges, and will take longer to realize.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you ever consider that some of your production will be elsewhere in the world, other than the Netherlands? Or are focusing most of your scaling up in the Netherlands?

    Mark Post: From the very beginning, we wanted to roll this out to the rest of the world as soon as possible. When we have the full production capacity available, we will license this out to as many third parties in the world as we can, based on our philosophy that we want to make an impact, and not just grow the largest meat factory in the world.

    Sonalie Figueiras: My last question is a bigger one. What does success look like to you?

    Mark Post: It’s exactly that – Having high-quality hamburgers rolling off the conveyor belt at a reasonable price that people want.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I can see it in my mind and I can’t wait.

    Mark Post: By the way, we haven’t talked about it, but we are doing the same for leather, which is equally interesting and important, and fewer people are working on it. It’s a different company, but I’m the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of that company as well.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Is it in stealth or have you announced it?

    Mark Post: It’s not necessarily in stealth, it just got a lot less publicity than Mosa. The company is called Qorium, with a ‘Q’, and it’s another thing I’m working on, a piece of leather coming off the conveyor belts.

    Sonalie Figueiras: One of the biggest problems we have today, is for vegan or ethical animal welfare-driven consumers, your choice is either leather, which is a difficult choice, and one you would avoid it, or your choice is plastic, which unfortunately, is absolutely not better.

    Mark Post: Right [laughter].

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, you essentially have no choice.

    Mark Post: Yeah, it’s tough, but you know, making leather is slightly easier than making meat. For sure, there will be a market for that and the fashion industry is looking forward to this. A lot of leather alternatives for shoes and for clothes are not good alternatives.

    Sonalie Figueiras: No. They’re all mixed with plastic, they don’t biodegrade, and then we’re back to the same problem in terms of waste.

    Mark Post: Right.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you for sharing that. You’re solving so many problems. Thank you so much for your time, and a HUGE Congratulations on an incredible decade of progress for yourself, your company, but also for humanity. What a journey!

    Mark Post: Yeah, it has been. It’s quite fun and rewarding [laughter]. Thank you.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you.

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Green Queen In Conversation is a podcast about the food and climate story hosted by Sonalie Figueiras, the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. The show’s first season, Pioneers of Cultivated Meat, explores cultivated meat, a future food technology on a mission to produce animal protein sustainability. In each of the six episodes, Sonalie interviews the pioneers of the industry, asking the hard questions about one of the most exciting food + climate innovations of our time and sharing the personal story behind each founder’s journey. 

    Green Queen In Conversation is a co-production from Green Queen Media and Cheeky Monkey Productions. This episode was produced by Joanna Bowers and hosted by Sonalie Figueiras.

    The post Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers – Dr. Mark Post of Mosa Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • future food quick bites
    7 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers an Indian plant-based dairy acquisition, vegan surveys, and two regulatory filings for cultivated meat.

    New products and launches

    Legacy US vegan brand Tofurky, which has been embroiled in labelling battles, misinformation and propaganda this year, is choosing to hit back with a ‘Move over, boring’ campaign as it launches two new sausages, Chorizo and Mango Chipotle, to its lineup.

    tofurky sausages
    Courtesy: Tofurky

    In Colorado, vegan restaurant chain Meta Burger is adding three new plant proteins to its menus across Denver and Boulder: Fable Foods’ shiitake pulled pork, Umaro Foods’ bacon, and Unreal Deli’s sliced turkey.

    Another restaurant incorporating branded alt-meat onto its menu is Barcelona’s Amarre 69, which teamed up with Slovenian whole-cut specialist Juicy Marbles for a ‘Juicy 69 Experience’, with the latter’s steak being the centrepiece alongside a musical performance.

    Also in Europe, UK vegan dog food brand Omni has gained a listing with Germany’s Fressnapf, the largest pet food retailer in the continent with over 1,400 stores. The former’s products will initially be available on the latter’s e-commerce website.

    Plant-based seafood brand HAPPIEE!, based in Singapore, is expanding its UK presence with an Asda listing. Its shrimp SKUs (regular and breaded) can be found in the retailer’s freezers nationwide from January.

    In the UK, meanwhile, BSF Enterprise (parent company of cellular agriculture startup 3D Bio-Tissues) and bioprocessor CellRev are launching a joint venture, Cultivated Meat Technologies Limited, to mass-produce cell-cultured proteins.

    efishient protein
    Courtesy: Efishent Protein

    Israeli-cultivated meat producer Efishient Protein has unveiled the first prototype of its cultured layered Tilapia white fish fillet in a step that brings it closer to expediting large-scale production.

    In early 2024, the foodservice sector in fellow Gulf nation UAE will see chicken, kebabs and pulled products from Swiss alt-meat maker Planted enter the market.

    Further east, Singaporean specialty coffee chain Foreword has begun stocking the beanless coffee from local brand Prefer in three locations across the island state.

    Moving further south, New Zealand-based EatKinda, which makes vegan ice cream from cauliflower, has secured a listing at 90 Woolworths stores, marking its large supermarket debut. It also won two awards at the 2023 NZ Food Awards for its strawberry and mint-chocolate sandwich flavours.

    Speaking of big retailers, the UK’s largest, Tesco, is prepping a new private-label vegan brand, Root & Soul. It has filed a trademark application for the name, months after it unveiled its Finest Signature Vegetables ready meal range.

    asda vegan
    Courtesy: Asda

    And yet another UK supermarket, Asda, is releasing a vegan turkey with trimmings for £3.50 this Christmas, after a poll it conducted revealed that 29% of Brits don’t know what to serve vegans for Yule dinner, and 75% of vegans themselves feel the need to bring their own dish.

    Policy and research

    Indians are looking forward to Veganuary, if you’re to believe the 59% of citizens that told YouGov they’re strongly likely to consider a vegan diet in the near future (the survey covered 2,033 participants). 74% believe it’s good for their health, with gut health being cited by 60%. This comes ahead of what’s expected to be another record-breaking Veganuary.

    In New Zealand, though, a huge study (with over 23,000 respondents) has found that only 0.74% of the country is truly vegan, with vegetarianism not much more prevalent at just 2.04%. On the other end of the spectrum, 93% eat red meat.

    So it’s probably a good thing that New Zealand and Australia’s joint regulator has greenlit Sydney-based cultivated seafood producer Vow Foods‘ cultured quail as safe to eat, which means it will now undergo a six-week public consultation process.

    vow foods
    Courtesy: Vow Foods

    Similarly, Singapore’s regulator has received an application from French company Vital Meat. The country was famously the first ever to approve culture meat for sale (with Eat Just in 2020), and now will deliberate over Vital Meat’s chicken, which is expected to enter foodservice next year.

    Meanwhile, in Norway, fish oil manufacturer GC Rieber VivoMega has received a V-Label certification for its new range of vegan omega-3 concentrates made from microalgae.

    In Poland, things are going a little backwards, with the meat lobby submitting draft legislation looking to ban meat-related terms on the product labels of plant-based alternatives to help consumers “make an informed choice”. What’s worse, people who wanted to consult or comment on it were given 24 hours.

    These fears likely come from surveys like the one conducted by the University of Southern California, covering over 7,000 participants, which found that people are more likely to choose vegan food when it isn’t labelled that way – only 20% chose a food gift basket with vegan food labelled ‘vegan’, while 27% did so for ‘plant-based’. In contrast, 44% chose the same set labelled as ‘healthy and sustainable’.

    Another campus, the University of California, Berkeley has committed to make 50% of its entrées in campus dining vegan by 2027, inviting the university’s 20 other campuses to join this effort too.

    UC Berkeley also linked up with flavour and fragrance house Givaudan for the fifth edition of their annual alt-protein pathways report, highlighting 10 clear actions to address industry issues regarding supply chains, resource consumption, scale-up and costs.

    Finance and markets

    Things are shaking up in India. Plant-based dairy leader One Good – which makes alternatives to milks, butters, curd, ghee and more – has been acquired by vegan superfood company Nourish You.

    noruish you
    Courtesy: Nourish You

    Meanwhile, Lima-based Peruvian Veef has raised $400,000 in pre-seed funding to strengthen its goal to become the country’s leading alt-protein producer by 2024.

    In the US, Boston-based Tender Food received a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation, with nearly $1M injected to produce whole-cut plant-based meat and explore how cultivated meat cells can be added to make an enhanced hybrid product.

    US brand PlantBaby – maker of nut- and seed-based Kiki Milk for children – which is celebrating its third anniversary, has announced that it has doubled its annual revenue, making $6M in the first two years.

    Similarly, UK meal kit company Gousto has revealed that the number of orders for meatless recipes has doubled over the last four years, accounting for 23% of total orders.

    Fellow recipe kit deliverer Hello Fresh has found that the number of vegan orders quadrupled this year in its leading market of Germany, while flexitarian diets have grown significantly on its platform. It predicts a growing demand for plant protein heading into 2024.

    Things will be helped by the predicted expansion of the pea fibre market, which is expected to grow by 7.8% annually to reach $50.8B in 2024. A separate report shows that the reduced volume of pea protein ingredients from China will see prices fall for European manufacturers.

    Manufacturing and workforce developments

    At COP28, US cultured seafood producer BlueNalu announced that it has welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed to its corporate advisory board, who has been “an avid supporter” since the beginning.

    Fermented fungi protein maker Nature’s Fynd also bolstered its leadership team, adding Wendy Behr as chief product officer, Christine Rogers-Raetsch as chief people office, and Jaime Frye as senior VP of sales.

    fy protein
    Courtesy: Nature’s Fynd

    Fellow US producer Shiru, a biotech plant-based ingredient developer, has cut its entire Automation team as part of a round of layoffs.

    Finally, French legume company Intact has broken ground on a new low-carbon fermentation facility in Baule in the Loiret region, which will transform peas and other legumes into plant proteins for various applications.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: A Juicy 69, Plant Polls & Cultured Meat Regulatory Filings appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • cop28 news
    5 Mins Read

    Welcome to Day 10 of #COP28 – the first ever official day dedicated to food systems in the history of the summit. In Green Queen’s COP28 Daily Digest, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the interwebs to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’.

    Catch up: DAY 1DAY 2DAYS 3 & 4DAY 5DAY 6DAY 7REST DAYDAY 8DAY 9

    Headlines You Need To Know

    The COP-related news you cannot miss.

    AZERBAIJAN CONFIRMED AS COP29 HOST: After a period of uncertainty, Azerbaijan has emerged as the winner of the host bid for COP29 next year, with Armenia retracting its bid and agreeing to back its rival nation. But climate activists are likely to criticise the fact that another ‘petro-state’ country will once again host the UN climate summit.

    152 COUNTRIES BACK THE COP28 AGRIFOOD DECLARATION: A week after 134 countries signed the UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food Systems and Climate Action, that number has risen to 152, announced UAE climate minister and COP28 food systems lead Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri.

    CHINA BACKS RENEWABLE ENERGY, BUT REMAINS COY ON FOSSIL FUEL PHASEOUT: China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua has said the country would like to see nations agree to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy but hasn’t confirmed whether the nation would support or oppose a fossil fuel phaseout entirely.

    SAUDI ARABIA TAKES AIM AT WIND & SOLAR ENERGY: Fossil fuel giant Saudi Arabia is calling on countries to take action against wind and solar power, which it claims are increasingly threatening the climate due to their ‘life-cycle’ GHG emissions. It’s also one of the countries blocking the recommendation for a full fossil fuel phaseout.

    ‘HIGH-AMBITION’ FOOD COALITION FOUNDED: The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation has been launched, with Brazil, Sierra Leone and Norway as co-chairs and prominent members including Rwanda and Cambodia. The goal for the “high ambition coalition for food” is to boost national visions and food systems transformation pathways consistent with science-based targets in 10 priority areas.

    COP28 RELEASES STATEMENT ON CLIMATE, NATURE & PEOPLE: The COP28 and UNCBD COP15 presidencies have released a Joint Statement on Climate, Nature & People to align climate action to deliver the highest impact in as short a time as possible. Objectives include scaling up climate finance, equitable representation, and coherence in data collection and voluntary reporting frameworks.

    NATURE FINANCE HUB LAUNCHED TO MOBILISE $100B IN CLIMATE FINANCING: The Asian Development Bank, the OPEC Fund, Agence Française de Développement, and the Saudi Fund for Development have launched the Nature Finance Hub to mobilise $1B from development partners, and an additional $2 B in private capital by 2030 for nature-centric climate projects.

    $100M INITIATIVE AIMS TO PROTECT LAND & MARINE AREAS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Papua New Guinea has announced a $100M initiative with public and private sector partners to protect 30% of its land and marine areas, halt forest loss and promote sustainable development and inclusive rural transformation by 2030.

    Key #COP28 Reports

    The food and climate reports you need to know about today.

    FAO publishes agrifood roadmap to 1.5°C: The FAO has published the much-awaited first instalment of its hugely anticipated roadmap to cut food and agriculture emissions, with 120 actions recommended to meet 20 key targets – albeit with little detail on how they will be achieved. Measures include cutting livestock methane emissions by 25% by 2030 and halving food waste by 2030. It acknowledged the need to change diets to reduce meat and dairy emissions but said that plant-based foods can’t be an adequate source of certain nutrients. Plus, only the FAO’s website (and not the report) calls on higher-income countries to cut their consumption. In fact, the report says meat production needs to be ramped up to address health challenges in poorer nations.

    Brazilian meat giants linked to widespread Amazon deforestation: Three Brazilian meat producers – JBS, Marfrig and Minerva – have been connected to over half a million hectares of deforestation in the Amazon in a new report by Mighty Earth. The farms where land was felled supply to 36 slaughterhouses belonging to these companies, and the total area is 156 times the size of COP28 host Dubai.

    Africa needs a new livestock narrative: The result of a collaborative effort between multiple organizations, a new report outlines a new livestock narrative for Africa, arguing that existing perspectives fail to recognise the role of livestock in the continent’s livelihood, nutrition and capacity for climate change adaptation.

    Migration as climate change adaptation: The FAO published a study exploring migration as an adaptation measure for climate change in the Near East and North Africa, highlighting how farmers are forced to relocate due to climate events and crop productivity issues. Growth-centric economic and farming policies further undermine sustainable resource management and facilitate maladaptive practices.

    Food access for migrant workers in the Gulf: Middle Eastern investigative journalists and Fairsquare have penned a report outlining the disparities in access to quality, nutritious food for migrant workers in the UAE. It also assesses the wider impact of the country’s food supply chain practices on the climate, as well as vulnerable populations globally.

    Recommendations for COP28 investment and innovation: The Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture has made a seven-point case for innovation and investment at COP28, covering improved weather forecasts, rainwater harvesting training, microbial fertilisers, cutting livestock methane emissions, digital agriculture, climate-resilient social protection, and alt-protein.

    Awesome Resources From Media Friends

    A curation of our favourite reads of the day – excellent guides, explainers and op-eds from around the web.

    Much-needed climate finance rolling in: Writing for Bloomberg, Agnieszka de Sousa outlines that the badly needed money for food-related climate solutions is starting to trickle in, with billions secured in pledges at COP28.

    All talk, no action: Arguing for the contrary, RTE’s George Lee writes that there’s plenty of talk at COP28, but nobody seems to want to actually pay – summing up the rollercoaster of a summit this has been.

    Around the world to save the country: In a story that’s equal parts hopeful and terrifying, BBC climate reporter Georgina Rannard profiles Mervina Paueli, a negotiator from Tuvalu who has travelled 8,000 miles to save her home country at COP28.

    Lighter Green Fun

    Funny stuff, weird stuff, random stuff related to COP you may enjoy.

    SMOG28: Pretty ironic that people at a climate summit can’t breathe because of the air pollution. Axios reporters have been feeling like their lungs are on fire due to the smog in Dubai, which is not great, to say the least. Looks like it’s not just the alternative protein industry’s opinion that’s suffocating.

    Green Mr COP: A 10-year-old boy from Abu Dhabi has transformed his old toy car into a robot traversing Dubai’s Expo City as a green crusader named ‘Mr Cop’. This is exactly the generation we need to save the planet for.

    Follow all our #COP28 coverage. Like what you’re reading? Share it!

    The post COP28 Daily Digest: Everything You Need To Know in Food and Climate News – Day 10 appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • meatiply
    7 Mins Read

    Singaporean cultivated meat company Meatiply has closed the first round of its seed funding, securing $3.75M in financing to scale up production of its hybrid products and facilitate its new plant, set to open next year.

    A second close is scheduled for Q1 2024, with the producer developing natural compounds to target the functional foods market.

    Singapore-based cultured meat producer Meatiply has closed an initial seed funding round with $3.75M in investment, which will help it scale up production and facilitate the opening of its new plant next year. It brings its total raised to $4.75M, after a $1M pre-seed round in early 2022.

    The round was co-led by co-led by existing investor Wavemaker Partners and AgFunder, with participation from Seeds Capital, the VC arm of Enterprise Singapore.

    “While the challenge of meeting product launch deadlines persists for many companies, the Meatiply team has demonstrated the ability to achieve meaningful results within shorter timeframes and with considerably less funding,” said Paul Santos, managing partner at Wavemaker Partners. “Their achievements in developing hybrid structured poultry prototypes have particularly impressed us.”

    He added: “We have confidence in the diverse backgrounds and technical skills of Meatiply’s founders, coupled with their unique technology, which positions them on a viable path to commercial success.”

    A new facility in the works

    meatiply funding
    Courtesy: Meatiply

    The new funds will allow Meatiply to ramp up its R&D capabilities and production for more extensive co-development with commercial partners. A new facility will become operational next year, two years ahead of its targeted 2026 launch. Speaking to Green Queen, Meatiply CEO Elwin Tan explained: “We are building a dedicated R&D facility with small-scale production capabilities to generate more cell mass to support safety testing and product development.”

    He did not disclose exact capacity numbers, but offered: “The new facility will allow us to expand the effort on bioprocess development, from the current scale in small, lab-scale suspension cultures, to eventually arrive [at] large bench-top bioreactors.”

    The company was founded in 2021 by Tan, Jason Chua, Benjamin Chua (the three studied stem cell biology at the National University of Singapore), and Teh Bin Tean. In October 2022, Meatiply unveiled three structured meat prototypes – kampong chicken yakitori, chicken katsu bites, and Asia’s first smoked duck breast – in a combination of cell- and plant-based ingredients.

    Tan confirmed that the first products won’t be any of these prototypes. “We aimed to showcase the level of complexity and comprehensiveness that our team can deliver, and aims to deliver these products in the long term,” he said. “Until then, we have strategically devised a product development roadmap that will allow us to rapidly commercialise new product formats, without running into the same challenges that companies before us have faced. The team is hard at work refining these new prototypes and we plan to unveil them next year.”

    Cultivated meat as functional food

    lab grown duck
    Courtesy: Meatiply

    These prototypes – made from multiple cell types including muscle, fat and skin – were structured, rather than minced, which enables them to be used in a broader range of products. Meatiply’s “scientifically grounded” approach allows it to generate natural compounds responsible for the sensory and nutritional quality of meat, and targeting these health benefits means the company can focus its energy on the $280B functional foods market.

    Jason Chua, the chief scientific officer, said: “Besides meat, we are also positioned for opportunities to commercialise in the nutraceutical and wellness market.” Tan added: “Meatiply’s strong upstream capabilities to create complex and functional products… not only justifies the use of animal cells, but also results in significant cost reductions.”

    Speaking to Green Queen, the CEO explained: “Our radical development strategy and selected product formats will allow us to significantly reduce capex and input costs. With this same strategy, we can reasonably target commercialisation faster than any other company has been able to achieve.”

    “We’re highly impressed by what the Meatiply team has achieved in a short amount of time and with relatively limited external funding,” noted John Friedman, AgFunder’s Asia director. “We firmly believe there is a place for cultivated meat technology in our future food system, and are encouraged by Meatiply’s practical approach towards product development and go-to-market strategy.”

    Regulatory filing in 2025, with launch planned the year after

    cultured chicken
    Courtesy: Meatiply

    The Meatiply team attributes its success to its team of experts as well as the thriving food tech ecosystem in Singapore. “We are incredibly fortunate to be based in Singapore, where the numerous research and development grants, coupled with the presence of brilliant and purpose-driven individuals within the scientific and start-up ecosystems, have enabled us to establish a strong second-mover trajectory,” said Bin Tean.

    The company has previously said establishing its base in Singapore was “an easy decision” for multiple reasons. Apart from the innovation support, this included the country’s 30 by 30 food security initiative, which aims to reduce the island state’s reliance on imports by producing 30% of all food consumed by its residents by 2030, as well as its progressive government and regulatory framework. It became the first country in the world to approve the sale of cell-cultured meat in 2020, granting clearance to California-based Eat Just‘s Good Meat.

    Meatiply, which is aiming to submit an application to Singapore’s regulatory body by the end of 2025, says it is a “frontrunner” in product development in this space, with innovations across the cultivated meat value chain, helping it develop functional hybrid meat products. Tan confirmed that the company is aiming to launch in Singapore first, but is “keeping an eye on the regulatory developments in South Korea, Japan, and China for the potential to subsequently enter those markets”.

    “Meatiply believes in maximising the potential of each cell type,” said Jason Chua. “Our focus on the production of complex value-added compounds using cells will allow us to create cultivated meat products with added health benefits. This strategic entry point will give consumers more reasons to embrace cultivated technologies.”

    Tan added: “We are focusing on nutritive compounds that are abundant in animals but are either absent or in lower concentrations in plant products. This will not only mean that the products we co-develop will have a clear nutritional edge over plant-based, but at the same time, we’ll also be the best choice for a source of cultivated cells if a plant-based partner is looking to develop a hybrid product,” he said.

    Can hybrid meat go the distance?

    lab grown meat singapore
    Courtesy: Meatiply

    Hybrid meat is still a nascent category, and investors are divided over its potential. Some, though, argue that it’s the best way for cultivated meat to overcome its current cost and scale challenges. Companies like SciFi Foods – which has raised $40M so far – are examples of initial success. China’s CellX recently announced a move into hybrid proteins with mycelium fermentation and Dutch company Meatable’s first product – anticipated to launch in Singapore next year – is a plant-cultivated pork hybrid.

    “During the development of the prototypes we unveiled last year, we explored a number of plant-based raw materials and built the prototypes from scratch, instead of assimilating our cells with an existing plant-based product,” explained Tan. “In doing so, we developed over 10 prototypes with different combinations of plant protein sources. In other words, our development team has the necessary knowledge and expertise to work with a variety of plant proteins. The eventual types of plant proteins we incorporate into our products will depend on the needs and demands of our co-development partners.”

    A second close of Meatiply’s seed funding round is set to take place in Q1 2024. “Despite a more cautious investment approach this year, investors were excited by our development strategy,” said Tan. “Likewise, we are thrilled that our investors share our vision.”

    It has indeed been a slow year for alt-protein and food tech funding – especially compared to the last few years. Cultivated meat has seen investment fall off a cliff – according to alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute, the sector reeled in nearly $900M in funding in 2022 (versus $1.2B for plant-based and $842M for fermented proteins). But this year, the first half of 2023 saw only $99M of financing go to cultivated meat (compared to $124M for plant-based and $273M for fermentation).

    But there have been a few success stories. Meatable raised $35M, while US producer BlueNalu brought in $33.5M. Israel’s Wanda Fish closed $7M in seed funding, while CellX and Jimi Biotech (both Chinese) reeled in $6.5M and $3M, respectively. And just this week, Chicago-based Clever Carnivore completed a $7M oversubscribed seed round. You can add Meatiply to this list.

    The post Meatiply Rakes in $3.75M in Initial Seed Funding for Expansion and New Facility in 2024 appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • vegan panettone
    7 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers the launch of Italian Christmas desserts made from cocoa-free chocolate, a new kind of seafood analogue, and an alt-dairy campaign for Swedish schools.

    New products and launches

    If you’re looking to cook 3D-printed meat, Isreal’s Redefine Meat has finally entered European retail with its ‘new meat’ products, six of which (two pulled and four minced) are debuting at Ocado in the UK and Albert Heijn and Crisp in the Netherlands.

    redefine meat
    Courtesy: Redefine Meat

    Another beef launch has come from German manufacturer BENEO, which has unveiled two semi-finished products for plant-based alternatives – beef bites and mince. The pea- and mycoprotein-based innovations will be launched next year but were sampled at Fi Europe in Frankfurt last month.

    More beef: whole-cut meat maker Chunk Foods‘ vegan steak is headlining a culinary experience at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach by chef Paul Qui, as part of a Philly cheesesteak with cashew queso.

    No more beef? Then McDonald’s New Zealand has got you covered with its Salad Burger, which feels like a slant for non-meat-eaters. That’s right, it’s just… salad ingredients in a bun, in an apparent response to Burger King’s version of the same thing in the country (which still has onion rings!).

    Over in the dairy alternatives world, UK chocolate maker LoveRaw is expanding into the Netherlands, with its milk chocolate wafer bar available in about 200 Albert Heijn stores, and milk and white chocolate bars in 150 Shell stores.

    oat milk powder
    Courtesy: Oatbedient

    Hong Kong, meanwhile, has a new plant-based milk. Singapore-based Oatbedient has launched its oat and milk powders in original, chocolate and chia seed flavours. They’re available at select Market Place, 3hreeSixty and Wellcome stores across the island.

    In Italy, cocoa-free chocolate maker Foreverland has launched its first products using its Freecao alternative: pralines and the Christmas classic, panettone. The products – made from carob-based chocolate – are available on its website, with the latter costing €32.90 for a kg.

    UK vegan pizza chain Purezza has partnered with Chefs for Foodies to offer its vegan mozzarella as part of a create-your-own-pizza kit for home cooks, which comes with Quorn pepperoni, chopped tomatoes, red onions, fresh basil, dough balls, and – in a wonderful touch – flour for dusting.

    Elsewhere, Canadian food tech company Cult Food Science has launched a third proprietary plant-based pet food ingredient, Bmeaty, which joins existing products Bmmune and Bflora. It’s made from yeast extract, hydrolysed yeast and carrier yeast, and boasts 40% protein, and the ingredients will appear in several pet food formulations next year.

    vegan piranha
    Courtesy: WOOP4

    Also in Canada, WOOP4 is a new alt-seafood brand with one product we’ve never seen before – a vegan piranha. Its lineup includes rice-protein- and konjac-based salmon and tuna alternatives as well, alongside a range of seafood-complementing flavoured mayos. You can buy these at certain indie food stores or online.

    Another company that recently launched plant-based seafood products was CPG giant Nestlé – but it says that won’t be the focus of its upcoming plant protein portfolio in India. The company hints at innovations “more relevant to the Indian market”, but is keeping its cards close to its chest. Watch this space!

    And California’s Heyday Canning Co. opened what became a TikTok-famous bean pop-up in New York City, with huge lines outside the viral store surpassing the expected footfall. The idea was to exchange a can of beans for Heyday beans, which would be donated to the food bank City Harvest. As co-founder and CEO Kathryn Kavner said: “People frigging love beans.”

    heyday canning co
    Courtesy: Kathryn Kavner/LinkedIn

    Finance and M&As

    WNWN Food Labs, the UK brand making cocoa-free chocolate, has successfully completed the CoLab Tech accelerator with Mondelēz International. It will showcase its alt-chocolate bars, truffles and coated biscuits at the food giant’s North American HQ.

    In Germany, food conglomerate Pfeifer & Langen has acquired a majority stake in sausage-maker-turned-vegan-meat brand Rügenwalder Mühle for an undisclosed amount, with product development and international expansion high on the agenda.

    Fellow German brand MyriaMeat – founded by researchers at the University of Göttingen – has emerged from stealth mode claiming to be able to make cell-cultured whole-cut meat, and has already seen €40M in investment.

    Australian food producer Wide Open Agriculture has received investment and a distribution deal for its lupin proteins from Sweden’s Ingå Group, which has injected $825,000 into the former and acquired roughly a 15% stake at a pre-money valuation of $4.8M.

    plant based news
    Courtesy: Wide Open Agriculture

    In the US, precision fermentation company Liberation Labs has secured a $25M loan from the USDA to support the construction of its 6,000-litre-capacity biomanufacturing hub, amid a Series A round it hopes to complete by the end of Q1 2024.

    Similarly, New York-based biomanufacturing company Synonym has raised funding from Open Philanthropy to expand its research into gas fermentation tech to produce planet-friendly proteins and other foods.

    In sadder news, Floridian duckweed startup Lemnature AquaFarms, which develops proteins and fibres from lemna, has filed for bankruptcy, with an online auction for its assets being held on December 12.

    And things are shaking up at the top for Simulate and its sub-brand Nuggs, with co-founder and CEO Ben Pasternak leaving his role amid investor pressure. Co-founder Sam Terris (previously COO) is taking over.

    Policy developments

    Cellular Agriculture Australia, a Melbourne-based non-profit, has launched a tool to standardise terminology across the cell ag industry. The Language Guide used input from leaders across APAC, and one of its recommendations chimes with previous research revealing that ‘cultivated meat’ is the preferred term for cell-based proteins.

    Italy, meanwhile, has resubmitted its cultivated meat ban proposal to the EU, which might mean a breach of the single-market rules and hefty fines. Now, Italian policymaker Alessandro Caramiello is hosting an “informal dialogue” on the subject today.

    The UK government’s new National Vision for Engineering Biology is investing £2B in R&D and infrastructure over the next 10 years, including in the country’s cultivated meat sector, as it says there’s a critical shortage of infrastructure for alt-protein scale-up, and making cultivated meat doesn’t require “over-engineered” equipment like the life sciences sector.

    British microbial oil company Clean Food Group has received government funding too, with the £1M, 18-month project helping the producer scale up the manufacturing of its functional oils, including its palm oil alternative.

    In the EU, the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries (PECH) discussed the use of fish-related terms for plant-based foods, where the European Vegetarian Union argued that people aren’t confused with these labels. Newly launched alt-seafood association Future Ocean Foods was also present.

    Meanwhile, two research centres on climate and sustainable food are in the works in Ireland, backed by €70M in funding. The former will focus on the climate, biodiversity and water, and the latter on researching sustainable and resilient food systems, convening academics, industry and policymakers from Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK.

    The Czech Chamber of Deputies recently held a seminar promoting plant-based diets in the country for a healthier and more sustainable food system, with the parliament acknowledging the links and encouraging a shift towards vegan eating.

    oatly stock
    Courtesy: Oatly

    In the Nordics, alt-dairy brands under the Plant-Based Sweden banner – including local Swedish favourites Oatly, DUG, Sproud, Planti and Oddlygood as well as international giant Alpro – have sent a letter to the government to include plant-based milk in the upcoming EU School Scheme review.

    Further news from the region comes from Finland, which has a new Plant Based Food Finland consortium, headed by Oatly’s public affairs manager Niklas Kaskeala. There are 18 founding members which include Oatly, Lidl, WWF Finland, Nordic Umami Company, and Mö Foods among others.

    Manufacturing and awards

    And in news involving both these countries, Finnish company Fazer is moving the manufacturing of oat milk and oat-based cooking products to its Tingsryd factory in Sweden, with the facility in Koria, Finland focusing on oat yoghurts. The move – first mooted two months ago – will see 64 employees lose their jobs.

    Meanwhile, the partnership between Israel’s Profuse Technology and Estonia’s Gelatex is bearing fruitful results, shortening the growth cycle of cell-cultured chicken muscle tissue to just 48 hours, with a fivefold increase in protein content.

    In another partnership, French cultivated meat company Vital Meat has established a strategic link-up with cell-culture media producer Biowest to achieve successful repeat pilot productions of cultivated chicken in 250-litre bioreactors.

    future food quick bites
    Courtesy: ChickP

    Finally, at the Fi Innovation Awards, Hi-Food and Alianza Team Europe won the plant-based innovation award for their oil-based emulsions replicating animal fat attributes, alongside ChickP Protein for its 90% chickpea protein isolate. MycoTech won the health innovation award for its shiitake-fermented pea and rice protein powder. Meanwhile, Arkeon Biotechnologies received the Startup Challenge award for the most innovative plant-based or alternative ingredient – it makes proteins from air.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Panettone, Piranhas, Powders & Plant-Based School Milk appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • cultivated pork
    6 Mins Read

    Chicago-based food tech startup Clever Carnivore has raised $7M in an oversubscribed seed funding round to expand operations and commercialise its cultivated meat products, starting with a pork bratwurst.

    Clever Carnivore has secured $7M in seed financing for its cultivated pork, adding to a $2.1M pre-seed round last year to take total investment to $9.1M. The latest round was led by Lever VC, with other participants including McWin Capital Partners (Spain), Thia Ventures (Belgium and Switzerland), Valo Ventures (Palo Alto, California), Newfund Capital (France), and Stray Dog Capital (Kansas).

    In addition to the round announcement, the company says it will relocate to a larger facility to scale up the manufacturing of meat it claims is much cheaper than any other cultured meat producer globally.

    “We are delighted with the enthusiastic support from our investors in this seed round,” said Virginia Rangos, co-founder and CEO of Clever Carnivore. “This funding is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team and reaffirms the confidence that investors have in our cutting-edge science, technology and business model. With this investment, we are well positioned to revolutionise the protein market and enhance the overall consumer experience.”

    Founded in 2022, Clever Carnivore uses what it calls a “high-efficiency” biotech model to create “cost-competitive” cultivated pork sausages, burgers and chicken nuggets. Currently, it’s focusing on the former, with a Clever Bratwurst prototype set to be unveiled early next year.

    A cost-competitive cultivated sausage

    clever carnivore
    Courtesy: Clever Carnivore

    “Clever Carnivore’s approach blends breakthrough science and a demonstrated cost advantage in the cultivated meat sector,” said Pierre-Jean Cobut, entrepreneur in residence at Newfund Capital.

    Lever VC managing partner Nick Cooney added. “We’ve been tracking and investing across the global cultivated meat sector since the first such company launched eight years ago, and we haven’t seen anyone come remotely close to Clever Carnivore’s astoundingly low current cost of production, a testament to the company’s phenomenal science.”

    Clever Carnivore’s R&D is headed by co-founder Paul Burridge, who has over 20 years of research experience in cell line development and growth media optimisation. The company has been able to optimise its growth media to support its unique cell lines, achieving a significant reduction in cell culture media costs – “one to two orders of magnitude lower than any other cultivated meat company globally”.

    “Paul’s experience with cell line development and low-cost media, coupled with Clever Carnivore’s cells’ superior growth performance in animal component-free media, places Clever Carnivore in a unique position to rapidly iterate and evolve their production processes and product formulation in a cost- and time-efficient manner,” said Subodh Gupta, partner at Valo Ventures.

    Speaking to the Chicago Business Journal last year, Rangos explained: “We have what amounts to – at this point – a $10 burger, and as we continue to scale, we’ll bring that cost down considerably. We’re hoping to eventually get — and we think this is quite practical — to a $1 burger, essentially.”

    This is crucial, given that cultivated meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be price-competitive with traditional meat, according to Reuters. And while players in this space have been able to cut production costs by 99% in less than a decade, analysis by McKinsey has found that it will still take until 2030 for it to reach price parity with animal-derived meat.

    This is a challenge Clever Carnivore’s investors believe it is primed to overcome. “What was missing up to now was the technology to make products that will provide the same taste and nutrition as meat from farmed animals, and at a truly competitive price,” said Thia Ventures managing partner Bart Van Hooland. “Clever Carnivore has what it takes to bridge that gap, and they move very fast.”

    Chicago’s growing importance as alt-protein hub

    lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Clever Carnivore

    The producer, which unveiled a 4,200 sq ft square-foot facility at Chicago’s Lincoln Park, will use the new funds to relocate to a larger plant by the end of the year. This will allow it to scale up production of its “low-cost, top-quality” meat with 500-litre bioreactors and add in test kitchens, with the company saying its growth has “already surpassed the capacity” of its inaugural lab.

    Chicago – historically a meatpacking capital in the US – has recently seen a flurry of alt-protein activity to make the city a pioneer for protein diversification. This is a trend being seen across the state of Illinois, where the iFAB Tech Hub, which works on precision fermentation crops like soy and corn, was named one of 31 new Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs by the Biden-Harris administration. Most notably, the Greater Chicago area is home to the new 187,000 sq ft large-scale manufacturing facility being built by cultivated meat pioneer Upside Foods.

    Upside had chosen to locate its factory here due to the region’s legacy in meat production, a shared commitment to innovation and sustainability, strategic geographical advantages (it’s situated at a major transportation crossroads), and its talented workforce. “This new facility is a significant investment in our communities – creating new good-paying jobs while advancing our ambitious clean energy goals to create a more sustainable future,” Illinois governor JB Pritzker said about Upside’s under-construction plant.

    Upside is also one of only two companies (alongside Eat Just) to have received regulatory approval from the USDA for the sale of cultivated meat. This is a path all cultured meat producers will need to take, including Clever Carnivore. Rangos, who herself is a vegetarian, hopes the company can be part of the solution to the food system’s biggest challenges.

    “It sounds funny on the face of it, but it makes all the sense in the world because there are a lot of problems with the current factory farming industry, one being [the] use of resources, and two the ethical treatment of animals,” she told the Chicago Business Journal. “I think there are a lot of vegetarians who would be interested in solving some of these problems.”

    cultivated sausage
    Courtesy: Meatable

    The cultivated meat sector is a burgeoning market with over 156 companies globally and investment of $2.9B since 2014, according to alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute. The category raised nearly $900M in 2022 but has faced a slowdown thanks to the global decline in food tech funding. But it has been boosted by the recent regulatory approvals in the US, which followed Eat Just’s maiden clearance in Singapore back in 2020.

    A number of companies are working on cultivated pork – most pertinently, Singapore-based Meatable, which has filed for approval in Singapore to do the same in the US, in preparation for the launch of its hybrid (part-cultivated, part-plant-based) pork sausage in 2024. Other players include Czech startup Mewery, UK-based Uncommon and Ivy Farm Technologies, China’s Joes Future Food Tech and CellX, and Australian producer Magic Valley, among others.

    The post Cell-Cultured Bratwurst: Clever Carnivore Raises $7M to Scale Up Production of ‘Low-Cost’ Cultivated Pork appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • what is hybrid meat
    9 Mins Read

    While still a niche category, an increasing number of brands are working with blended and hybrid meats – some nascent startups, others established meat producers. Funding is critical if this sector is to grow and reach its potential, but how do investors and VCs feel about these protein solutions?

    This article is part of our content series exploring the world of hybrid and blended meat products – those blending cultivated or conventional proteins with plant-based ingredients, respectively, and why some think this is the future of reducing meat consumption.

    In October, Andrew Arentowicz, founder and CEO of blended meat company 50/50 Foods, told me: “Our investors are very bullish on our potential.”

    It’s a statement that has stuck with me, especially since later interviews we’ve done for this series about blended and hybrid meats have featured a similar rhetoric. “We’ve found investors – including those who are strongly anti-meat – are committed to the welfare of the planet and animals and see the blended solution as an immediate and achievable means of reducing meat consumption,” offered blended meat ingredients provider Mush Foods’ founder Shalom Daniel.

    Meanwhile, hybrid meat producer SciFi Foods has raised over $40M in funding, after emerging from stealth with a $22M Series A last year. Newer brands are adding to the category – cellular agriculture expert Parendi Birdie just this week announced her blended meat startup to the world, while Paul’s Table has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding.

    This has come on the backdrop of a global drop in food tech VC funding over the last year. “In the current economic environment, fundraising is not only challenging for companies in the hybrid space, but across all of the food tech industry,” ProVeg International’s cellular agriculture lead Julia Martin recently told me.

    So we at Green Queen were curious: in a more volatile environment than usual, and a category that is confident about its funding potential, how do investors see it? We spoke to Steve Molino, principal at Florida-based Clear Current Capital, and Heather Courtney, general partner at New York-headquartered Alwyn Capital.

    Their views highlighted the often contrasting opinions among investors, and a need for consolidation and enhanced value propositions on the part of blended and hybrid meat startups. Here’s what they had to say.

    This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.

    hybrid meat investors
    Courtesy: Anisha Sisodia/Phil’s Finest

    Green Queen: Do you believe blended meat has potential as a food systems solution?

    Steve Molino – YES: I’m very bullish on blended meat as one of the many food system solutions if it’s done right. ‘Done right’, to me, means blending conventional meat with plants in a way that won’t make consumers think twice. This means using natural plant ingredients and spices and avoiding unrecognisable ingredients that give people pause. If consumers think it’s simply meat and plants combined, and realise it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice on taste or experience, then the potential is legitimate.

    Heather Courtney – NO: Blended has been tried before and the market wasn’t ready for it. We have asked a lot of omnivores in our circle, and none of them are overly excited about a blended product – they would prefer to make a periodic plant-based option to reap the health benefits of integrating more plants into their diet. We are not overly bullish on blended, but we hope to be proved wrong and see it reduce meat consumption.

    GQ: Is hybrid meat a viable option?

    HC – YES: Hybrid meat is how cultivated will enter the market on a broad scale, so we see this as a meaningful food systems solution. Technology that revolutionises a long-standing industry will always face pressure, and the cultivated industry is no different. Despite negative press, we are still bullish on the cultivated meat industry, and we see hybrid technology as a means of entry into the broader market.

    SM – UNCLEAR: Hybrid meat’s viability is still tied to the overall viability of the cultivated space, which has many question marks. I view hybrid meat as both a long-term solution and a short- to medium-term necessity. In the long term, I think it could be viewed in the same vein as blended meat products, but in the short term, it’s likely the only way to make cultivated commercially feasible… as the chances of being able to economically produce 100% cultivated products that can compete on price with commoditised meat are slim to none in the next 10+ years.

    Hybrid products will allow the cultivated market the chance to build and become normalised with consumers, while also – importantly – generating the revenues and business necessary to keep dollars flowing into the space, so scale can be further achieved.

    blended meat
    Courtesy: SciFi Foods

    GQ: What is more attractive to you as an investor, blended or hybrid meat?

    SM – UNCLEAR: It depends on what’s driving an investor’s strategy. Blended meat companies should only be interesting to true CPG investors attracted by CPG business profiles and fundamentals. Alternatively, I think hybrid products are attractive to investors who have a deep interest in synthetic biology and trying to radically change the way meat is produced in the future. The latter has blatantly more risks and hurdles to overcome, but the perceived potential upside is greater.

    Regardless, one key commonality between both approaches is that they have the ability to radically improve the impact of the food system on the planet, people and animals.

    HC – NO: As investors who see the long-term health of our planet tied to transitioning away from relying on animals, blended products offer a novel short-term solution, but not a long-term goal.

    GQ: Is the animal welfare aspect a dealbreaker for you when it comes to blended meat?

    SM – NO: Blended meat is a bit controversial with some in the animal welfare space; however, it is an unequivocal win for animals. This undeniable win stems from the fact that impact is only created by getting people who eat meat to shift away from meat products. Since a vegan or vegetarian would never touch a blended product, that means every time a blended product is consumed, there is guaranteed displacement of animal demand that’s directly tied to the percentage of a blended product that is not meat.

    The risk with fully vegan products is that when a vegan or vegetarian eats it, there is zero displacement of animal agriculture. For impact, it’s all about what meat-eaters want, and if this satiates them, while reducing meat consumption, then I’ll take that win all day.

    HC – YES: Our mission is to see animals fully replaced in the consumer supply chain. As such, we won’t invest in a company that utilises slaughtered animal protein in their products so blended companies are not part of our portfolio construction.

    GQ: How would you evaluate a blended or hybrid meat company from an investor’s perspective?

    SM: I’d view a blended meat company solely through a CPG investing lens, so I’d be looking to understand how the product offering of conventional meat and plants is hitting on a consumer need that exists in the present day, and how the team is the right one to create a brand that drives strong traction and consumer loyalty. Tech or IP isn’t what will lead to a brand being successful; instead, it’s all about creating a great product that’s positioned to create a cult-like following with consumers.

    I don’t think of evaluating ‘hybrid meat companies’. I see this as evaluating cultivated companies that will likely need to have hybrid products for the short to medium term to be commercially feasible. For these types of companies, technical and scientific capabilities (i.e., IP) are paramount, as well as the team that drives innovation on the tech and science, as the only way cultivated has a shot at becoming one of the solutions in the food system is if it can scale and prices drop dramatically. That will almost entirely be driven by tech and IP that are different from what exists and built with the purpose of scaling.

    HC: Many of the cultivated companies we have invested in/have diligenced are pursuing a hybrid offering as their first product. We see these products as the way cultivated meat can enter the broader market at a competitive price and prove market fit.

    cultivated meat tasting
    Cultivated meat company Meatable is planning to launch its pork via a hybrid model | Courtesy: Meatable

    GQ: Do you think there’s consumer demand for these products?

    SM – THERE WILL BE: At the moment, no… because consumers don’t know it’s an idea. In the few instances where I’ve shared blended products with friends and family to gauge their interest (I don’t eat meat myself), the responses were overwhelmingly enthusiastic; however, that was for one specific company’s product that had its own approach to blended products.

    Ultimately, I think demand can be quickly created as the space becomes a topic of interest for consumers, especially since many of these products will be able to hit on product attributes that consumers actually care about, such as fewer calories, eating more vegetables, and lessened health concerns around meat-heavy diets.

    HC – NO: Previous failure of blended products to capture the market share shows there is work to be done and the consumer is likely not yet ready. There needs to be a strong focus on educating consumers about their benefits and unique qualities.

    There also needs to be a strong focus on educating consumers about cultivated meat and how hybrid products can provide both health and environmental benefits.

    GQ: Is lack of education/demand creation why previous efforts have failed?

    HC – YES: Many consumers may not have been adequately informed or educated about the benefits and qualities of blended products. Successful marketing requires educating the consumer about their health and environmental benefits, which can be a significant hurdle.

    SM – NOT NECESSARILY: While some have failed (i.e., Tyson’s blended products), Perdue’s Chicken Plus products continue to be a strong seller in the market. I think this simply comes down to building a CPG product in the right way. Blended products are for the here and now, and you can’t make this about technology or saving the planet.

    When you look at Perdue’s offering, it talks about getting kids to eat veggies without having to sneak it in. They are clear on their target market – parents who are dying to figure out how to get their kids to eat vegetables – state a clear value proposition, and stay true to the format and offering their target market wants and needs (quick, convenient, frozen chicken nuggets for a reasonable price). Assuming that blended companies can create products that taste good, it will simply come down to traditional food business fundamentals.

    good meat china chilcano
    Courtesy: Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro/GOOD Meat

    GQ: Is foodservice a better way to enter the market for these products?

    HC – YES: Ensuring a positive first customer experience is key to creating customer acceptance and trust.

    SM – IT DEPENDS: That’s more dependent on the specifics of the product itself and the founders pushing the companies forward. If a founder has a background in building brands and deep relationships with distributors and retailers and has a product that doesn’t need much hand-holding during preparation, then retail is the obvious choice.

    On the flip side, if there is more nuance to the product in how it’s prepared or used, and the founder doesn’t have strengths in brand building, then retail would likely be a disaster.

    Interested in exploring blended and hybrid meats further? Read our coverage on the subject and interviews with founders here.

    The post Blended & Hybrid Meat: Why Investors are Divided About Using Animal Proteins as an Ingredient appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • future food quick bites
    6 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a vegan deviled egg launch, cultivated meat approval guidance in the UK, and several developments from Californian businesses.

    New products and launches

    Singapore-headquartered TiNDLE Foods continues its aggressive expansion drive with a new foodservice partnership with UK sushi chain YO! Sushi, which will see two limited-edition dishes (a bao and fried chicken) appear in over 50 locations until the end of the year.

    yo sushi vegan
    Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods

    More expansion news, this time from Hong Kong vegetarian eatery Treehouse, which is gearing up to launch its fourth and fifth locations at the Kai Tak Airside shopping complex (December 4) and in Tsim Tsa Shui (December 5), respectively.

    Another upcoming restaurant is Nic Adler’s Italian diner Argento in Los Angeles, whose investors include pop megastars Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas (who are both vegan). Opening in winter 2024, the kitchen will be headed by Scott Winegard, former deputy of celebrity chef Matthew Kenney.

    planetarians
    Courtesy: Planetarians

    Fellow Californian business Planetarians is presenting its waste-to-food plans and products at Dubai’s COP28, which will begin tomorrow. Its CEO Aleh Manchuliantsau will be part of a panel on December 1, and the brand will have a booth at the Tech and Innovation Hub from December 8-12.

    One more brand from California, hemp-based meat maker Planet Based Foods is expanding its footprint in the state, partnering with New Leaf Community Markets and Lunardi’s Markets, which will house several of its company’s products starting next month.

    Over in Texas, vegan egg company Crafty Counter has launched a deviled egg SKU in collaboration with Fabalish‘s faba bean mayo. The limited-edition product comes in a tray filled with the former’s WunderEgg half egg white shells, and a sachet of pre-made deviled egg filling.

    vegan deviled eggs
    Courtesy: Crafty Counter

    Elsewhere, in Malaysia, GoodMorning Global has unveiled a “complete-nutrition” plant-based meat dry mix under the brand name WonderMeat. The soy and pea protein blend has been listed in the Malaysia Book of Records and will retail at RM5.50 ($1.18) for each pack, which makes about 200-240g of wet mix.

    The UK, meanwhile, has seen the launch of Herbie Wilde, a plant-based hypoallergenic alternative superfood for dogs. The vegan pet food contains 39 ingredients, including sweet potato, fruits, greens, ancient grains, herbs, and botanicals.

    Across Europe, DSM-Fonterra-backed Dutch B2B ingredients startup Vivici has collaborated with Boston-based cell programming firm Gingko Bioworks to develop and commercialise animal-free functional alt-dairy proteins from precision fermentation.

    South Korean vegan cheese brand Armored Fresh, meanwhile, has expanded into conventional and natural grocery stores in the US, including Fresh Thyme Market, Town and Country Foods and Fred Meyer – months after first launching its almond milk American cheese stateside.

    vegan shrimp
    Courtesy: Vegan FInest Foods

    Also in the Netherlands, plant-based seafood brand Vegan Zeastar has added a Crispy Coconut Shrimpz SKU to its lineup of potato-based shrimp analogues, which will be on sale from December 4.

    And in Austria, Rewe Group’s Billa retail chain is ramping up its plant-based portfolio, with a new superstore featuring a dedicated vegan aisle – this will be expanded to 20 existing stores across the country.

    Finance and markets

    Swedish seitan startup Edgy Veggie – which makes kebabs, tacos and souvlaki – has reportedly raised $200,000 at about a $250,000 pre-money valuation, according to the FoodTech Weekly newsletter.

    Berlin-based microalgae startup Quazy Foods has brought in €800,000 in a pre-seed funding round, which involved ProVeg International, Antler, and Sprout and About Ventures.

    Hello Plant Foods, a Spanish vegan foie gras maker, expects to sell 110,000 units of its product during the holiday season – almost four times its figures last year.

    beyond steak
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    One brand that isn’t selling as well is plant-based giant Beyond Meat, which has experienced sales declines for months now. But it still has enough money to get through the next couple of years (and possibly more with further cost-cutting), according to John Baumgartner, managing director at analyst Mizuho Securities, who told AFN it’s hard to sense what will happen.

    Another giant that has faced challenges is Hong Kong-based alt-milk company Vitasoy, which saw a 7% decline in annual revenue, driven by hurdles in its main plant milk markets, Australia and New Zealand (where revenue dropped 10%). But the company remains positive that its strong Asia performance – particularly with soy milk and tea – will help it bounce back.

    Research and policy developments

    Staying in the alt-dairy realm for a second, a student in Los Angeles – who wasn’t allowed to promote soy milk in her high school without doing the same for dairy – has won a lawsuit against her school, which ruled that students have a right to non-disruptive speech critical of dairy under the 1st Amendment.

    Meanwhile, a study published in the Appetite journal has revealed that repeated consumption of plant-based meat doesn’t improve consumer liking of those products – it’s the context of what meals they were used in that really matters.

    A little left field, but Minneapolis-based plant-based food and drinks manufacturer SunOpta is celebrating its 50-year anniversary. It has invested over $200M in its production capacity in the last three years to double its business.

    Elsewhere, consumer finance website Little Loans has revealed that Lidl is the cheapest supermarket to buy a vegan-friendly Christmas dinner in the UK this year, costing £8.83 for nine items. The most expensive – no surprise – was M&S at £16.8.

    vegan price parity
    Courtesy: Lidl

    Still in the UK, charity The Food Foundation is calling for mandatory reporting of animal-derived and plant-based proteins by retailers and the out-of-home channel for greater transparency, criticising government inaction on the issue.

    There has been some action for cultivated meat though, with the UK Food Standards Agency publishing guidance on cultivated meat regulatory approval – weeks after it was reported that cultured meat approval could be fast-tracked in the country, following an application from Israel’s Aleph Farms in August.

    Meanwhile, new research by Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat outlines the challenges the industry faces, including scientific ones like manufacturing bottlenecks and non-scientific ones like regulatory approval and consumer acceptance.

    Movers, shakers and awards

    In Germany, mycoprotein startup Nosh.bio has partnered with the Berliner Berg brewery to set up a pilot plant to demonstrate the concept that breweries can co-produce food ingredients whilst brewing beer at the same site.

    plant based milk labelling
    Courtesy: NotCo

    There have been some more changes in the alt-protein corporate world. At Chilean AI-led plant-based company NotCo, CMO Fernando Machado will be transitioning to an advisory role.

    Canadian vegan cheese brand Daiya, meanwhile, has welcomed new CEO Hajime Fujita, who was a VP at its parent company, Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. He replaces Michael Watt, who has held the position since 2019.

    Food tech company MycoTechnology also has new leadership, with Michael Leonard joining as CEO, replacing co-founder Alan Hahn, who will step into the role of executive chairman.

    roots & rolls
    Courtesy: Roots & Rolls

    And finally, in some awards news, Barcelona’s plant-based eatery Roots & Rolls has won the Notable or Innovative Venue Award at the IV Barcelona Hospitality Awards 2023.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Deviled Eggs, Low-Cost Lidl & California Calling appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • blended meat gfi
    8 Mins Read

    As blended and hybrid meats begin to sizzle, Green Queen speaks to alternative protein bodies the Good Food Institute and ProVeg International to get their take on this novel approach to protein diversification.

    This article is part of our content series exploring the world of hybrid and blended meat products – those blending cultivated or conventional proteins with plant-based ingredients, respectively, and why some think this is the future of reducing meat consumption.

    Over the last few weeks, we’ve interviewed founders of various blended and hybrid meat startups, as we explore the potential of this approach. Plant-based meats have hit a roadblock in the last year, and cultivated meat is still in its commercial infancy, but – as the myriad reports published on the eve of COP28 next week say – we need to decarbonise fast, and now.

    We’re on track to approach temperatures 3°C higher than pre-industrial levels, which present beyond-catastrophic implications. The global food system is responsible for a third of our greenhouse gas emissions, and meat production itself contributes to 60% of this share. Research suggests that replacing 50% of our meat and dairy intake with plant-based alternatives – which is essentially what blended meat is doing – can halt deforestation and double climate benefits.

    The founders we’ve spoken to underline the potential for blended and hybrid meats as a means of protein diversification, and they are – as you’d expect – highly optimistic. But what do think tanks and sustainable food advocacy platforms think?

    To find out, we spoke to the alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI), the Good Food Institute APAC, and food systems change non-profit ProVeg International, to share their views on blended and hybrid meat. Here’s what they had to say:

    On blended meat acceptance

    GFI says any approach that can get alternative proteins closer to taste and price parity with conventional meat is worth leveraging, and blended meat can support both aspects. Combining pricier plant proteins with conventional meat can achieve comparable markups – but GFI highlights its focus by adding that this could eventually help increase scale to a point where plant-based proteins become cheaper than conventional meat.

    GFI APAC’s managing director Mirte Gosker, meanwhile, added that these gateway products “present an opportunity for legacy food companies to dip their toe in, test the market, and provide a stepping stone towards increased plant-based food consumption” and open up “a lucrative new revenue stream for plant-based ingredient suppliers”.

    But ProVeg has a slightly sterner stance on blended meat. Its cellular agriculture lead Julia Martin said that while the organisation “actively promotes” hybrid meat, it merely “tolerates” blended meat, acknowledging that the latter could be a “possible solution for the time being”.

    hybrid meat proveg
    Courtesy: Anisha Sisodia/Phil’s Finest

    On hybrid meat acceptance

    “These combinations have a bigger potential to become sustainable long-term solutions,” Martin says of hybrid meats, adding that they “have a great potential to accelerate and expand consumer transition away from animal-based foods and towards a kinder and more sustainable food system”.

    “Moreover, as cultivated meat technology develops, hybrid products are an impactful first step in creating familiarity among consumers with ingredients produced through this novel technology,” she adds.

    GFI says the argument for hybrid products is similar to that of blended meat, but notes the dynamics are flipped on cost. Most cultivated meat offerings that will come to market in the short-term are likely to be hybrid, in order to provide a more accessible price point- currently, these are very expensive to produce. Cultivated meat can offer similar sensory improvements that conventional meat does in blends.

    Additionally, the think tank believes that using cultivated fat as an ingredient in primarily plant protein products (as companies like Mission Barns are doing) could be especially attractive, as fat is essential for flavour and a meaty mouthfeel.

    On investor support

    “In the current economic environment, fundraising is not only challenging for companies in the hybrid space, but across all of the food tech industry,” notes Martin. “Fortunately, we are starting to see the first cultivated companies apply for regulatory clearance and even hit the market, and hopefully, this will serve as proof of the immense impact that these products are able to deliver and stimulate further confidence into the space.”

    “The blended meat category is still very nascent, so there isn’t much investor data available. So far, it is mostly large-scale food companies that have ventured into offering such products,” says Gosker, pointing to the examples of Perdue FarmsTyson and Hormel.

    Perdue Farms, which used Better Meat Co.‘s mycelium-derived Rhiza protein in its blended meat range, told GFI in its State of the Industry Report 2022 that it has been “extremely successful since launching in 2019”, with new flavours and formats being added to the category.

    Smaller-scale companies have also attracted investor interest: Los Angeles-based blended meat maker Paul’s Table has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding, while San Francisco’s hybrid meat startup SciFi Foods emerged from stealth last year with a $22M Series A round. Andrew Arentowicz, CEO of blended meat company 50/50 Foods Inc (also from LA) – which mixes meat with vegetables – told Green Queen its “investors are very bullish on our potential”. A similar startup, New York-based Phil’s Finest, found success on Shark Tank too.

    Meanwhile, Shalom Daniel, founder of Israeli blended meat producer Mush Foods, told Green Queen: “We’ve found investors – including those who are strongly anti-meat – are committed to the welfare of the planet and animals and see the blended solution as an immediate and achievable means of reducing meat consumption.

    blended meat
    Courtesy: Dan Lev

    On consumer interest

    “As cultivated meat technology develops, hybrid products are an impactful first step in creating familiarity among consumers with ingredients produced through this novel technology,” says Martin.

    To gauge consumer opinion about hybrid meats, ProVeg conducted a UK-wide survey last year, asking 1,000 Brits whether they’d eat these products. A third of respondents said they would, a result ProVeg calls “quite promising, especially given that the vast majority of people are not at all familiar with this novel product category”, though a similar number of people (30%) were unsure about consuming these products, highlighting the need for increased public awareness and familiarity.

    The acceptance for these products was higher among younger generations and men, with about 40% of millennials and Gen Zers expressing interest, versus 32% of Gen Xers and 29% of boomers. Men (39%) are more likely to try these products too (compared to 31% of women). University-educated millennials and Gen Z men are, in general, more open to eating (51%) and buying (47%) hybrid meat.

    GFI says it is planning to conduct its first report on blended meat in the near future. Moreover, an investor who attended GFI’s Good Food Conference 2023 in September told Green Queen the panel on blended meat had a high level of engagement and was much more well attended than in previous years.

    On marketing

    How these products are presented to customers is vital to their success. GFI alludes to this in its State of the Industry report. “Communicating the benefits of blended products to consumers may require nuanced product positioning, as this is a relatively new and subtle category that requires a clear value proposition,” it states. “Targeting the right consumer groups will be critical – for example, parents who want to incorporate more vegetables into their children’s meals.”

    With hybrid meats, Martin says the “trend is definitely focusing on the superior sensory attributes” provided by hybrid products – especially those composed of plant-based proteins with cultivated fats ( as GFI mentioned above). “These products are likely to be initially marketed as premium, but that’s just natural in early adoption cycles for any novel category.”

    GFI APAC’s Gosker adds: “Non-meat ingredients such as meat extenders, starches and binders have long played a role in developing conventional meat products to reduce costs for consumers or add functionality, but the new wave of plant-based innovation offers plenty of room for more strategic integration of higher-quality ingredients that bring added nutritional benefits.

    “If brands select plant-based ingredients that offer advantages such as lower fat and desirable vitamins and nutrients, this could increase the overall health profile of a conventional meat product in a way that is broadly appealing to consumers.”

    Gosker stresses the need for further research to determine where these products need to be shelved in-store, how best to communicate to customers that they contain both animal and plant-based ingredients, how to establish a value proposition for these meats, and which blends perform best in different formats and contexts.

    Paul Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of Better Meat Co (which supplies to Perdue), told Green Queen that blended meat must be marketed as “enhanced meat – something better than a product that’s solely animal meat”. “This is what Perdue does, and its Chicken Plus product has performed well on the market for nearly four years now,” he outlined.

    perdue chicken plus
    Courtesy: Perdue

    On the category’s challenges

    Where next for blends and hybrids? “Consumers across different geographies are excited to try the products,” says Martin, though she warns that early products will have high prices and very limited availability. “However, as the technology evolves, it is expected that costs will decrease making products more accessible, as well as increase their availability.”

    GFI reiterates the hurdles relating to category, product and brand positioning, as well as consumer communication, adding that blended and hybrid meats will need to reach a broader audience of meat-eating consumers to truly fulfil their potential.

    Gosker concurs with Martin’s point about public excitement. “Consumer interest and potential demand for blended meat products are evident – but to grow as a category, [companies] will need to hit the trifecta of achieving price parity, meeting or exceeding consumer expectations on taste and texture, and effectively communicating their benefits over conventional meat,” she explains.

    “Fortunately, blends are positioned to compete well on price, since they offer wide flexibility in ingredient ratios to adjust for taste, texture and cost optimisation. Indeed, some conventional meat producers have even managed to lower their total product costs by integrating plant-based proteins, thereby making their blended products more affordable from a cost-of-goods standpoint than conventional meats.”

    She echoes GFI’s statement about how growing demand for blended meat could ramp up plant protein production, reaching a scale that will close the price gap between animal and plant proteins. GFI, though, envisions a multi-hybrid future. The organisation that named plant-based, cultivated and fermented proteins as the three pillars of the alt-protein category says the lines between these products will blur.

    Each offers unique advantages, and the products most likely to win on taste and price would ideally leverage the best of all of these platforms. For example, a meat alternative composed primarily of plant proteins, a dash of cultivated fat and key flavour-boosting ingredients like fermentation-derived heme proteins, perhaps? Could be a winning formula for early actors in this space!

    The post Blended & Hybrid Meat: What Do Sustainable Protein Policy Advocates Think? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 7 Mins Read

    We speak to Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick about recent concerns around the Californian food tech’s financial health and what the future looks like for cultivated meat.

    Eat Just, the Californian food tech that makes the JUST Egg plant-based egg and owns the cultivated chicken company GOOD Meat, is facing allegations about its financial health.

    The same day Tetrick was named in the TIME100 Climate list last week – a roundup of the most influential business leaders and the only alternative meat founder to be included – the company was cited in a Wired article that alleged it is facing several financial and legal challenges.

    In September, Bloomberg reported that Eat Just received $16M in capital injection from existing investor VegInvest/Ahimsa Foundation and suggested that the company was facing a cash crunch. According to Bloomberg’s reporting, neither side of Eat Just’s business – vegan eggs or cultivated meat – is profitable, and the company has been “unable to pay bills from some of its business partners”, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

    Wired’s reporting alleges that Eat Just – which has raised over $850M in funding from investors including UBS O’Connor, Qatar Investment Authority and Charlesbank Capital Partners – is the subject of at least seven lawsuits since 2019, has failed to pay its bills to multiple parties while continuing to commit to large projects in the meantime and writes that former employees claim that the pressure to achieve industry firsts led to poor financial planning.

    Tetrick painted a different picture via email, telling Green Queen: “Eat Just, Inc. includes both JUST Egg and GOOD Meat, with JUST Egg making up 99.9% of the company’s current revenue. JUST Egg experienced a 173 percentage-point improvement in EBITDA in the first half 2023 vs full year 2022, and an 80 percentage-point improvement in gross margin in the first half 2023 vs full year 2022. Our business plan is on track to achieve break even in 2024, with half of our current SKUs selling at a positive margin today.”

    ‘We feel pressure to scale our impact’

    eat just facility
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    In May 2022, Eat Just said it had teamed up with bioreactor company ABEC to build 10 bioreactors with a 250,000-litre capacity each – much larger than any other cultivated meat company had. This August, ABEC filed a court complaint alleging that the project was set to cost Eat Just north of $1B, and the bioreactor company stood to make over $550M from the partnership.

    ABEC claims Eat Just was failing to make timely payments by the end of 2022, claiming $61M in unpaid invoices by March 2023. The manufacturer is suing Eat Just for over $100M, which also includes payments for changes to the scope of the bioreactor work.

    Wired’s reporting mentioned other lawsuits involving food processor Archer Daniels Midland, lab equipment manufacturer VWR International, and the company’s landlord. Carrie Kabat, Eat Just’s head of communications, told Wired that all these lawsuits have been settled.

    Eat Just is involved in some active lawsuits as well. In September, Clark, Richardson and & Biskup Consulting Engineers said the company owes $4.2M for unpaid work for a cultivated meat project, while food processing firm Pearl Crop filed a lawsuit alleging over $450,000 in unpaid invoices. And in October 2022, food processor Dakota Speciality Milling lodged a legal complaint against the company. The company declined to comment on active litigation.

    “It was a very poorly kept secret that all employees knew about, that we weren’t paying our bills,” one former employee told Wired. One freelance contractor, who was owed $32,000, was allegedly only paid after they posted about their non-payment situation on social media.

    In response to the above, Tetrick told Green Queen: “We felt, and still do feel, pressure to scale our impact – for the people, animals, and planet we serve.” Asked about the allegations around non-paid vendors, he repeated the statement he made to Wired: “The vast majority of our vendors throughout the company’s history have been paid on time and in full. At the same time, we recognise that if even one vendor is not paid on time and in full, it’s not acceptable and it’s on us to make it right.”

    ‘Focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan’

    just egg
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Eat Just says it is no longer working on the ABEC bioreactor deal, or the large-scale cultivated meat facility they were going to be housed in. “At the heart of our large-scale programme was an assumption that we would continue to raise capital for that large-scale facility,” Tetrick told Wired. “That did not happen.”

    Speaking about this, Tetrick told Green Queen: “In the past few years we have invested a lot of capital in the design and engineering for a large-scale cultivated meat facility, knowing we would have to raise additional capital to complete the rest of the facility. Because of market conditions, we found ourselves in a position where it became very challenging to raise that additional capital. At this point, we’re re-assessing how we think about a large-scale facility in a more realistic way – which will still be very challenging.

    He told Wired that GOOD Meat will shift focus towards finding ways to build cultivated meat facilities that cost less than $200M. “The reality for us now is we need to figure out a way to build large-scale facilities without spending north of half a billion dollars, because it’s simply not viable long-term,” Tetrick said. “There has to be a better way of doing it. And if we can’t figure out a different way of doing it, then what we’re doing won’t work.”

    Looking ahead, Tetrick says the company is focused on revenue generation and profitability. “We own 90%+ of one of the fastest-growing categories in alt-protein and sell to millions of consumers – this having only created the category a few years ago,” he tells Green Queen. “JUST Egg, today, is available in more locations than ever before, the product is [of] higher quality than ever before, and we are selling at better margins than ever before. On the GOOD Meat side, we are the first company in the world to receive and sell cultivated meat, and one of only two that have sold cultivated meat in the United States.”

    He adds: “Overall, we are focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan (i.e., cover operating costs through margin dollars) and serving our customers. If we execute, the company and its missions win. It’ll be challenging and hard – and it’s up to us to get it done.”

    ‘I hope to be leading the company for a long time’

    josh tetrick
    GOOD Meat at Cop27 | Courtesy: Eat Just

    Some ex-employees question whether he’s the right person to lead the company moving forward, calling his leadership “impulsive and dogmatic” and giving his management a “failing grade”. One staffer alleged he had a “very non-collaborative working style” that can make some uncomfortable.

    But others, according to Wired’s reporting which cited multiple sources, praised Tetrick’s ability to fundraise and effectively communicate his ideas. One former staffer added: “Josh never gives up, and I’m sure he’s doing everything he can to bring that round in” and with another concurring that Tetrick “really does believe in the mission”.

    In a podcast episode recorded with Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras earlier this year, Tetrick acknowledged that scaling cultivated meat is hard, but he remains undeterred. “One might say it’s too hard to scale as well, and when I hear that criticism, my answer is it’s really hard to scale it up, but ‘really hard’ is different than ‘impossible’ to scale up,’” he said. “So, it requires a ton of investment, time, energy and technical knowledge to scale it up, but it is still very much within the realm of what is possible to do, it is just a big technical and epic capital challenge.”

    Tetrick said his ultimate goal is advancing cultivated protein, adding he wants “to do everything I can, through the people that we hire, technology that I’m pushing, capital that I’m raising, interviews that I’m giving, to increase the probability that cultivated meat as the main source of meat in the food industry happens sooner”.

    Asked what his vision of success is, he told Figueiras: “Even though it is really hard, even when there’s only trying, even though it can be really frustrating, even though it can make you nauseous sometimes, I feel that to be useful, to feel like you’re doing everything you can to try and increase the likelihood of something so good happening- that’s what I want, and I hope to be doing this leading the company for a long time. This is where I think I could be the most effective.”

    With additional reporting and research by Anay Mridul

    The post Eat Just’s Josh Tetrick On the Company’s Future: ‘Really Hard is Different Than Impossible’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • future food quick bites
    8 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a host of developments for plant-based giants, corporate moves and a vegan meal donation campaign.

    New products and launches

    It’s a big week for big plant-based brands. Let’s start with Beyond Meat, which has extended its partnership with Pizza Hut UK through the launch of its pepperoni in the country, which features in the Big New Yorker and Beyond Pepperoni Feast pizzas, as well as the Beyond Pepperoni Melt.

    beyond meat pizza hut
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    It’s not the only pizza partnership going for Beyond Meat. In the US, it collaborated with vegan frozen brand Blackbird Foods for a relaunched version of the latter’s pepperoni pizza. Blackbird argues that Beyond’s pepperoni is meatier than its original house pepperoni, and the pizza will be available nationwide in retailers including The Fresh Market, Central Market, Earthfare and select Whole Foods stores.

    Fellow Californian plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods has announced that it is the Official Plant-Based Burger of Walt Disney World Resort. The company, which has a fantastic track record for foodservice partnerships, has been working with Disney for three years.

    Staying in this area, Bay Area company Eat Just – another vegan leader – has updated the product packaging for its mung-based JUST Egg. It will begin rolling out at Target and other retailers this month, with nationwide (and Canadian) availability expected by March 2024.

    just egg
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Swedish oat milk leader Oatly has had a busy week too. It has expanded its foodservice footprint with Insomnia Cookies, which will house its 11oz plain and chocolate oat milks across its over 250 locations in the US.

    Meanwhile, in Spain, Better Balance has introduced three veggie burgers with a Nutri-Score A rating. The Huerta (peas, carrots and peppers), Eggplant and Spinach Burgers are available in El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, and Alcampo supermarkets.

    Fellow Spanish brand Cocuus, which debuted its 3D-printed vegan bacon in Carrefour earlier this month, is prepping for a UK launch with the plant-based bacon analogue. Plus, vegan foie gras and tuna are planned for the months to follow.

    In other pig-based meat alternatives news, German meat manufacturer Rügenwalder Mühle is continuing its link-up with fashion photographer Paul Ripke with a cleverly named Paulled Pork snack, which resembles a char siu bao and is part of the brand’s Veganuary campaign.

    Also in Germany, dairy giant Bauer is teaming up with Austrian upcycled food company Kern Tec to launch ZUM GLÜCK!, an alt-dairy brand that leverages the latter’s apricot kernel fat. The milks and yoghurts will be available in January.

    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Over in the UK, vegan yoghurt maker The Coconut Collaborative has joined the plant-based milk world too, with a barista coconut M*LK that it swears froths, doesn’t split, and keeps a neutral flavour. It will initially launch through Ocado, with a wider rollout from January.

    Meanwhile, discount retailer Aldi is reportedly expanding its own-label meatless offerings with a spin-off of its Plant Menu range, called Veggie Menu. Its IP filings have revealed that it will include cheese spreads, vegetarian sausages and quiches.

    Away from retail for a second, London-based cocoa-free chocolate maker WNWN Food Labs has launched wholesale packs of its dark and vegan milk chocolates for bakeries, restaurants/foodservice, confectionery groups, and CPG/FMCG companies globally – something the brand hinted at in an interview with Green Queen in August.

    Fresh off its first national TV campaign with Grace Dent – where it pointedly hit home on the health aspect of its vegan chicken – British plant-based brand THIS has updated its chicken pieces with a cleaner label, with a 50% cut in the number of ingredients.

    In more British chicken news, VFC has entered the frozen category with two new SKUs: a plant-based chicken breast and chicken mince, which it claims is first to market. They will initially launch in Morrisons stores, with a wider rollout anticipated in 2024.

    vfc chicken mince
    Courtesy: VFC

    Speaking of mince, Singapore’s Good Health Farm, which debuted the world’s first tempeh beef mince in August, will be launching into 13 Fairprice stores in the city-state, with a sampling campaign, promotional pricing and local celeb chef Forest Leong.

    The tempeh market is fermenting in India too, with Hello Tempayy releasing its new line of shelf-stable, tikka-style marinated tempeh thins in Tandoori, Korean BBQ and Thai Chilli flavours. These are available nationwide via online delivery.

    In Australia, plant protein manufacturer The Harvest B has gained a listing on Woolworths‘ online platform Healthylife, which will stock the former’s locally produced lamb, chicken, beef and pork analogues.

    And in news that will delight plant-based meat fans, Israeli 3D-printed meat producer Redefine Meat is entering European retail after expanding into foodservice footprint to 5,000 locations over the last year and a half. Its retail rollout will begin with the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden.

    Funding and markets

    In Germany, sugar giant Nordzucker will invest €100M ($109.5M) in the production of plant-based proteins, with a new dedicated facility planned for a 2026 opening, which will create around 60 jobs.

    Another Geman company, Kynda, which makes plug-and-play bioreactors and starter cultures for mycelium protein manufacturers, has received a grant from the country’s food and agriculture ministry.

    Similarly, Israeli mycelium meat producer Mush Foods – which provides its ingredient for use in blended meat applications – has been awarded $250,000 in the Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Business Competition.

    In the UK, meat alternatives could account for a third of the nation’s protein market by 2040, according to a report by UK think tank the Social Market Foundation.

    Meanwhile, in Italy, seven agrifood startups have been chosen for the FoodSeed Accelerator, including cocoa-free chocolate maker Foreverland, ozonated oil startup Agreen Biosolutions, and water management service Soonapse.

    Dutch vegan cheese maker Willicroft has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the back of unveiling its plant-based butter, which is made using precise (not precision) fermentation – there’s a difference!

    M&A and corporate moves

    Canada’s Protein Powered Farms has acquired Lovingly Made Ingredients, the plant protein extrusion facility built and previously owned by Meatless Farm. It will offer customised protein blends, pea and fava proteins for alt-dairy and snack applications, and pulses-based fibre products, and be open for co-manufacturing opportunities.

    And in the UK, artisanal vegan cheese maker Palace Culture has been acquired by The Compleat Food Group (formerly Winterbotham Darby), which owns fellow plant-based brands Squeaky Bean and Vadasz.

    vegan cheese
    Courtesy: Palace Culture

    This week has also seen quite a few corporate personnel moves in the food world. Jean Madden, who has been the chief marketing officer of TiNDLE Foods for three years, is now the brand’s chief operating officer and has been formally named as a co-founder of the company (she was part of the original 4-person founding team).

    Beyond Meat really is going full-tilt on the health aspects of plant-based meat. It has hired an official nutrition advisor in Joy Bauer, a registered dietitian and host of NBC’s Health & Happiness show and the health and nutrition expert on The Today Show.

    Meanwhile, changes are afloat at Boston food tech firm Motif FoodWorks, whose CEO Dr Mike Leonard has departed and been replaced by industry veteran Brian Brazeau as the company embarks on a fresh round of layoffs.

    Manufacturing, policy and events

    Told you it’s been a busy week for Oatly. Toronto-based food packaging company Ya YA Food Corp. has announced a $92M investment into the expansion of its Business Depot Ogden plant in Utah – this was previously taken over from Oatly as part of the oat milk maker’s ‘asset-light supply chain strategy’, and will keep manufacturing oat milk and expand production for Oatly.

    In Lisbon, biotech company MicroHarvest has opened a pilot plant to accelerate the commercialisation of its biomass-fermented single-cell protein. The 200 sq m plant can churn out 25kg of product per day.

    Swiss equipment manufacturer Bühler has opened a new food innovation hub in Uzwil, Switzerland, which will house four application centres for food, flavour, protein and energy recovery. These will enable the development of processes to produce plant-based meat, drinks and ingredients – among other foods.

    In the UK, while the King’s Speech left out some key social issues, it did include an animal welfare bill that will see the export of livestock for fattening and slaughter permanently banned.

    Speaking of social issues, vegan supplements brand Complement, which has donated one plant-based meal to children in need for each product sold, has announced a no-purchase-necessary campaign through Christmas, where all you need to do is sign up to its emails, and it will donate a meal to kids globally.

    Meanwhile, a study by the University of California, Irvine says monocropping foods like soy, corn and palm for cooking oils are highly detrimental to the climate, and lab-grown fats – take your pick – can save tons of land, water and emissions.

    plant based news
    Courtesy: Sodexo

    To promote more eco-friendly eating, Sodexo hosted its global Sustainable Chef Challenge, where eight of its chefs faced off to create two low-carbon practical dishes that minimised food waste. The winners were its UK and Ireland chef Sharon McConnell and Brazilian chef Ricardo Machado.

    British plant-based meat brand Moving Mountains partnered with food emissions expert Klimato for a life-cycle assessment of its products, and revealed that its burger emits 92% less CO2e than beef.

    As we approach the end of the year, awards season is upon us too. Vegan Women Summit has announced its inaugural VWS Awards to commemorate leaders and organisations accelerating women’s leadership with positive social, planetary and animal welfare impact. There are nine categories – including founder of the year and best place to work – and nominations are open until December 31.

    And finally, Toronto held the 2023 International Vegan Film Festival and Vegan Cookbook Contest last week, with The Smell of Money among the winners in the former category, and PlantYou by Carleigh Bodrug winning in the latter.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Beyond Pizzas, Corporate Movers & Vegan Meal Donations appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • cultivated meat facilities
    6 Mins Read

    The cultivated meat sector is seeing a flurry of activity from startups announcing new production facilities across the globe, as teams work to accelerate the scaling and commercialisation of cell-cultured alternatives to conventional meat.

    A handful of cultivated meat startups have made headlines with news of production plants and facilities across countries like Australia, China, Israel, Singapore, the US and Malaysia, despite recent reporting detailing scaling and funding challenges. A growing number of companies are advancing in their scaling plans with larger-scale factories, pilot plants and demonstration facilities. While some of these are already operational, others are under construction, and others still are at the planning stages, all are continuing to hit milestones and make progress.

    Meatable’s new pilot plant

    meatable
    Courtesy: Meatable

    Dutch cultivated pork producer Meatable is having some year. In August, it nabbed $35M in a Series B round (taking total investment in the company to $95M). In October, it hosted its second cultured meat tasting of the year in Singapore, ahead of a planned 2024 launch. And now, to advance that very plan, it has opened a new pilot facility in its home country.

    Its new pilot plant at the Bio Science Park in Leiden, the Netherlands spans 3,300 sq m (35,521 sq ft), which is double the size of its previous office and lab space. “In our previous location, we were working with 50-litre bioreactors, but here we have the possibility to work with larger bioreactors and therefore produce more product,” Meatable COO Carolien Wilschut told Green Queen last month. The new facility will be able to increase the bioreactor capacity to 200 litres, and potentially 500 litres.

    “This is an important step for us in scaling up,” Wilschut added. The facility will expand Meatable’s ability to test and produce large volumes of cultivated pork in preparation for its foodservice launch next year in Singapore, where it has partnered with contract manufacturer ESCO Aster (the only approved cultured meat manufacturer in Singapore) as well as plant-based meat brand Love Handle to co-produce hybrid meat products.

    The company has already applied for regulatory approval in Singapore – and is also looking into the only other country that has cleared the sale of cultivated meat. “In order to gain regulatory approval in the US, we’re working with the relevant US experts and authorities on this matter – including the US Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture,” co-founder and CEO Krijn de Nood told Green Queen in August.

    On the new Leiden plant, he said: “It is fantastic to see how we have grown from an idea of two entrepreneurs five years ago into a mature company with a tangible product that can transform how we eat meat. In this new facility, we can further scale the company’s processes and accelerate commercial launch.”

    Newform Foods’ demo facility

    newform foods
    Courtesy: Newform Foods

    In South Africa, Newform Foods (formerly Mzansi Meat) – Africa’s first cultivated meat startup – has partnered with engineering giant Project Assignments on a demonstration facility, which is touted to be the largest of its kind in the continent.

    The two companies are collaborating to design a blueprint to introduce Newform Foods’ B2B bioproduction platform globally. This model will enable food producers and retailers to expand their offerings by creating cultivated meat products “without the burden of intensive R&D and associated costs”.

    The demo plant aims to showcase to food businesses how they can incorporate cultivated meat products into their existing facilities, facilitating and curating “a cell line of interest”, developing a prototype, and scaling the process.

    “We want to create an end-to-end service from prototype to pilot and beyond, simplifying the journey from lab to market. We’re excited to be putting our plans into action, working with Project Assignments who are masters of their craft,” said Newform Foods co-founder and CEO Brett Thompson. “This will be an amazing opportunity to show the world what our bioproduction platform can do at scale.”

    Newform Foods – which raised $130,000 in pre-seed funding last year – has already unveiled its cultivated beef burger and lamb meatballs, and plans to create cell-cultured mince, sausages, steaks, chicken and nuggets in the future, with a focus on meat cuts suited to classic African dishes.

    Magic Valley’s co-manufacturing plant

    magic valley
    Courtesy: Magic Valley

    Australia’s first cultured lamb producer, Magic Valley, has expanded into a new pilot facility at bio-innovator and incubator Co-Labs. The company – which debuted its lamb last year, followed by cultivated pork earlier this year – says the facility can help scale production capacity up to 3,000-litre bioreactors and produce up to 150,000kg of product annually.

    “We are excited to embark on this expansion journey at Co-Labs, which will greatly amplify our
    production capacity,” said Magic Valley CEO Paul Bevan, who said the establishment of the pilot plant “also reaffirms our position as a major player on the global stage”.

    “It’s been amazing to witness the growth and development of Magic Valley during their time at Co-Labs and we’re committed to supporting their journey ahead for a more sustainable future,” added Co-Labs co-founder Andrew Gray.

    Magic Valley collaborated with Washington-based Biocellion SPC earlier this year to optimise its production by enhancing its bioreactor design. The company says its cultivated meat products can emissions by reduce 92%, land use by 95%, and water use by 78% compared to their conventional counterparts.

    Omeat’s pilot plant for cost-effective cultivated meat

    omeat
    Courtesy: Omeat

    Los Angeles startup Omeat, which launched from stealth mode in June, has completed the production of its 15,000 sq ft pilot plant. The new facility is part of the startup’s unique vertically integrated approach and can produce up to 400 tons of product annually.

    The plant will deliver essential data and insights for scaling up production and ensuring quality, flavour and safety. Omeat says the completion of the plant will enable it to “demonstrate the intricacies of its process at scale, establishing a clear path for regulatory review and approval”.

    In August, the startup – which raised $40M in an oversubscribed Series A round last year – launched its B2B arm by revealing it has already completed the first commercial sales of its ethical and affordable alternative to fetal bovine serum, Plenty, which is available to purchase for cultured meat producers.

    “We’re pioneering a very unique farm-to-table approach that enables us to create delicious real meat with a fraction of the resources needed to produce conventional meat. It’s a more humane and sustainable way to satisfy the growing global appetite for meat,” said Omeat founder & CEO Ali Khademhosseini. “We remain confident that at scale, Omeat’s prices will be less than conventional meat, providing accessibility to high-quality protein worldwide.”

    Cultivated pioneers face scaling challenges

    It’s not all rosy, though. The only two companies to have earned US regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat – Upside Foods and Eat Just’s GOOD meat, both of whom are working on chicken– both previously announced industrial-scale facilities. The former broke ground on a 187,000 sq ft factory in Glenview, Illinois, which it says can eventually produce 30 million pounds of meat and seafood annually (Upside acquired cultivated seafood company Cultured Decadence in early 2022), while the latter had signed an agreement for a US facility that will house 10 250,000-litre bioreactors, which it says will be capable of making 30 million lbs of meat.

    However, both companies are facing scaling and prouction difficulties. In two separate investigations by Wired, it was revealed that Upside Foods’ chicken served at San Fransico restaurant Bar Crenn wasn’t grown in bioreactors, but rather in non-scalable tiny bottles.

    Similarly, Eat Just is allegedly in legal and financial trouble after failing to pay a number of its vendors, for which it has faced several lawsuits – this includes ABEC, the company commissioned to build those 10 bioreactors. As a result, co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick says the company is no longer working on that bioreactor deal, or the facility they were meant to be housed in.

    The post Cultivating the Future: A Wave of Cell-Cultured Meat Facilities are Popping Up Across the Globe appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • time climate 100
    4 Mins Read

    Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just and its cultivated meat subsidiary GOOD Meat, has been named in the inaugural TIME100 Climate list of influential business leaders – the only person from the alternative protein industry to be chosen.

    TIME describes its newly-debuted TIME100 Climate list as “an argument for how we see the future”, asserting that climate progress will come from “engagement with and leadership by the business world”. It published the inaugural list yesterday, with famous names ranging from Stella McCartney and Bill Gates to Billie Eilish and Coldplay.

    Tetrick, whose California-based company is the maker of plant-based Just Egg (famous for its vegan liquid egg and frozen vegan egg patty) and the parent of cultivated meat entity GOOD Meat, is the only leader from this sector to be named as one of the 100 most influential climate pioneers in the world.

    Tetrick was recognised for his company’s efforts to bring the world’s first cell-cultured meat to market – in Singapore three years ago – and for being one of the only two companies to be approved by the USDA to sell cultivated meat in the United States.

    “I think individuals can make the choice to solve one part of our climate challenge by choosing to eat in a way that causes less harm,” Tetrick told TIME. “Less harm to themselves and to the planet. And this choice doesn’t require one dollar of new spending or any food technology company like ours to make cultivated or plant-based meats. It just takes an awareness of the problem and a will to take agency to solve it.”

    Food accounts for a third of all global emissions, and meat is responsible for 60% of that share. Cultivated meat can emit 92% fewer emissions than conventional beef, reduce meat-production-related air pollution by 94%, and require 90% less land, according to peer-reviewed research.

    lab grown meat fda approval
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Why the Eat Just founder made the TIME100 Climate list

    The TIME100 Climate list was compiled after months of research and vetting by the magazine’s climate action platform TIME CO2. Its six-person team prioritised nominees from five systems crucial to change, aligning with scientific and economic consensus: energy, nature, finance, culture and health.

    TIME CO2 valued measurable and scalable achievements over commitments and announcements, favouring more recent action. “The inaugural TIME100 Climate list produced no single perfect instance of complete climate action, but multitudes of individuals making significant progress in fighting climate change by creating business value,” wrote TIME CO2’s Marcius Extavour.

    Asked what sustainability effort he hopes would gain more mainstream popularity over the next year, Tetrick said that while the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is paramount, so too is a shift away from the factory farming of billions of animals as a primary food source.

    “That system causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined, and it’s getting worse every day. The effort is a simple one: choose to eat foods – mostly plant-based – that cause less harm to our planet,” he explained.

    In response to a question asking about why climate tech isn’t getting enough attention, Tetrick unsurprisingly highlighted cultivated meat. “We believe that making meat without the large-scale slaughter of animals requires new technologies, including cultivating meat from a single cell and turning that into meat through a process of feeding and culturing those cells in vessels, similar to brewing beer,” he noted.

    “The need for more funding, more attention and more government”

    good meat
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Tetrick added: “Cultivating meat is in its early days, and more attention and funding are needed to accelerate its rise to the top of the system of meat production.” It’s a point he touched upon on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in September, the Eat Just founder told host and Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras that he wished infrastructure could be built faster, for which more capital is necessary.

    “If you had instead of hundreds of millions, you had hundreds of billions, you would go faster,” he said. “You could build infrastructure faster, you could design and engineer the vessels. You could hire more people, you could accelerate research and development.” This additional capital, he stated, could come from both private and public funding, with Tetrick noting that he agrees that more money, attention and government support would accelerate this industry.

    GOOD Meat has been recognized on multiple ‘best of’ lists including as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies,” Entrepreneur’s “100 Brilliant Companies,” CNBC’s “Disruptor 50” and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. JUST Egg has been named among Popular Science’s “100 Greatest Innovations” and Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” and the history-making debut of GOOD Meat was heralded as one of 2020’s top scientific breakthroughs by The Guardian, Vox and WIRED.

    The post Plant-Based Egg & Cultivated Chicken Exec Josh Tetrick is The Only Alt Protein Founder Included On TIME100’s First Climate List appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 35 Mins Read

    The below conversation is the transcript of the fourth episode of the podcast miniseries Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers featuring George Peppou, founder and CEO of Vow, interviewed by show host Sonalie Figueiras. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

    In the fourth episode of Green Queen in Conversation – Cultivated Meat Pioneers, Sonalie Figueiras talks to George Peppou, the CEO of Australian startup Vow. Peppou is one of the most compelling leaders in the cultivated meat space today because his vision for the future of food is so unique. This is evident in everything his company does, from the animals Vow is choosing to cultivate to how his team approaches branding and marketing.

    During our chat, we talked about how he thinks about the future of cultivated meat, THAT mammoth meatball, why he’s doing this and who he’s doing it for, and whether cultivated meat will one day be a mass product. George is so utterly committed to what he’s doing that when you’re listening to him, it’s hard not to believe that he’s going to change the way we eat for the better. So here goes.

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Hi, George. Great to have you here. Thanks for being a guest on our podcast. I’ve been watching everything you’ve been doing in the space and I’m excited to talk to you about cultivated meat, including what the industry is doing, and where we are going from here. I really want to start with this idea of exotic meats. You are working with zebras, alpaca, buffalo, and crocodile cells. Why exotic meats? Why not the basics like beef or pork?

    George Peppou: It’s a great question. It’s one that I get asked quite a lot. The very short answer is I love eating meat. I eat meat. I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian. When I think about how can I change the behavior of people like me, like my family, it’s not going to be by making something which approximates the meat we eat today, that’s a very hard sell for people that already have integrated meat into their diets and have no intention of changing that. So, then the question is, how do you change the behavior of a few billion meat eaters that have no interest in changing their diet?

    I believe the way that we do that is we have to make foods that are better than the meat that we can get today: tastier, more nutritious, offering functionality that animals can’t. So, the goal for us within the world of cultured meat is how do we identify the cells from across all of nature, that are the cheapest to grow, the tastiest, the most nutritious, and offer the best functionalities as food.

    The probability of those coming from animals that we traditionally consume is extremely low. So, from the very beginning, we’ve taken this approach of exploring nature, working across a range of different species, like many of the ones you mentioned, with the view of: how do we see these cells as ingredients, as part of future foods? I don’t believe we’re going to be thinking about meat and animals the way we do today even in 50 years. Instead, I think we’re going to view meat as branded products that may contain cells from multiple different species to achieve the qualities of those brands. So, that’s really what we’ve been building up to, by building this cell library exploration, and trying to answer some foundational questions about, such as: why do some cells taste the way they do? Why do some cells have the nutrition they do?

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s really interesting. I was interviewing somebody in the plant-based seafood space today, and they had a very similar take around it, you know, this idea that we need to create new formats, new products. So, for you, you’re seeing a future where some kind of protein format that we could eat could have multiple animal cells in there. So, the idea is not to just recreate crocodile or zebra meat.

    George Peppou: Not at all. So, one way that I think about this is if you went back to 150 years ago, standing around in the 1880s, and you try to grab someone off the street and explain to them what a Cheerio is when they’ve only ever bought and consumed grains as a simple transformation of one grain… trying to explain what a Cheerio is, how it’s made, why you’d eat it, it would be impossible.

    I think the same thing is going to be true 50 years from now with meat. We’re going to think about meat, and we’re going to buy meat purely as branded products, and whatever components we need to use to create the sensory experience or whatever functions that product provides, we’re going to do that. We’re going to view it as something which has a sensory experience and a reason to purchase it because you’ve had it before, and because you know about it and have integrated it into your lifestyle.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, that’s quite a different mission than some of the other players in the space, who are trying to recreate, let’s say, a chicken breast.

    George Peppou: That sale has been quite different. I was having a bit of a debate with someone online, which is always a dangerous thing to do, and their argument was, with limited capital going into the space, why should any of it go towards weird stuff? My argument is kind of the exact opposite, which is with limited capital going into the space, is allocating 99% of it or 98% of it to replicating beef, chicken, pork, tuna and salmon the best way to change the behaviour of a few billion people? I see what we’re doing as a hedge against how behaviour change is going to happen. If we’re right, and everyone else is wrong, then it’s going to really matter that we exist, but we can also be right alongside all the companies that are making beef, chicken and pork, and together, we can be tackling different parts of that behaviour change problem for different segments of consumers.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay, so let me ask you a follow-up question: What do most people get wrong about cultivated meat itself and about the science of cultivated meat?

    George Peppou: Oh, that’s a really good question. I think there’s a lot of general misinformation and misinterpretation about what it is technically. There’s a well-known skeptic, who posts a lot and publishes a lot on this, a guy called Paul Wood from Melbourne, Australia, and I remember, after Paul Wood popped up in some very critical articles, I reached out. We had a chat, and he said something to me that stuck with me: “Oh, this is not a question of technical feasibility, the technology absolutely works. I’ve worked in large-scale cell culture my whole career.” 

    So, I think there’s a belief that the large-scale cell culture is fundamentally novel and a fundamentally new technology, but it’s not. What we’re trying to do is take very well-established technology, and do it at a larger scale with lower cost and with less human labor and effort than it’s ever been done before. So, while there are certainly scientific challenges and there’s not any foundation or manufacturing, we’re not trying to do anything that hasn’t been done before. So, I think that’s the main foundational misunderstanding, that this is a crazy, new frontier invention. There is a little bit of that, but that’s not what this industry takes to get food on people’s plates.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s interesting, and yeah, I know who you’re referring to because he’s actually one of the board members for cellular agriculture in Australia, I think.

    George Peppou: Absolutely, yes.

    Sonalie Figueiras: There are different opinions in the space, but why don’t we kind of bring it down to a really basic level: how would you explain cultivated meat to a six-year-old or an eight-year-old?

    George Peppou: [laughter] Oh, that’s a really good question. I was trying to explain this to my friend’s four-year-old on the weekend and failed…

    Sonalie Figueiras: I was gonna say four years old because I have a four-year-old, and then I thought it was a bit of a high bar[laughter].

    George Peppou: Yeah, with a four-year-old, I got about 30 seconds and she got bored and started watching Bluey. So I did my best, but I failed [laughter]. However, if it was a six to eight-year-old, I would start by saying the meat that you’re eating is how animals grow, and all we do is take some parts of animals and grow them outside of an animal, which is really as simple as you can get. Then we feed the cells that we’re growing, we feed the bits of the animal that we’re growing, the things that they directly need to grow the sugars, the salts, the amino acids, all the bits and pieces they need to grow, and then when we grow enough of them, we take those out, and we put them on your plate. That would be the simplest version of it, and I can hear my process engineers screaming in pain from the side – “They’re not mentioning all of the details and the sterility requirements!” However, at its simplest, it’s just taking those cells that you’d find in meat and growing them outside of an animal.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That does feel simple and accessible. And from what your answer to the previous question in terms of the science, we have it. Yet, it feels like a new frontier to most people, right?

    George Peppou: Yes, absolutely. It’s a very new way of thinking about food. I’ve spent a lot of my career working in food and agriculture, and there has been a global paradigm for it for such a long time that all of our food is some kind of agricultural product – something that grows in the field that goes through some kind of conversion step. Even our most frontier industrialization of animal agriculture is just taking a chicken, a cow, or a pig out of a field and putting it in a shed or a multistory building. However, it’s still this fundamental paradigm that if there’s an organism we’ve identified and we grow it in controlled conditions, then we take some part of that and process it in some way, and then it lands on your plate. Cultivated meat feels alien and scary because it’s a different paradigm, where you’re doing most of the processing steps without using a whole organism that we found and domesticated over thousands of years. We’re doing it much, much faster, in a way that resembles the manufacturing of so many other things that we produce. That does feel very different to a lot of people.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely, and if we think about consumer perception as a topic, while we don’t have a lot to go on, early studies show that certain types of consumers, younger consumers especially, are more climate aware. And Asian consumers tend to be more open to the idea of cultivated meat than, for example, certain people in the US and Europe. On the other hand, a lot is going on in mainstream media that suggests that there are these kinds of biases against the technology and the idea of cultivated meat. How do you think about consumer perception?

    George Peppou: I think consumers don’t buy technology, and I think a lot of the narratives, a lot of these consumer studies focus a lot on the technology. The way that I think about it is we need to make food, we need to make products, we need to make meats that are so tasty that if they were to land on your plate, you would eat it, you would love it, and you would ask for more. That is the main way that we’re going to change consumer perception, and if that delicious food is also meeting a need of a particular segment of customers, then that’s how we believe we will start to gain that consumer acceptance and consumer perception. I think a lot about Impossible Foods, and how rapidly the idea of genetically modified bacteria producing blood that you add to a bunch of plant-based stuff went from being this radical, wacky mad science to just boring. It sort of happened in one leap, it didn’t happen in a step-by-step process. It was there, you tried it, and then maybe you tried it a second time, then it was just kind of on the supermarket shelf, and no one gave it a second look, and that was that. I suspect we’re going to see a very similar thing over the next couple of years in cultured meat, that it’s going to be boring, faster than we’d like it to be, and the technology is not going to be very interesting or entertaining for very long.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s interesting that you mentioned Impossible Foods today because it’s kind of a special day today in the Impossible Foods timeline. It’s exactly seven years ago to the day that the first public photo of an Impossible Foods burger was shared online by New York-based Momofuku chef and owner Dave Chang, who shared it and said, “Today I tasted the future. I can’t really comprehend its impact quite yet. I think it might change the whole game.” And here we are sitting here seven years later and Impossible Foods is in my supermarket. I use it once every couple of weeks to make lasagna. What would you take away from how they did it? What do you want to emulate?

    George Peppou: There’s so much that they did so well, and there’s so many things that I would choose not to repeat when it comes to Impossible. Their marketing- the way they presented the science- is the bar. The way they did the early marketing that described him, the way they presented, it was just a masterclass in how to normalize something so wild and so new. Their go-to-market [strategy] with chefs like Dave Chang, and Tracy Jardiniere in San Francisco, it’s a playbook that’s been followed by so many other people. Where I look at Impossible and think about how I would do things very differently is around the consumer angle- there’s not really any selfish driver to purchase Impossible.

    It’s a direct, drop-in replacement for beef mince. It’s so meaty that it sort of has been seen by meat eaters, and it’s like, “what is any individual meathead getting out of incorporating impossible into their diet?” So, when I think about what I want to do differently to them, it’s how do we find, and how do we really exploit the selfish drivers that are going to get people that love eating meat and want to be eating meat to choose something that’s produced far more sustainably and selfishly. Impossible doesn’t have that.

    There’s not really anything in it for me to make my lasagna out of Impossible. In fact, there are reasons not to: it’s more expensive and it’s a bit of a hard choice because I have had to make a conscious decision to do something differently than I would otherwise want to. At least in my experience, I just don’t feel great after eating it. So, it has that junk food feel that makes me feel a bit slow and lethargic in a way that beef doesn’t. So, there are reasons not to [eat it], but there is nothing pushing me towards doing it and towards incorporating it into my diet.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Interesting. So how did they get the buy in the first place?

    George Peppou: Their narrative, along with Beyond, and that of a lot of the alternative meat companies was a simple one, which was if you can make something which you can put next to the traditional meat version and a meat eater can’t tell the difference, then you have access to the full-size of that market. I don’t know how this plays out over the long term. If it was half the price, I think that equation could be different.

    However, meat is so artificially cheap through direct subsidies and not paying for the full environmental costs that it’s very hard to see even with almost entirely plant-based products – how do you become cheap enough to be the cheapest option on the shelf, with today’s technology and with the market dynamics that we have today?

    So I think the narrative here makes a lot of sense, but it hasn’t played out the way that the early team would have liked it to play out from what I’ve seen, and sort of what I’ve heard through the grapevine.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. I also think for m there’s a narrative around technology that plays out as well, where at the end of the day we’re saying “Food is not tech, food is food.”

    George Peppou: Yes, yes.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, that’s a big sticking point for where we go from here, and it’s interesting to hear you saying that you think there are going to be these blends and these new formats, because I do feel that I’m starting to hear that more from different players across the different pillars, not just in cultivated, but in plant-based and potentially in fermentation,

    George Peppou: One of my friends, who you may know, is Michael Fox from Fable [who makes whole mushroom-based meat alternatives].

    Sonalie Figueiras: Of course, yep.

    George Peppou: He gave me a call not too long ago, and he said, “Hey, I’ve been thinking and reading a lot,” and when I think about where companies, like a lot of the big plant-based companies, have struggled, it’s that, inherently, when you’re introducing a new product, it is more expensive. It’s more costly than the incumbent offerings, and so the customer segments that are going to be willing to pay that premium, and generally, at least in places like the US, they tend to be health-driven, [they] shop at Whole Foods and [they] are looking for organic, looking for the kind of the premium that comes from being a simple, healthy, nourishing product.

    If you look at companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, they were kind of at the other end of that spectrum- they were junk food. In many ways they were pitching themselves as burgers, they were not the sort of thing that [you want] if you’re eating a predominantly vegan or a Whole Foods organic diet.

    So that’s another lens in question, how do you position it? How do you start to introduce products in the first few years of your business that get adopted by those premium grocery consumers who are looking for things which are clean-label, have short ingredient lists, or add some kind of nutritional benefit to their lifestyle? That’s a very different problem and one that Impossible and Beyond didn’t address. Whether it would have changed their trajectory, who knows?

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, but I guess what you’re talking about is something that I think the industry as a whole is struggling with: I don’t know that anyone did proper consumer segmentation. If you look at, a chain like Slutty Vegan, which is going gangbusters in the US, they’re using Impossible patties, and they’re ‘junk food forward’- no apologies, delicious, gooey, yummy burgers that you crave. But if you look at the shopper at Whole Foods, they’re probably looking for what your friend Michael at Fable is doing, which is whole foods, mushroom-based, low perception of processing, right?

    George Peppou: Yes.

    Sonalie Figueiras: But I think that maybe we need to get away from the idea that every product needs to meet every need...

    George Peppou: I definitely agree with that. I think that’s been a big part of how I think about it. When I think about the type of company that we’re building, I don’t see how you create and scale behavioral change with one or two hero products. So implicitly, if you’re replicating a type of meat that already exists, what you’re doing is you’re taking an animal which has this very versatile range of uses, and you’re trying to capture this enormous amount of versatility, and all of those inconveniences we sort of worked around over years into a single product, you also have to make compromises to do that, and those compromises reduce that versatility and reduce the quality of that experience. So, you’re trying to satisfy all possible different markets.

    I have a belief which will be very much tested over the next couple of years that as a company, we’re going to create behavioural change by having many products, and ‘mega niches’. So really serving unmet needs and copying and pasting this formula of identifying unmet needs, spinning it up in the same factory, then serving what appears to be a relatively small market, but having economies of scale across product lines. This is entirely untested.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s super exciting, but what do you mean by mega niche?

    George Peppou: So one example is iron availability. If you talk to basically anyone, I have a couple of friends who are dealing with this now, where they’re having to go for iron infusions for various reasons. So, if you go to the doctor, you get a blood test and they say your iron levels are low and usually the first thing you do is you go to the supermarket and you buy five steaks, and you have a steak every night. I know several athletes, serious amateurs and professionals that have had low iron or struggled to maintain iron levels and have eaten lots of beef to try to counteract that. There are a couple of other reasons why we’d also be eating beef. In all of those cases, you’re looking for a product which has the perception of high bioavailable iron and doesn’t have the downsides of either iron infusion or iron pills. In that case, if you’re producing a product that has 10 times the bioavailable iron of beef, then suddenly you’ve got this reasonably large range of consumers that have this common shared need, which is lots of bioavailable iron coming from different sources that you’re moving away from beef consumption in a very specific scenario. So, those are the types of threads that we are very deliberately pulling on.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s super interesting. I am one of those people that gets iron infusions

    George Peppou: [laughter] There are a lot of you! A lot of people get iron infusions.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I struggled because I do follow a plant-based diet. When I gave birth, I had to go to hospital, because I lost too much iron post-birth. I immediately needed a transfusion four or five days after going home. So your concept of a mega niche is very interesting. 

    So quite a few times you’ve brought up nutrition as a driver here, and if we talk about who’s going to Whole Foods to grocery shop, there is this kind of health motivation. There is a question that exists and that floats around the cultivated discussion around health, because there is this idea that eating more plants and eating less red meat and reducing certain types of processed meat makes you healthier. Plus there are studies and a lot of research to show that this is the case.

    So, the idea of reducing animal foods across your diet aligns with also being healthier, and yet, cultivated meat means keeping those foods in our diet while changing the production method and the costs to society and the environment. How do you think about meat consumption and health? You said that you’re not a vegan or a vegetarian. Do you believe that we should still be eating more plants for health?

    George Peppou: I’m not sure about the health reasons. I think nutrition is such a complex field with so many interrelated variables. Annoyingly, some people eat nothing but beef steak and liver and are very healthy, and some people eat nothing but raw vegan diets and are very healthy. My very personal and exclusively anecdotal experience is that I tried to go vegan for about two months, and I abruptly ended up so anaemic that my doctor told me I needed to change my diet back. So, for whatever reason a vegan diet worked incredibly poorly for me, and I probably could have stuck with it, but it just seemed too difficult. So, I think there are ways that you can. We have a lot of anecdotal-in-case evidence of many people who have eaten an omnivorous diet for their entire lives and have been very healthy. Many people have eaten omnivorous diets their entire lives and been very unhealthy. I don’t think it’s as simple as incorporating more or less meat into your diet- and that [meat consumption] is what drives health.

    My view on this is as a company that is trying to sell to people who don’t want to change their diets and are choosing to eat meat in whatever production form, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to be thoughtful and considerate about what the composition of that meat is and how can we ensure it’s both enjoyable to eat and as healthy as possible. How do we reduce the negative effects? How do we increase the quality, quantity and availability of nutrients, and make sure that if it is part of a balanced diet, we’re doing the best things that we can to ensure that it is driving healthy outcomes and good health for anyone that’s consuming it. I think that it is going to become a very rich vein over time. How do we optimize, modify, and alter cultured meat to be the most nourishing substance that you can consume as a protein or an animal protein at the very least? I’m sure the meat industry is screaming at me right now, and saying: No! Meat is already a superfood, you don’t need to change anything! To that I say, Well, let’s find out.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I was talking to someone in seafood and they were saying, well, somebody might want all the nutrition from fish, but not maybe, the fishy smell for some people, which is off-putting. So, then you get back to this idea of designing our food, but again, then you get back to this idea that it feels that as humans we have some kind of bias against that, this idea that food is being altered, processed, and sort of isn’t natural. There’s this idea that we’re hardwired to want the natural. However, at the same point in time, one thing that we haven’t talked about here today is where does cultivated meat sit in the discussion of the ethics around consuming meat?

    George Peppou: Yes, it’s a it’s a big question.

    Sonalie Figueiras: How do you navigate the ethics of it?

    George Peppou: The ethics is a sort of endless discussion that we could be having. The way that I think about it is that whatever we’re producing, we need to be very considerate about where that could be causing harm. There are two main ways that I think about that:

    One is in the footprint of production- are we producing more waste, more emissions, consuming more water or land than the food that we’re displacing? If the answer to that is yes, then I have a huge problem, and I shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. So, that’s something which as we come to market, and as we start to understand how consumers are incorporating this, is it reducing the overall footprint of their diet, and if not, then we need to be very cautious about scaling up until we can change that?

    The other is: are we causing direct harm to animals? So, one of the reasons why we’re very intentionally not doing anything with endangered animals, we’re not sampling anything which is critically at risk is, through a fear that they would stimulate wildlife crime. The “Mammoth Meatball” was deliberately an extinct animal, not an existing, alive, endangered animal for that exact reason. We didn’t want to accidentally lead anyone going and poaching something alive just to taste it.

    So, those are the two main things I think about with ethics. At the end of the day, because we’re so focused on targeting meat-eaters, it’s all about net reduction, and having a net reduction on the impact, or the animals used in that total diet that any individual is consuming.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay, I think we need to talk about the “Mammoth Meatball” in a second, because you brought it up, and I want to discuss this idea of extinct versus, you know, endangered. However, at the same time, I want to ask you, is it fair to say that you did not start Vow from an ethical animal welfare point of view, is that not what drove you to this?

    George Peppou: No, it’s always been environmental.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay.

    George Peppou: As I said, I eat meat. So, I’m not sort of whipping myself and saying: “No, I shouldn’t do this, this is bad!” I think there are ways that meat can be produced ethically, and I’m very lucky to live in a country like Australia, which has a predominantly very high quality, extensive production system, and the best version of meat production. It’s impossible to scale it ethically. When I look at both the environmental and ethical problems that come from the scale and the intensification of animal production, the question is, how do you reduce the growth in total meat consumption, not displace all of it, but how do you reduce that growth? How do we take a chunk out of the meat consumption that would otherwise exist 20 years down the track?

    Sonalie Figueiras: What do you think makes you, George, uniquely qualified to take this on? How do we draw that line between you realizing that as an Australian you’re eating this very high quality meat in terms of animal welfare, probably the least harmful of all the possible harm, right? Yet, we’re in this climate crisis, and you’re looking ahead and you come up with this idea- why you?

    George Peppou: I don’t think I am uniquely qualified. I think I had an idea which was different at a time where there was a lot of attention on this issue, and this could have played out very differently. If Impossible had executed the way they expected, and they had displaced beef mince in the way that they had hoped, we wouldn’t be relevant. I think I’m very lucky that the timing of the approach that I thought would work and the timing of how others, how the markets and other companies have performed, have happened to coincide in a very positive way for Vow. However, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything unique or special about me. I think the one talent that I seem to have is finding people who are far smarter than me to do the hard work while I go on podcasts, and they do the things to make it real.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I will come back to that because you must have things that are unique, but let’s talk about your team – Huge wins that they have accomplished. For example, congratulations to them on the execution of the Mammoth Meatball campaign! I have to ask, how did this idea come to be? Whose idea was it? What’s it been like in the aftermath? I mean, you were on Steven Colbert! Every major newspaper and online magazine blogger wrote about this incredible new invention! What were you trying to do with this idea of bringing an extinct mammoth into a cultivated meatball back to life?

    George Peppou: The purpose behind this was always very transparently a stunt to draw attention to this idea that the meat in the future doesn’t need to be the same as what we eat today. We were throwing around this concept about three years ago. My co-founder Tim, was like, “I think we should do something weird with extinct animals,” and he happened to get contacted by a guy called from Wunderman Thompson who said, “Oh, I want to make an extinct animal nugget, a dodo nugget.” We were thinking, “Great, this is amazing. This works so perfectly for us!” It was kind of on and off again for a while. Then about a year ago, we couldn’t get the dodo sequence. So, my Chief Scientific Officer James said, “I think we should do it with a Mammoth,” and we were able to track down the mammoth sequence and generate the cell line in partnership with the University of Queensland, Australia. Suddenly, it was off and running, and it was always this very small side project for us. We didn’t spend a cent on PR, I was working in partnership with the guys at Wunderman Thompson, and they spent all the money on the marketing side. So, we didn’t spend a cent ourselves. It was very cheap, very opportunistic, and just a fun way to start the conversation.

    About two days beforehand, I had this moment of, “Oh my god, we’re about to launch this Mammoth Meatball, and I have no idea how the world’s going to react. So, we sort of announced it. I went to bed that night, and I woke up to about 200 text messages, and it was just everywhere by the morning. So, this was something that I certainly didn’t expect to receive that level of attention and that level of resonance, but there was something that captured the imagination of so many people. It’s this new technology that means that old things that we haven’t been able to try can suddenly exist again. What has been very entertaining is watching and seeing the evolution of the criticism of it, and you know, the main criticism is like, this is a marketing stunt. I see that and I’m like, “Yes, that’s correct. It is absolutely a marketing stunt. That was very much the plan!” Then the other one is, “Oh, but this undermines this narrative of cultured meat being exactly the same as we eat today,” but for us, that was also part of the plan. So, it’s been very entertaining to watch the evolution of it. I had no expectations, I thought it was going to be less than 1% of what we saw, and I would have been delighted with that. However, it’s been very entertaining to experience what it’s like to go viral, to watch the flames stoke, and then watch the cycle turnover and everyone gets back on with their lives. It’s been a lot of fun, and it’s been very weird.

    Sonalie Figueiras: There’s no doubt the team executed it incredibly. I think we had a conversation about it after it came out, and you told me “I wanted everyone to be talking about cultivated meat” and that worked. I still feel that it was another example of how we as humans, on the one hand, are amazed by what technology can do, and on the other hand, there’s sort of like this “ick” factor. There were also people that were asking questions, myself among them like: “Is this responsible? Is this what we should be doing? I was worried about something like this making people more likely to hunt endangered animals, or there’s also this idea of ‘should we make Jurassic Park happen’? What are the ethics of that? You’ve answered that in an interview with me, but for example, the reporter Isaac Schultz at Gizmodo said: “I’m skeptical that the study is going to sell anyone on cultivated meat,” and that’s what I really want to ask you. Do you feel that in the long-term this is turning it around for the average person who may have a bias, a neophobic bias against the idea of cultivated meat? Is it bringing them over the line?

    George Peppou: The goal here was never to turn around people that have that bias. I don’t believe that there’s anything that we can say or do. I think about some members of my family who are just completely not interested, this is never something they would even try. There’s nothing I can do or say that’s going to turn those people around. Our goal here was to bring cultured meat into the mainstream conversation, to normalize the idea that it exists, it can be new, and it can be different. For people who are engaged and curious and enjoy new technology, it seems like a large number of them are more engaged than previously. So again, this is very much how we’re approaching it, that’s very different to how all other companies are approaching it. Our goal is very intentionally to try to polarize people, we’re not going to convince people to try something so wild and wacky and new as mixing different species together unless it does have that polarity and that curiosity drive as a result of that. So, that was very much how we approached this, but no, I don’t think it’s going to persuade anyone who wouldn’t otherwise try cultured meat to give it a shot. Also, I don’t believe it was irresponsible. It was probably not responsible, but I don’t think it was irresponsible.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s fair. I see where you’re coming from, and I appreciate the perspective. I think what’s interesting to me from what you’ve said today that I think is important is this idea that it could open people up to new formats, and the idea that you could do different things. I don’t think until today I had fully grasped that that was one of your goals. However, speaking of people who have these biases, let’s bring it back to something like Italy thinking about passing a cultivated meat ban [Editor’s Note: Italy has since voted to approve a ban]. How do you look at that when you say there’s nothing you can do about people who are not going to buy into it? What do we do when governments are not buying into it?

    George Peppou: That’s a good question. I don’t think it’s going to be possible for me as a representative of the industry that’s being vilified to turn around a position on something like that. I would say, and what I have said in meetings with several representatives of different governments around the world, the train has sort of left the station on a lot of these new food technologies, that either they are in your supermarket or they’re coming very soon. If you don’t choose to be a participant in it, you’re going to suffer as a result of it. Italy could have had a cultured meat industry and still currently maintains the credibility and quality of their existing animal meat industries, it could have been additive for them, instead, it’s now something that they’re closing their door to, and companies are still going to do what they’re doing. They’re just going to do it for the Middle East or Asia or elsewhere around the world. So, in general, the EU is a fairly conservative regulatory environment, and I think countries like Italy, sticking their fingers in their ears and trying to make something go away like this is going to be more detrimental to them than it’s going to help the industry that they’re trying to defend and protect.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Right, because in many ways, Italy has a very similar relationship to beef and meat than Australia,  in the sense that there’s a lot of very high-quality meat and that they view it as such. However, you mentioned Asia and the Middle East and you’ve got this big launch coming up in Singapore, which I want you to share more about: why are these regions- Israel, the Middle East, Singapore, and the rest of Asia- seemingly more open to cultivated meat and these kinds of future food technologies? How do you assess that?

    George Peppou: I think the main driver is coming from their food industry and their food position, certainly Singapore and many of the Middle East and at least the Emirates are net food importers, and so they are looking for ways to bring food production onshore. If you look at a country like the US, they included food technologies and food bio-manufacturing as part of their national priorities because they’re viewing it through the lens of food sovereignty, and asking: how do you make sure that you’re producing enough protein and enough food to feed your entire population? I think that’s generally the main driver coming from governments, that regulatory acceptance and that regulatory science communication that’s coming from those food regulators lays the groundwork for companies to come in and actually market some of these products. However, I do think it starts there, it has to start with that commitment from governments, as this is something which is going to be an important part of our food system, and we’re going to make sure that when it does land on your plate, it’s extremely safe.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So following up on that, Singapore has a very special role to play in this industry, it is the first country in the world to have given regulatory approval for cultivated meat. It’s the only country in the world where you can purchase some cultivated meat and taste it as a consumer [Editor’s Note: since recording the episode, two US companies got USDA regulatory approval]. What’s your relationship like with Singapore, and can you share more about the launch plans that have been written about?

    George Peppou: Yeah, absolutely. So, Singapore took a position of regulatory leadership very early on, as part of their 30 by 30 plan of bringing 30% of food production onshore. We talk to the folks at the Singapore food agency multiple times a week usually, and they’ve been assessing our application for quite a few months, they’ve seen lots of additional data, and I will be spending some time with them in person later this week to go through top-to-tail specification. So, we’ve had a very open and collaborative relationship with them.

    Similarly, with the Australian regulator and other regulators that we’re working with, they’ve always been very clear about why this is a policy priority for them, and what it is that matters most to them around safety and how we assure safety. So, it’s been a very positive experience.

    With launching in Singapore, as soon as we get the thumbs up from the regulator, we are ready to roll. So, it’s simply a matter of when we get that approval letter. Hopefully, within less than 24 hours, we’ll be having that first launch event – the first time that people can purchase a cultured meat product that we’ve produced, assuming that adheres to the final specifications.

    The way we’re thinking about the launch is it’s a cultured quail product, and it’s really about finding those true fans, finding the people that are really engaged, and I’ve been on that journey with us, bringing them together, and learning as much as we possibly can about what they love about it, and how they talk about it. The first few months for us are going to be about learning from consumers and learning from customers before we go and try to scale out to heaps of different restaurants and food service. So, there’ll be lots of small, intimate pop-ups all over the city, which will give you a chance to taste.

    Sonalie Figueiras: You are launching with restaurant partners, right? This is not going to be a retail product that customers can take home?

    George Peppou: It’s going to be food service only.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay.

    George Peppou: It’s gonna be a food service-only product to begin with, and that was a very intentional choice around: How do you make sure people’s first contacts and first experiences are as positive as possible, especially when there is a product that has some assumed knowledge around how you cook it? How do you have a great experience? Again, this is something that Impossible did really well early on – Their first version was very finicky, but they started with high-end chefs who could give a great experience. So, it’ll be food service only to begin with, we may do a couple of little drops of retail as well to sort of experiment and learn about how people are cooking and consuming in their own home.

    However, the goal for us over the first few months is to just learn, learn, learn! It’s all about learning for us in Singapore and making sure that by the time we’re shifting our attention to a market like Australia or the US, we have a product that you can walk into a bunch of different restaurants and buy and enjoy across Singapore, and maybe even moving into a little bit of retail as well, at least at the high end. So, first up, it’s going to be those pop-ups all over the city, and it’s going to be a matter of following us to see where they land.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Can you give a few more details around format and timeline, like do you have an idea? Are you generally getting any nods from the regulator? Is it this year?

    George Peppou: I definitely have an idea. I definitely can’t publicly say just yet [laughter], but ‘keep an eye on our socials’ is the main thing I’ll say.

    Sonalie Figueiras: [laughter] What about the format? Are you sharing anything about your products’ format? You’ve said it’s a cultured quail? Is this going to be a piece on its own?

    George Peppou: We have a few different formats, and we’ve always tested out a really wide range of different formats. So, it will likely be, at least in the early days, multiple formats in a single meal. So, again, our goal is to learn as much as possible. So, you may see multiple different formats, and you may see one format, but I can’t say too much on that either at this stage, I want to keep that a little bit of a surprise.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Fair enough. Do you feel that you are where you want to be, timeline-wise? You raised almost $50 million last year, the biggest series A of the industry. I assume you’ve got full bank accounts. It seems like a very exciting timeline for regulatory approval in Singapore. Is this where you plan to be?

    George Peppou: I always want things to move faster. I would love to have been selling at the end of last year. Plausibly, it would have been the earliest we could have been ready, but I’m relentlessly impatient with timelines. So, nothing’s ever quick enough, nothing’s ever soon enough for me. We’re in a very healthy position, I still would love to spend more time on the market, so we can spend more time with customers. That way, the better the products are going to be, the better the positioning will become. So, I sort of want to be able to use every single possible moment. I’m just desperate to be on the market, really!

    Sonalie Figueiras: [laughter] I’m gonna close it out with – What does success look like to you? And do you think about things like legacy?

    George Peppou: I definitely don’t think about legacy. What excites me, and what’s always excited me about Vow is, I think we have a chance to really shape and change our food system. We have a chance to take an experiment with meat in a way that no one else has been able to, and that’s always been the thing which excites and inspires me, and do so in a way which creates positive benefits. I think Vow will be successful, if we either directly, or through inspiring the direction of others, are able to shift at least a single-digit percentage of meat consumption away from animals to something else, you know. If some other company takes what we’re doing, runs with it and executes it, I’ll still feel very successful and very proud that we were able to influence the direction of the global food system. I think that, for me, is success. I don’t pay much attention to what my role is in that, as long as it happens.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Are you sitting there going: “Oh, in five years, I need to have an IPO, or in 10 years, we need to have our products on 1000 supermarket shelves!” Is there a concrete goal for you, a timeline goal, or just this general kind of momentum towards changing how we produce food, and how we think about the way we produce food?

    George Peppou: It’s very much about general momentum. That’s really what I personally thrive on, and I really,…I was going to say, “I guess I really do clamour for,” but I am always looking for that sense of momentum and progress, and if it’s Vow that’s driving that momentum and that change in the food system, I’ll be very happy. If we inspire others to change and have momentum in the food system, I will also be very happy. As long as the change happens, which I believe it has to…if we can make that happen a little bit sooner, I’ll be very proud of that.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay, one last bonus question, then I’m gonna let you go: What keeps you up at night?

    George Peppou: Oh, that’s a great question. I’ve been sleeping very well this past week [laughter]. I think the thing which makes me the most nervous, and sort of plays on my mind the most is, we hire the most ludicrously talented people, and it’s like, how do I keep them engaged, excited, and give them the right amount of structure and direction for them to be successful. So, the stuff that is usually keeping me up at night is when there are great people on the team who I feel like I’m letting down or not letting them achieve their potential. Much more so than anything else. We can solve technical problems, we can manage regulatory problems, I’m very confident at this point on safety, given how much extensive safety testing we’ve done. So, it’s definitely not something that’s on my mind at all anymore. Everything else feels like it’s solvable, as long as we have really great people that are really engaged and excited about doing the work and solving some really hard problems. When I feel like I’m not enabling that, that’s definitely the thing which keeps me up.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thank you so much, George. It’s been a fantastic conversation! I really appreciate you coming on the show, and I have no doubt it will inspire many.

    George Peppou: Thank you so much for having me. It was a lot of fun!

    Listen to this episode on AppleSpotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Green Queen In Conversation is a podcast about the food and climate story hosted by Sonalie Figueiras, the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. The show’s first season, Pioneers of Cultivated Meat, explores cultivated meat, a future food technology on a mission to produce animal protein sustainability. In each of the six episodes, Sonalie interviews the pioneers of the industry, asking the hard questions about one of the most exciting food + climate innovations of our time and sharing the personal story behind each founder’s journey. 

    Green Queen In Conversation is a co-production from Green Queen Media and Cheeky Monkey Productions. This episode was produced by Joanna Bowers and hosted by Sonalie Figueiras.

    The post Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers – George Peppou of Vow appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • italy cultivated meat ban
    8 Mins Read

    It has been in the making for a while, but Italy has officially passed the law that bans the production and sale of cultivated meat within the country, with the far-right government citing health reasons, a risk to the country’s tradition, and a need to safeguard the livestock industry. The move also bans the use of meat-related terms such as ‘steak’ and ‘salami’ on plant-based meat product labelling.

    Italy’s lower house of parliament has approved a bill by its agriculture minister to ban the sale and production of cultivated meat in the country, making it the first to do so. The law, which includes a plant-based meat labelling ban, has introduced fines between €10,000 and €60,000 for each violation.

    The law described non-traditional foods like cultivated meat and insect protein as a threat to Italy’s food culture. This has been a familiar rhetoric ever since Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party gained power in the centre last year, and the latest move has already attracted controversy from multiple corners across Europe.

    Agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida – who is Meloni’s brother-in-law – called the ban a “brave measure demanded by citizens . . . that puts Italy at the vanguard of the world”. In a Facebook post, he said: “We are the first nation to ban it, with all due respect to the multinationals who hope to make monstrous profits by putting citizens’ jobs and health at risk.”

    Lollobrigada brandished two members of the left-wing Più Europa party – who were protesting in front of the parliament with signs like “cultivating ignorance” and shouting “shame, shame” – as “clowns”. Italy’s opposition has criticised the move as “ideological propaganda”.

    Industry body the Italian Alliance for Complementary Proteins said this bill “tells Italians what they can and can’t eat, stifles innovation and likely violates EU law”. Italy may not be able to impose the ban on the sale of cultivated meat produced within the EU, as its common single market enables the free movement of goods and services.

    How Italy’s cultivated meat ban took shape

    italy cultivated meat
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    There was noise about a potential ban as early as last year, when one of Italy’s largest farming associations, Coldiretti, launched a petition for a prohibition of “synthetically produced food”, which included “laboratory-produced meat to milk ‘without cows’ to fish without seas, lakes and rivers”. It attacked the use of fetal bovine serum – something more and more producers are moving away from – in the production of cell-cultured meat, calling it unnatural.

    The petition bagged nearly half a million signatures, as well as the support of 3,000 local and regional governments. Then, in March, Italy’s senate approved a bill to put the ban into effect, with 60% of senators voting in favour and citing national heritage and human health concerns.

    Italy submitted a Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) notification to the EU – a procedure aiming to prevent the creation of barriers between EU countries. This meant that the country needed approval from the bloc if it wanted to ban cultivated meat, with other EU members getting the chance to weigh in on the decision as well.

    Last month, however, Italy withdrew this notification, as it knew that the proposal would be rejected by the EU. Claudio Pomo, development manager at animal rights group Essere Animali, noted at the time: “What happened is certainly an important result, but it is not yet a definitive victory, and we must not let our guard down. Minister Lollobrigida has already said that he wants to move forward with this battle, and there will certainly be other moves.”

    And there certainly have been. Just last week, Lollobrigada doubled down on this stance, confirming the country wants to be the first to ban cultivated meat. Speaking to Politico after the bill was passed, he said: “If you produce a food that has no relationship to man, land, work, you can move production to a place with lower taxes and less environmental standards, hurting jobs and the environment.”

    The ban also prohibits plant-based companies from using words like ‘steak’, ‘salami’ on vegan meat alternatives, which alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe says are consumed by half of Italy’s population. The country boasts the third-largest plant-based market in the EU, with a 21% sales hike from 2020-22.

    “Eliminating the possibility of using familiar terms to facilitate product recognition undermines transparency, generating confusion for consumers where none currently exists, as demonstrated by surveys,” said GFI Europe’s public affairs consultant, Francesca Gallelli.

    Misinformation about health risks

    italy cultured meat
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    Lollobrigada reiterated the government’s intention to “defend our civilization against a model driven by delocalisation and long supply chains”. This is despite Italy having a self-sufficiency rate of 42.5% for beef.

    This anti-global stance was taken up by Coldiretti too, which had called on farmers to “stop a dangerous deviation that endangers healthy eating and the future of Made in Italy food”. Its president Ettore Prandini wrote on social media: “We are proud to be the first country that … blocks, as a precaution, the sale of food produced in laboratories whose effects on the health of consumer citizens are currently unknown.”

    According to the Financial Times, Italy’s livestock industry sold €6.3B and €8.4B worth of beef and pork products last year, respectively, as per data by agribusiness support agency ISMEA. Red meats like these have been linked to various health risks, including cancer and cardiovascular disease – one of the leading causes of death in the country.

    Cultivated meat is still in its infancy, and it’s regulated under strict conditions in the EU, where it’s classified as a novel food and requires pre-market authorisation to be approved for sale. So far, no country has applied for clearance in the region (only Singapore and the US have approved sales). But any cultivated meat that satisfies the EU’s requirements will be safe for human consumption – as that’s the first criterion listed in the legislation.

    Additionally, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization have both played down safety concerns about cultured meat regarding tumour formation, cancer and other health ill-effects caused by cell-cultured meat. The negative impact of GMOs and concerns about human infections have been alleviated in a joint report by the two bodies.

    Chiara Nitride, a food processing tech researcher at Naples’ University Federico II, has said: “From a nutritional point of view, cultivated meat could be more suitable to substitute conventional meat in our diets than plant-based alternatives.” She added that these proteins could actually be safer than their conventional counterparts, as it eliminates the need for antibiotics.

    So concerns about ‘unknown health effects’ are unfounded, especially since consumers in Singapore and the US have been eating these products. Additionally, a 525-person survey in 2019 found that 54% of Italians are willing to try cultivated meat – that was four years ago before attitudes towards food and sustainability evolved further and concerns about meat and food safety became more prominent post-pandemic.

    GFI Europe has criticised the messaging around health concerns. “The debate surrounding cultivated meat in Italy has been fueled by misinformation, as hearings in the senate intentionally excluded cultivated meat companies and supporters while allowing false claims from opponents of this sustainable food,” said Gallelli.

    She had previously said noted that the alt-protein sector will create tens of thousands of jobs and offer farmers the opportunities to diversify and produce high-value proteins. “The government must ensure those jobs are created in Italy, rather than overseas,” she noted. “Without engaging in an open and fully informed debate, Italy will cut itself off from crucial opportunities for sustainable development and economic growth.”

    A violation of EU law?

    omeat
    Courtesy: Omeat

    Prandini told Politico: “Italy, which is the world leader in food quality and safety, has the duty to lead the way in policies to protect citizens’ health”, adding that “the battle now moves to Europe”.

    The International Organization for Animal Protection, an Italy animal advocacy group, called the ban “completely useless today”, as cultivated meat hasn’t been approved for human consumption in the EU and therefore cannot be marketed”. It added that if it is approved, Italy will not be able to prohibit it.

    This was echoed by Stefano Lattanzi, CEO of Italian cultivated meat consortium Bruno Cell, who told TIME that “this frontal attack from the government” makes no sense: “We are working on solutions for a climate-changed future.”

    The EU itself has expressed support for alt-protein and sustainable food production: its Parliament’s Agriculture Committee has voted to implement a strategy to increase the production of plant proteins. And just last month, it voted in favour of the Plant Protein Strategy, calling on member states to boost the production and consumption of sustainable protein crops (though it did defend the role of animal proteins in diets and ecosystems too).

    Lollobrigida told Politico he doesn’t expect any issues from the EU’s side when it comes to the ban, explaining that the bloc “holds the principle that the identity of peoples must be preserved”.

    But industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe called the ban unlawful with “no legal merit”, and one that “goes against Italian consumers’ free choice”. “To enter the EU market, novel food products like cultivated meat must be authorised by the European Commission and the member states, after a thorough safety assessment by the European Food Safety Authority. There is no legal reason for Italy to pre-empt this risk assessment and risk management process,” it said in a statement.

    “The EU law also provides that technical regulations like this law must be notified to the European Commission before their actual adoption, allowing other member states and stakeholders to provide comments on potential barriers to the EU internal market. The Italian authorities’ withdrawal of their notification and today’s vote blatantly contravene the EU law.”

    Speaking about the ban, Cellular Agriculture Europe president Robert E Jones told Green Queen last month: “It is yet another sign that this is all political theatre to fulfil a campaign promise to a vocal minority, and a monumental distraction from the real conversation we need to have about creating a climate-resilient food system in Europe.”

    In a social media post about the ban yesterday, Jones wrote “We’ve known it was coming for months, but that doesn’t make it less silly, short-sighted, or in breach of EU law.” He added: “If you are Italian, please sign this petition and join the movement to overturn this nonsense.

    Italy’s ban comes the same week a Republican legislator in Florida introduced a bill to ban cell-cultured meat in the state. Meanwhile, the senate in Romania has voted to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat as well, which will need approval from the Chamber of Deputies – as has been done in Italy.

    The Italian Alliance for Complementary Proteins added: “Once famous for world-changing innovations such as microchips and groundbreaking fashions, Italian politicians are now choosing to go backwards while the world moves forward.”

    The post ‘Cultivating Ignorance’: Italy Passes Law to Become the First Country to Ban Cultured Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • florida cultivated meat
    6 Mins Read

    A Republican legislator in Florida has introduced a bill proposing to ban the production, sale and distribution of cell-cultured meat in the state. If signed into law, this would come into effect in July 2024.

    On Monday, Florida House Republican Tyler Sirois proposed a new bill that would impede the regulatory progress made by cultivated meat in the US. The proposed legislation (HB 435) seeks to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cell-cultured meat within the state, imposing criminal penalties on anyone violating these rules.

    The bill, which would come into effect in July 2024 if signed into law, would be in contrast to the position taken up by other states and the central administration. In June, the US Department of Agriculture granted clearance for the production and sale of cultivated chicken to Californian companies Upside Foods and Eat JUST, making the US only the second country to approve cultured meat after Singapore did so in late 2020.

    Florida’s bill threatens to halt these advancements in the US, which has by far the highest number of publicly announced companies working in this space (43) and commands 60% of global cultured meat investments.

    Florida’s proposed cultivated meat ban

    china chilcano good meat
    Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat at China Chilcano | Courtesy: Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro

    Sirois’ bill lays out a list of penalties for those who fail to comply with the proposed ban. Deeming it unlawful to make or sell cultured meat in the state, any person violating this would face a misdemeanour of the second degree, alongside a fine between $500 to $1,000. Meanwhile, any food establishment doing so would be subject to disciplinary action. The license of any restaurant, store, or other business in violation could be suspended or issued an immediate stop-sale order.

    The bill also authorises the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt additional specific rules governing the use of cultured meat in the state. This means anyone looking to obtain regulatory approval for cultivated meat in Florida would require authorisation from the department.

    Apart from its animal welfare credentials, cultured meat is much more environmentally friendly than conventional meat, which accounts for 60% of food emissions globally. Animal agriculture, meanwhile contributes between 11-19.5% of all emissions.

    A life-cycle assessment (LCA) published earlier this year found that cultivated meat is three times more adept at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock (significantly reducing its land use), while the lack of manure means its nitrogen emissions are lower too. A similar LCA by alt-protein industry think tank the Good Food Institute in 2021 revealed that cell-based meat produced via renewable energy can have a 92% lower impact on global heating, requires 95% less land, and uses 78% less water compared to conventionally farmed beef.

    But Florida’s proposed bill spotlights the larger disconnect between meat and climate change in the US – a Washington Post and University of Maryland poll in July revealed that 74% of Americans don’t believe eating meat has any impact on climate change. Meanwhile, Sirois’ proposal reflects many leading Republicans’ stance on climate change – in one primary debate, the party’s presidential candidates refused to connect human activity to the ecological crisis, with one actually calling it a hoax.

    Florida governor Ron DeSantis – formerly seen as one of the major challengers to former president Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination but losing traction of late – deflected the question after saying: “Let’s have this debate. We’re not schoolchildren.”

    Policy support for cultured meat in the US

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    Chef Dominique Crenn served the first USDA-approved cultivated chicken in the US at Bar Crenn | Courtesy: Upside Foods

    While some are suggesting that cultivated meat isn’t for sale anywhere in the US, both Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat and Upside Foods are selling their cell-cultured chicken at upscale restaurants, the former at China Chilcano in Washington, DC and the latter at Bar Crenn in San Francisco, California.

    In fact, California has been at the forefront of legislative cultured meat support. In July 2022, it became the first US state to invest in research for these foods, allocating $5M of the state budget for alt-protein research.

    The national government has also thrown its weight behind the sector. The Biden administration released an executive order in September 2022, directing agencies to create reports on the biotech sector, which included one from the USDA on “cultivating alternative food sources”. This was followed by the earmarking of $6M to USDA’s Agricultural Research Service for alt-protein R&D.

    A year before this, the US government made its largest public funding package for alt-protein through a $10M NIFA grant, which formed the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture in Massachusetts.

    There’s still a long way to go, however. Last year, the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law by Joe Biden, billed as the most ambitious climate act passed in the country. It earmarked $369B for clean energy, but just over 5% of the money is set aside for changing farming practices, which account for 11% of the US’s greenhouse gas emissions.

    Moreover, this spending overlooks meat and dairy production, as well as food waste. The ‘climate-smart’ agricultural practices the IRA seeks to promote won’t actually reduce emissions all that significantly. This disproportionate funding is reflective of the global climate finance gap – only 4.3% of all climate investments go to agrifood systems, which make up a third of all GHG emissions.

    Other countries looking to ban cultivated meat

    italy lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Mosa Meat

    Nevertheless, Florida’s proposed ban on cultivated meat undoes a lot of the good work done to progress this sector in the US. More internationally, Italy has been making headlines this year with its own proposed ban on cultured meat to protect its food heritage. The country withdrew its notification for the bill to the EU last month, but only as it expected a rejection. Its agricultural minister has since confirmed that the government is looking to press ahead with the bill.

    Similarly, the Romanian Senate has reportedly voted to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat too, which is pending approval from the Chamber of Deputies, which has the final say. Violations would mean a fine between €40,000-60,000.

    “This proposal threatens to cut Romania off from investment and job opportunities, undermine efforts to tackle climate change and restrict consumer choice,” GFI Europe’s policy manager Seth Roberts told Romania-Insider. “It would also leave Romania behind as countries around the world invest in cultivated meat as part of a future-proof food system.”

    On Italy’s proposed ban, Robert E Jones, president of the industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe, told Green Queen: “As such a move will be a blatant violation of EU law, it is yet another sign that this is all political theatre to fulfill a campaign promise to a vocal minority, and a monumental distraction from the real conversation we need to have about creating a climate-resilient food system in Europe.”

    The post Despite Gaining USDA Approval, Cultivated Meat Could Be Banned in Florida appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 31 Mins Read

    The below conversation is the transcript of the second episode of the podcast miniseries Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers featuring Didier Toubia, founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, interviewed by show host Sonalie Figueiras. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

    In the second episode of Green Queen in Conversation – Cultivated Meat Pioneers, Sonalie Figueiras talks to Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, a cultivated meat company based in Israel. Didier cuts a unique figure in the space- the conversation was a real eye-opener about his background and how he started working with food and development agencies in Africa and how that informed his worldview about food systems, equity and food justice, and how in turn that led to starting a cultivated meat company specialised in beef steak, which he believes will help right the wrongs inherent in our food systems. 

    He is so passionate about ensuring access to safe, traceable, and nutritious food for everyone, and not just for those of us in the wealthier countries. So, I think our conversation is quite different from the other interviews in this series. I found it really inspiring, particularly, as Didier has had many careers in his life, from food and development, to biotech, to deep tech. I’m sure you’ll find our chat fascinating too.

    Listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Hi Didier, it’s great to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

    Didier Toubia: Hey, Sonalie. Good to be with you. Thanks for having me.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, I think you are a key part of the global cultivated meat story, and I want to explore the Aleph journey. So, my first question is: how did your cultivated meat experience begin? When did you first discover cultivated meat, and how did you end up with one of the first companies in the space?

    Didier Toubia: I think the origins of my interest in cultivated meat goes back probably 25 years when I studied food engineering and biology in France at the time, and when I studied my major and full Master’s Degree in the south of France, getting deeper into food technologies for the developing world. I started my career in the Ivory Coast in Western Africa with the IFC, a branch of the World Bank. My goal was really to tackle the inherent issues of the food system, especially malnutrition, and food security issues, whilst studying in Africa, and I realized relatively quickly that those challenges can’t be addressed by targeted action, and totally systemic issues of hunger, allocation of resources, and issues associated with the distribution of resources – we can take care of and solve with more focused initiatives, rather than with (targeted) actions.

    When I came back to France, 20-25 years later, my main motivation was to address those systemic issues with the food system, the roots of the reasons why we have those issues, both in terms of sustainability, food security, public health, not just in Africa, but on the global level. Actually, a lot of the issues I saw at the time, and the issues we see in Africa today, on the global level, are very much overlapping. So, it really kind of closed the loop for me and connected a lot of the dots with my early experience in the food system, but also with my overall 10 years of experience in the biomedical industry, following me going to Israel. Aleph Farms is at the crossroads between the biomedical world and the food system. 

    apac regulatory coordination forum
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, that’s interesting and different than a lot of the other founders in the space. So, not so much the climate connection: for you, it’s the food security and the nutrition piece of the puzzle, but at the same point in time, it’s interesting, because when people think of going to Africa and dealing with systemic issues around malnutrition, they wouldn’t immediately associate cultivated meat in bioreactors as a solution to the problems that African nations can face. How do you bridge the two there? I mean, cultivated meat is an expensive and deep technology that still requires decades of work before we can scale it to a mass level.

    Didier Toubia: It’s through the long-term play. I would argue that the food system [as it works today] is not actually intended to feed the people. During the industrialization of our food system in the 50s and 60s, the focus has been on efficiencies and output, how to produce more food at a lower cost, and large industrial companies developing and making more profit. I think the fact that today, we’re throwing away close to 30% of our food, while close to 900 million people don’t have enough food is a testimonial that the current food system is not designed to bring the right amount of nutrition to the right people at the right time and in the right place. And I think cultivated meat can help decentralize food production.

    One of the big issues with our food system today, beyond the focus on profit, is that it’s super concentrated. Historically, we used to rely on 6-7,000 different sources of food. Today, I believe that five different species and eight different crops make up over 70% of the food we consume globally, and the system is not just concentrated in a few species, it’s also concentrated in specific areas of the world. If we’re talking about beef, for instance, it’s primarily in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and a little bit in Europe, and a lot of countries are importing beef, for instance, in Israel (where Aleph was founded), we import 88% of all beef. It’s a shared challenge with all the countries in the Middle East, and we see the same pattern in many parts of Asia, including Singapore, where they import technically 100% of all beef, and cultivated meat can help decentralize the production of food because we can grow [meat from] cells.

    I’ll explain in a little bit what we do, and how that fits into our vision – That we can grow cells in a closed system independently to the climate or the local availability of land and water, meaning that we can distribute the production of high-quality animal nutrition, both empowering local communities and diversifying the supply, and substituting for part of the inputs. However, it also involves making sure that we make the food system more resilient by diversifying the supply of animal protein and fats. We build circuit breakers and meat plants, and we make the system more resilient to shocks. So, we do see cellular agriculture as a cornerstone of a more secure and resilient food system, and regarding your comment about the cost of cultivated meat, it’s clear that it’s a long play, and I think that cultivated meat is probably similar to solar panels which were extremely expensive 20 years ago, and now, 20 years later, the production cost has come down as the economies of scale started to play, and production processes and product technologies have improved. 

    We believe that for the next few years cultivated meat will be more confined in the developed world, but [we are] developing a long-term strategy for the Global South, and that’s one of the projects we’ve done with water recently in the US, for instance- I’m actually planning to travel to Ethiopia in the next couple of months to further explore the possibilities. We believe that in Africa where today there is strong pressure to intensify cattle farming (Africa is similar to India in that the sector mostly relies on smallholder farms) to make the system supposedly more resilient and more efficient.

    We all know that industrial agriculture is not a good solution, we’re pushing back from intensive agriculture in the developed world to regenerative eggs and organic food. So, I think cultivating cells might be a way to skip this intermediate phase of animal farming industrialization, and to keep the smallholder farms as they are and supply them directly with the growing cells, a little bit like how some countries have skipped the phase of landline phones, for instance, and in some parts of India and China, bringing cells to the global South can help them move directly to cellular agriculture and skip this intermediate phase of intensive industrial animal farming, which is bad for everyone, same as how these countries and regions went directly to cellular phones and skipped the landline intermediate step.

    Sonalie Figueiras: I love the vision. I do have to ask, why beef then? You know, why not chicken? Beef is currently one of the most, if not, the most expensive meat in the world. It has a status as something very elite and associated with wealth and higher status. Why start with steak, not even ground beef, the ultimate luxury food?

    Didier Toubia: That’s an important question. Our product strategy with implementation at Aleph Farms is, on the one hand, high impact, and on the other, high-value products. I want to explain why beef fits into our roadmap.

    First, we believe that the biggest contribution to cultivated meat will be where we have real challenges with animal protein and fat production. If we’re talking about the concentration of the food system, cattle farming is the most concentrated of all the animal production practices. Beyond that, it’s also the biggest impact on climate- livestock production is responsible for about 15% of global emissions, while the environmental impact of chicken is much lower. When we’re talking about the use of land and water, which are also critical parameters as we have been causing land diversion- in the last 50 years we lost 30% of all arable land since the Second World War, and 42% of the crops we harvest every year in the world are intended for animal feed, primarily cattle and cows, and the intensive monoculture of soya and maize is one of the primary drivers of deforestation and the loss of soil quality. The amount of water required to make one kilogram of beef varies between 1,500-10,000 litres, depending on the farming practices, and we might have 40% less freshwater in the next few decades. So, there are some real issues associated with beef production which we don’t see with the other animal meat species today.

    Growing cells using renewable energies we’re able to reduce the environmental impact [of beef production] by 92%, in terms of the greenhouse gasses emitted. We can also reduce the amount of land by 95%, and the amount of water by 78%. When we’re talking about cultivated beef, I think it would be difficult to [have similar] benefits for cultivated chicken as long as [we are looking at] climate and environmental parameters. So, this is one.

    Second, as we said before, cultivated needs will be relatively expensive. I talked about solar panels, but we can also talk about electric vehicles as an analogy. Innovation is expensive today, and I think there is an inherent conflict within the world of food tech. Tech is associated with innovation and is expensive, and food is a commodity. It should be at a low price, and not like biomedical products or high-margin products. So, we wanted to get into the market and drive initial acceptance to rely on products where we can bring value so that we can reach prosperity quicker, and build a sustainable business model over the long term.

    When you’re talking about prosperity, it’s not an absolute value, it’s relative, it’s relative to the equivalent product produced with the conventional egg. When we’re talking about this tech price point, which is maybe 10 times higher than GM chicken, it’s easier to get to the same price point as our cost curve is driven down, than to get to the price point of GM chicken, which makes the whole business model more sustainable and enables us to drive more impact over time.

    So, the focus on beef is driven by two decisions: One, to focus on new products where we can really bring benefits and document real environmental impact, and second, based on higher value and higher margins which can drive us to be sustainable as a company earlier. As we drive the cost down and progressively move toward the mainstream, we’ll probably make a cultivated chicken and a cultivated pork down the road. However, it will take a few years.

    uk cultivated meat
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    Sonalie Figueiras: So even though it might seem counterintuitive, it makes the most sense to attack the beef problem, because of its climate footprint, and it makes the most sense to go with steak because it allows for early adopters to get involved, and for you to become financially viable. This is very much the Tesla Model in many ways, right?

    Didier Toubia: Yes, I think it’s been the whole idea with Tesla, that it has been able to drive this transition towards electric vehicles because they weren’t the first to make electric cars. In the 70s, there were early electric cars in the US, but they were the first to crack the code of the right product strategy. If we talk about Tesla, it’s not just starting high-end and then moving to the mass market that drives the cost down, which as we just discussed is what we’re doing, but it is also about differentiating the products versus internal combustion engine cars. We’re not trying to copy existing cuts of beef one-for-one. We’re not trying to be an exact duplication of tenderloin or ribeye, but rather developing our own set of attributes and our value proposition, and differentiate ourselves versus conventional meat, so that our products can be successful based on what they are, and not as a copy of anything, which is not a good marketing strategy.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Okay. I want to get into your product strategy in a second, but since we’ve been talking about your vision and how you started, I want to ask you: You’ve been doing this for a few years now. Has the industry progressed enough, and do you timeline-wise feel you are where you want to be where you thought you were gonna be?

    Didier Toubia: I’ll start with the second question. When we raised our A round in 2019, and we built a business plan back in 2018, so five years ago, we said that we would be in the market by the end of 2022. We’re currently on track for launching Q4 this year. So, we’re probably six to nine months late from our initial plan. I think for a certain type of innovative product, and given the delivery uncertainties we had at the time, we had to invent everything from scratch. I think that this six to nine-month delay within these five years is okay, not bad. So, in terms of timelines, we won’t be that far off and overall, you know, [we are] making good progress according to our plans.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s pretty good, pretty much on track!

    Didier Toubia: I think it is. I think we’re well on track. Plus or minus, you know, 20%, which is kind of the range of the order of magnitude of uncertainty, but overall, we’re on track. I think the industry as a whole has made a lot of progress. When we started, cultivated meat was completely theoretical. It sounded like science fiction. I think that four or five companies in this space, including Aleph Farms, have already developed scalable processes, have done a lot of work on cost reduction, and have already built facilities where they can make cultivated meet at the commercial level and comply with all the regulatory requirements. So, I think that when we’re looking five years back, we can appreciate the progress that has been made, which is phenomenal. I’m not saying that we have solved all the issues or that everything is perfect- there’s still work ahead of us to continue to scale up, meet consumer expectations and move toward the mainstream. However, I think on the technology side, the scientific side, in terms of process development, early industrialization and regulatory compliance, we have made a huge leapfrog, and I’m quite happy to see that. The industry is really on the verge of going to market and starting initial acceptance.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s good to hear. I’m certainly very optimistic, but I want to ask some follow-up questions. One is about timeline constraints around regulatory approval. Currently, that’s only happened for Eat Just in Singapore for two of their chicken products [Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded before Eat Just and Upside Foods were granted US regulatory approval by the USDA in June 2023]. So, I want to understand, you say you plan to launch in Q4, is that going to be in Singapore? And how confident are you on the regulatory approval side? What about regulatory approval in your home country of Israel?

    Didier Toubia: Yes, Aleph Farms decided to focus on the Middle East and Asia first. For the same reasons of food security I mentioned before, I think that there is more need for cultivated meats in those geographies, and that’s where you want to address real issues and have a real impact, so we filed regulatory applications in both Israel and Singapore last year. I can’t share the exact details of where we stand right now, but we believe that we have reasonable chances, and we can be cleared in one of those countries at least in the next few months, and launch after the summer.

    We do believe that Asia will be an important market for us moving forward. When we’re looking at, let’s say 10 years ahead, most of the population of the world is based in Asia, and the increase and growth in meat consumption really relies on Asia, while the consumers are also very open to novel foods, and the public-private partnership we’re talking about is working very well. I think that there’s a lot of alignment between the different stakeholders in the animal protein and fat industry in many Asian regions, as well as in the Middle East, to push innovation and new production systems, which can help in getting more food sovereignty. In Europe and the US, I think that there is a strong political will to drive innovation.

    In my view, we do see, especially in the last six to nine months, as cultivated meat is getting closer to the market, and more interest associated with the conventional agriculture lobbies, which are trying to delay the launch of cultivated meat, that the internal alignment between all the stakeholders in Europe and the US will take more time, just because traditionally, those geographies are very strong in commercial agriculture, and a lot of farmers don’t yet understand exactly what we do, and feel that cultivated meat could be a threat, which we don’t see in Asia, nor the Middle East of course, because cattle production is very limited.

    Sonalie Figueiras: And they don’t have land or enough water

    Didier Toubia: Exactly, exactly. We overlook the importance of land on our planet.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. I mean, since you brought it up, this pushback that we’re seeing in Western markets, especially in North America and Europe, where there are strong beef farmer identities associated with national cultures- let’s dive into this narrative coming up in the media and across social media that cultivated meat is some kind of “franken-food”, that “it’s too tech”, and “it’s not real food.” For some people, there seems to be a bias against it. I want to ask you: What do you think about consumer perception, and what do you think the average person is getting wrong about the science of cultivated meat?

    Didier Toubia: I think that’s a big question and I would like to give three answers. The first one is more related to conventional agriculture and why there is a misperception around cultivated meat, and maybe on the consumer side as well:

    First, we do see cells and cellular agriculture as a third pillar of animal-based agriculture. Same as when we started eating meat thousands of years ago, and meat became widespread 600,000-700,000 years ago when we started cooking meat. And then, many years afterwards when we domesticated animals, we were able to milk cows, goats and sheep, and to drink milk and eat dairy products, which was a completely new source of animal-based products at the time- we were the only species drinking the milk of another species. So, drinking milk was very weird when we started, but today, it’s a normalised part of the food culture.

    We do see a third source of animal-based products, which is cells. Same as milk, which was introduced to the diet a long time ago, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, we’re witnessing today, a third source of food, which is, not exactly meat, it probably has more similarities with milk than with meat, and those cells have the benefit of providing an additional source and additional choice for animal-based products, which can relieve a little bit of the pressure on conventional agriculture for raising farming whole animals. We’ve technically passed the maximum scale, which makes sense in terms of farming whole animals because we have too many costs today [in animal agriculture], and the impact is huge.

    Now, if we can introduce cells into the food system, which do not require the farming of whole animals, we can reduce the number of animals and better manage them in the framework of regenerative ag and sustainable farming practices and still complement them with an additional source of animal-based products to make sure that we have more choices, and ensure that we can still meet the increasing demand for animal proteins and fats? This is how we look at [the opportunity for] cells. We call it cellular agriculture because we believe that similarly to how meat has been incorporated into the agricultural ecosystem, the same can be done with cells. So, we do see cells as an opportunity for agriculture, as an additional revenue stream and an additional practice which can complement sustainably-produced meat and dairy.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So you’re saying that eventually, you’re imagining a system where meat cattle farmers can make money by selling cells to cultivated meat companies?

    Didier Toubia: Yes. They [the farmers] have to make money with the cells, of course. If we don’t find the right business model, it won’t work. Actually at Aleph Farms last year, we started a global research project with the Federation University in Australia to develop different business models for incorporating cells into common conventional farms in different parts of the world, because the business structure of farmers and their farming practices tends to vary a lot between different geographies, like in India, the US, Europe- they all work differently. We need to find a way to incorporate cells into agriculture, it will not work otherwise, that’s for sure.

    I think there’s sometimes a misperception that cultivated beef is a threat to agriculture. We see it as a solution for an inclusive and just transition. You know, I grew up in France, and for instance, France has traditionally been the largest beef-focused country and exporter of beef in Europe. In the last few years, France became a net importer of beef, and on average, the number of [cow] heads is going down by 2.5% every year. 53% of farms are bankrupt and artificially maintained thanks to government subsidies. The average age of livestock farmers is close to 60 years old, and in less than 10 years, more than half of all these livestock farmers will have retired. So, the current system is not working as it is. So, if we can incorporate innovation and direct a part of the subsidies towards the training and investment in research and building capacities for other sources of animal-based food, we can drive an inclusive transition for the benefit of all the stakeholders. That’s a topic that lacks understanding of what cell agriculture is, which sometimes leads to some pushbacks, which is also driven by a lot of financial interests, and conventional agriculture players are benefiting from tens of billions of dollars of subsidies. So, a lot of financial interests in the current system are very strong lobbies, which are motivated by those financial interests and not by any motivation to make change, but that’s not how we can prepare for the future. So, that’s one thing.

    Then, we’re talking about the consumers again, I think that if we are talking about cultivated meat, our first application of the cells is through foods like milk: we can do certain different products for milk. We can make cultivated meat from cells and a range of other products. At Aleph Farms, we publish some of the other products we make from the cells, like collagen, and we have a few other ones. So, we’re not a cultivated meat company, we’re a cellular ag company, and Aleph Cuts is only the first application of the cells.

    When we’re talking about cells, there is a misperception that cells are processed food, which is not the case and I want to talk about that a little bit. What we do is instead of farming big animals like cows, we look at small animals (i.e. the cells). Cells are the building blocks of life and the building blocks of animals (i.e. the cows). We’re able to isolate the cells from a healthy animal, fully test them for safety, and nurture those cells to feed them in a controlled environment, the same as how animals are fed and nurtured in a corral or a meadow to make high-quality animal products. The cells that Aleph Farms uses are not immortalized, meaning we stick to the natural genetic material of the cells. We also follow the same processes and the same stations for cell proliferation and maturation, as in nature. So technically, we do what the animal domestication industry is doing: we replicate a natural process, and we control that environment to grant better access to high-quality nutrition with more predictability and more control. The cells are not ‘processed’. Further, we can turn the cells into a range of different products.

    While I can’t say that cell-based products won’t be processed in the future, the source from which we’re using the cells by themselves is not processed. When we grow cells in the growth medium, which is the feedstock for the cells, we’re using an animal component-free growth medium, meaning we feed them without any animal input. The cells come from animals. If you think about how we make yogurt for instance, or fermented/cultured milk, we also grow cells in a medium. With yogurt, the cells are non-animal, they’re usually bacteria, whilst the growth medium is animal-based. In our case, it’s the opposite, meaning (what we do) when we cultivate ourselves, we do the same thing as when we make yoghurt, but the other way around. In our case, the growth medium is animal-free.

    Sonalie Figueiras: That’s a very helpful analogy.

    So technically, growing cells is a process no different than making yogurt, which is considered unprocessed food. These are some of the misperceptions that arise from many plant-based products out there, which are considered processed. So, it’s those kinds of analogies that people are making in their minds with cells and cultivated meat- they have preconceived ideas.

    Aleph Cuts – Courtesy Aleph Farms

    Sonalie Figueiras: People often confuse plant-based meat and cultivated meat, that’s true. Of course, that’s because all of these technologies are lumped under one umbrella. For most people, change is difficult and new technologies are complicated. However, the yogurt comparison is a very helpful analogy. Did you have a third part that you wanted to share?

    Didier Toubia: Yes, I wanted to say that as we discussed before, we don’t think animal agriculture will disappear in 10 or 20 years. I know that a lot of vegan activists would like us to say that we’ll disrupt conventional agriculture, and a few plant-based companies make this type of claim, which I think is a mistake, because if we’re talking about regenerative ag, and as I’ve explained, we have a strong focus on climate and food security at Aleph Farms, we do need animals. However, we need far fewer animals, and we need to manage them better. Animals have a role in regenerating the soils and have a role in organic farming and are oftentimes associated in the countryside or in the Global South with social and economic value. As I’ve said when talking about Africa, we don’t want to replace smallholder farms, and the cows have a very important social and economic role there, especially for many, many families. We need to respect that. I think that cultivated meat as an application of sales should be complementary, and a driver for the transition to work less, cost less and be better managed. By the time we understand that, people will be looking at cultivated meat from completely different angles, not necessarily as a threat or not like those guys who are trying to replace the food, but as an additional choice for a meal, and this will open a lot of possibilities.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. Instead of an alternative, it’s an added option.

    Didier Toubia: At Aleph Farms, we’re talking about complementary products, instead of alternative products. I think “alternative products” doesn’t mean anything.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, I wrote a piece saying exactly that. I think we made a mistake with the name of the sector. I want to come back to what you just said about the vegan question, because as you might be aware, for some founders in this space, the vegan question is very much at the heart of what they are doing, and I see that for you, the ethical part about consuming animals is not at the heart of your mission here.

    Didier Toubia: I want to expand here: I have a big issue with the industrialization of animal farming. When we grew up in France, 50 years ago, whenever people slaughtered a pig in the village, there was a ceremony. It was on the main square of the village circle, and when people went, there was a ceremony for the animal, and our relationship to the animal, and the value of the animal’s life. Honestly, I don’t have any inherent issue with eating animals, just as long as we realize that, you know, a cow has given its life to bring the steak on your plate. Today, I think there is a disconnection between meat and the life of the animal behind it. When we industrialize and individualize animal agriculture, putting animals into machines to make meat, or raise them, then slaughter them, it’s the same as when we would make cookies in the plant, meaning without any respect for the animal, that causes a lot of discomfort in me. So, regarding the point of slaughtering animals, I would say that I have an issue with the dehumanization, or let’s say ‘object possession?’ I don’t know if that’s the right term, but turning animals into objects?

    Sonalie Figueiras: The exploitation of an animal.

    Didier Toubia: It’s not giving respect to the animal and not valuing its life. I think it’s a big issue associated with industrialization. When you slaughter animals in a factory in a high-speed production chain, I think it’s a big issue. It’s a big ethical issue. That’s why we believe that if we can relieve the pressure on farming big animals by funding small animals like cells, we can revert and return to more extensive regenerative farming practices with higher animal welfare, and connect back to the animals as our “complementaries” [food sources] as well.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It’s really interesting- you keep referring to regenerative agriculture and organic agriculture, and, you know, what we see in the media and the bigger mainstream conversation is that a lot of regenerative beef folks are very against cultivated meat. I think you’ve covered a lot of why that is, the entrenched lobby interests and the misunderstanding of the role of cellular agriculture in the industry. From where I’m sitting, reporting in this space, there does seem to be this kind of very big split between the regenerative people and then cultivated meat as a food technology, so I want to keep pushing on two things. One, I want to talk a little bit about the role of big food in your company because if we look at Aleph’s journey, you have managed to sign collaborative agreements and partnerships or retain as investors some really big names in the food industry such as BRF in Brazil, and Thai Union, and Mitsubishi. So, I want to ask you, are these partnerships that you are going out to look for? Or are these companies approaching you? How do you navigate through working with companies that are, you know, on some level upholding the status quo, which as you described yourself is problematic and not protected against the future?

    Didier Toubia: Firstly, we’re only working with corporations that go through very thorough and strict due diligence by Aleph Farms on ESG parameters, and governmental, social and governance. So, we pick the corporations we work with very carefully based on the alignment of values and vision, that’s important to understand.

    Secondly, we maintain our full independence. We don’t grant any rights on our IP, we don’t have any commitments to change anything, and we have no plans to accommodate any requirements from the company. None of those companies will have a seat on our board of directors, for instance. We’re working with those companies, but they don’t influence or impact the internal decision process. We remain fully independent.

    Thirdly, the reason why we believe it’s important to have them involved. Just like how renewable energy today is driven primarily by the big energy companies that were traditionally oil-based. Eventually, they switched toward renewable energy and were instrumental in driving impact on the transition towards renewable energies- because, at the end of the day, they see themselves as energy companies. So, they want to develop the best solution to provide energy. I think a lot of those protein and fat companies see themselves as protein companies and are not necessarily committed to only producing meat harvested from slaughtered animals. They understand that we need to incorporate additional choices and new production systems for proteins. We want to drive real impact in the market [so] we need the big players to take hold, invest, and [help] scale these industries, same as what happened with renewable energy. 

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, are these companies coming to you?

    Didier Toubia: It really depends. Usually they do. Actually, yes, mostly they do.

    Sonalie Figueiras: So, from your side, since you said there’s strict vetting, you are getting these bigger companies coming to you wanting to learn about what you’re doing, wanting to potentially work together, wanting to participate in this new solution? Is that fair to say?

    Didier Toubia: Yes. Again, we check them very carefully before we start working with them. We want to make sure they are really serious about it. The thing is a lot of those companies do understand that, you know, they can’t continue with business as usual. So, they need to incorporate, and diversify the sources of protein they’re putting into the market.

    uk cultivated meat
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit about your product launch: You recently announced cultivated petite steak, which as you said earlier, is your own format of a steak product. You’re not trying to imitate a conventional beef steak one-for-one. It’s a new label that you’re calling Aleph Cuts. You also just announced a major partnership with Chef Marcus Samuelsson, the very well-known and well-respected James Beard award-winning chef who really privileges work around diversity and takes a broader view of the food system than most. Is he part of your launch plans? I know he’s come in as an investor and an advisor, but can you talk more about how you’re working with him and about your new label?

    Didier Toubia: Yeah, sure. So, the first round of products we’re launching under the Aleph Cuts brand is a series of thin-cut beef steaks, which rely on two or three cell towers from bovine origin going onto a plant-based scaffold matrix, meaning it’s a range of hybrid products – plant and animal cells. We’ve been working very hard for the last few years to make sure those products meet the requirements and the expectations of the consumers, accounting for the fact that food is not a functional product, especially meat, it’s a very emotional product, and food is an experience; especially when we talk about animal products, the emotional connection is very strong and working with chefs to develop the right taste, to give life to our products and to develop the right positioning, but also the right format to create this connection, is really important.

    The reason why we selected Marcus Samuelsson-other than that he is a great guy- was because we wanted to work with a chef who could help drive initial acceptance of our products, help us with positioning it and developing the right key messages, developing the right culinary approaches, and promote our specific value proposition. So, we do see chefs as partners: we need to convey quality, but at the same time, make sure the product is not presented as a luxurious and inaccessible food. We’re very cautious not to work with a three-star Michelin chef who is disconnected from the ground. What we liked about Marcus Samuelsson is that a lot of his values are very much in line with ours in terms of care, inclusiveness, courage, and creativity. He’s very much in line with our brand [goals of] premium but accessible [food].

    Sonalie Figueiras: Is he linked to your plans to visit Ethiopia? [Samuelsson is Ethiopian-born].

    Didier Toubia: Yes. Again, I’m fascinated by Africa, and the thing is that, you know, New Zealand also has a lot of connections with Ethiopia and the Eastern region of Africa, which is very interesting in terms of its food scene, and its economic development as well. So, naturally, we see Ethiopia as an interesting angle for us in Africa- that’s why I’m planning to go there in the next couple of months.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you have children?

    Didier Toubia: I do.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do they know what you do? Do they understand about cultivated meat? How do they see what you do?

    Didier Toubia: Of course, of course! They are quite involved in what I do, and I consult with them on many topics, and I get their input in a lot of the decision-making process.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Some people say that there is a shift globally with this generation (the Gen Zs), and the Alphas coming behind them, in how they think about food, and animal agriculture, and how they are engaged with this idea that they’re living in a pretty serious climate crisis. Do you experience that? And do you think that that’s going to have an impact on our global food systems?

    Didier Toubia: Yes, I do. I think that the younger generation is very knowledgeable about a lot of our global issues, and is very engaged [with them]. In my opinion, they will be the driving force behind the systemic changes we need to implement on the global level.

    Sonalie Figueiras: As the founder of Aleph Farms, what does success look like to you? What do you see when you look ahead and you imagine success and your vision being realized?

    Didier Toubia: I see a food system which is more diverse than today, with more choices, especially more diversity. Technically, today we have many choices, but with very little diversity. What I mean by that is that we have 100 different options of the same products, but we rely on and choose very few production processes, and the food is very concentrated. So, we have a lot of choices, but very little diversity. I would like to incorporate more diversity in the food system, especially with animal products, and to make sure that we can get back to our planetary boundaries while continuing to enjoy gratifying experiences with the food that we eat. I think it’s important because it’s not just a sustainability issue, it’s also a well-being issue. Food is part of what we are. Going back to high-quality foods, and putting the focus on emotions and experiences, is so important- [we need to get] away from ultra-processed and industrialized food products.

    Sonalie Figueiras: What are the biggest challenges to get there? And what challenges are you facing at Aleph, specifically? Is it funding?

    Didier Toubia: I think the biggest challenge is the amplitude of the food system. The food system is such a big industry and that is difficult to change. If we’re talking just about animal proteins, which is a subset of the food system, it’s a $1.8 trillion market, meaning that if you want to make a change in this market, it will cost you a lot of time, because of its amplitude. At Aleph Farms, we have a target for getting to $1 billion in revenues by 2030, as a way to have an impact, and typically $1 billion in revenues is exactly 0% market share of $1.8 trillion! So, if we want to have a real impact, we need to become very, very large-scale, and that requires a lot of time and a lot of collaboration with all of the stakeholders in the ecosystem. At the end of the day, to drive the change, we need all the players in the ecosystem to align their interests and work together to make the change. Of course, it will not be just one company, not even just four or five cultivated meat companies driving the change.

    Sonalie Figueiras: One thing you haven’t mentioned though is government policy. How much of a role do you think that plays in this change?

    Didier Toubia: I’ll go back to renewable energy, which I think is a good analogy for cellular agriculture, no different than any other technologies in the existing market that is intended to drive a systemic change in the way we manage the ecosystem. We’ve seen that for renewable energy to become mainstream took a lot of public-private partnerships and governmental support in investing and scaling up these technologies including loans and loan guarantees, tax breaks and tech agreements. Without governmental support, the renewable energy sector would never have been able to drive the cost down enough to become mainstream. It will be the same with cultivated meat. We need the support for the next 5-10 years until we can drive the costs down to become mainstream.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Thanks so much, Didier. I appreciate you taking the time, and being so open and so elaborate with your answers. It’s been fascinating!

    Didier Toubia: Thanks, Sonalie!

    Listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Green Queen In Conversation is a podcast about the food and climate story hosted by Sonalie Figueiras, the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. The show’s first season, Pioneers of Cultivated Meat, explores cultivated meat, a future food technology on a mission to produce animal protein sustainability. In each of the six episodes, Sonalie interviews the pioneers of the industry, asking the hard questions about one of the most exciting food + climate innovations of our time and sharing the personal story behind each founder’s journey. 

    Green Queen In Conversation is a co-production from Green Queen Media and Cheeky Monkey Productions. This episode was produced by Joanna Bowers and hosted by Sonalie Figueiras.

    The post Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers – Didier Toubia of Aleph Farms appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • scifi foods
    8 Mins Read

    CEO and co-founder of Californian hybrid meat company SciFi Foods Joshua March on alt meat price parity, why he’s all in on combining plant proteins with cultivated meat instead of conventional, and consumers’ disregard for industry terms.

    This article is part of our content series exploring the world of hybrid and blended meat products – those blending cultivated or conventional proteins with plant-based ingredients, respectively, and why some think this is the future of reducing meat consumption.

    “SCiFi Foods is not the future we fear. It’s the future we dream of.”

    That’s the message on the homepage of SciFi Foods, an alt-protein company from California. The future it’s referring to is cultivated meat, but just not in the way you’ve imagined it. SciFi Foods is taking the best of two worlds – the superior taste credentials of cultured proteins and the cost-effectiveness and scalability of plant-based ingredients – to create a hybrid beef product.

    There are many reasons for this. First, while Americans may have a bad rep when it comes to meat-eating, plant-based consumption, and linking meat and dairy intake to climate change, a 1,022-person survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) this May found that the climate impact of meat and poultry affects the purchasing decisions of 62% of US citizens – for seafood, that number is 45%.

    Secondly, Americans have some concerns about the way meat is produced in the country. According to a 1,018-person poll last December by the Good Food Institute (GFI), 46% of Americans are worried about the use of antibiotics. Over a third (36%) are perturbed by the oligopolistic nature of the US meat industry that is dominated by a few very large, and very powerful, corporations, and by the treatment of animals (35%).

    Third, there’s a reason why only two companies are authorised to sell cultivated meat in the US. It’s still a relatively nascent category with a tall ladder to climb, not least in terms of regulatory hurdles, production costs and scalability. This problem is exacerbated when you realise that, as per the GFI survey, 46% of Americans are concerned about the rising costs of meat as well.

    Reuters claims that cultivated meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be price-competitive with traditional meat. Neither Upside Foods nor Eat JUST, the only two producers with US regulatory approval, have disclosed the absolute per pound costs of their respective cultivated chicken. While cultured meat companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for it to reach price parity with its conventional counterparts, which feels like a long time away.

    Despite all that, 45% of respondents in GFI’s survey said they’d likely try cultivated meat. Crucially, this was after the technology was properly described to them. You can look at that as a glass half-empty or half-full manner: nearly half of Americans are receptive to cultured meat, but more than half are not.

    blended meat
    Courtesy: SciFi Foods

    The problem with blended meat

    All this leaves cultivated meat in limbo. Some companies – like 50/50 Foods and Mush Foods – are betting on blended meat, which differs from hybrid in that it pairs plant proteins with conventional meat. It’s a way people can “have their meat and eat it too”, as 50/50 Foods CEO Andrew Arentowicz told Green Queen last month.

    But that category has had its ups and downs, with meat giants like Tyson Foods and retailers like Aldi introducing and subsequently pulling blended meat products from the market. The IFIC survey revealed that while 14% of Americans were eating more blended meats in the last year, that is a decline from the growth seen the year before. Plus, a higher number (20%) are eating fewer of these products, while an equal number have never consumed it.

    Plant-based meat has reached mainstream recognition and cultivated meat is making headlines with its regulatory approvals, crowding out the category before you even consider fermentation-based proteins. GFI notes that blended may need support in establishing a value proposition with consumers and needs to reach a broader meat-eating audience to access its full potential.

    Allaying consumer concerns

    joshua march
    SciFi Foods founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora | Courtesy: SciFi Foods

    Which brings us back to the future according to SciFi Foods. “We know that 100% cultivated meat may take decades to develop, while hybrid products are possible today,” says its co-founder and CEO Joshua March. “Products that blend plant-based meat with conventional meat are great in concept,” he adds, “but buying food is a very emotional decision.”

    This is because “a significant part of the benefit of eating meat alternatives comes from the emotional satisfaction of knowing that no animal was killed”, alongside the climate factor – it’s no secret that plant-based alternatives are much more climate-friendly than meat. “That emotional impact is just not there if ‘slightly fewer animals died for this burger’,” outlines March. “This isn’t about marketing messages, but rather the emotional impact of different products, which make a huge impact.”

    But look at the flipside then. Why would meat-eaters who are indifferent to plant-based alternatives and apprehensive of cultivated proteins want to replace their meat with a mix of these two? “We think getting on the market ASAP with an amazing product is the best way to attract all consumers, and our brand is about a tasty burger that uses cultivated beef cells as their magic ingredient,” explains March. “We think the novelty of the cells will attract early consumers, including meat-eaters, and the taste will keep them coming back.”

    He continues: “Ultimately, concepts like hybrid or blended are more industry terms and have little relevance for the average consumer.” He punctuates this point with the example of fellow Californian alt-meat company Impossible Foods. “Today, consumers routinely buy the Impossible Burger without dissecting its composition, which includes recombinant proteins produced through precision fermentation [the company’s signature heme ingredient] blended with isolated plant proteins and other ingredients.”

    Price parity and 2024 launch plans

    lab grown meat
    Courtesy: SciFi Foods

    Previously called Artemys Foods, SciFi Foods emerged from stealth last year with a $22M Series A round led by blue chip Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), moving into a new 16,000 sq ft pilot facility. Even with hybrid products, March says the biggest challenges are cost and scale: “Scaling up a novel biomanufacturing process is always hard, but it’s especially hard if you are producing commodity products at competitive prices.”

    In July last year, the startup announced it had achieved price parity with conventional beef using a combination of its proprietary high-throughput cell line engineering and CRISPR technology. The latter is a piece of tech adapted from a genome editing system used by bacteria for immunity and has been touted as a potential embryonic treatment for several hereditary diseases (though it carries some controversy, as studies say altering the DNA of embryos or eggs and sperm could cause mutations that lead to other health threats).

    SciFi Foods has experimented with 10-20% cultivated proteins mixed with plant-based proteins (primarily soy) to produce a burger it claims will cost under $10 to make at its facility, with scaled-up manufacturing potentially driving costs further down to $1 per burger.

    March points to the industrial fermentation space for proof points that price parity for this sector is possible. “But,” he adds, “there is only one reasonable blueprint for how to get there: a very simple process with minimal downstream processing and robust cell lines that grow well with low-cost inputs.

    “Many of those cell lines are optimised through genetic engineering to approach the maximum theoretical performance for converting feed to product. We believe that all of the same principles apply to cultivated meat, which informs our unique strategy.” And since SciFi Foods is making hybrid beef, it doesn’t “need to worry about tissue maturation or scaffolding, which dramatically reduces the complexity and cost” of its process.

    Steve Molino, Principal at US venture fund Clear Current Capital, which backs food system disruptors, says he thinks the SciFi team is on the right track strategically. “While some are obsessing over how to create 100% cultivated products, I agree with SCiFi’s approach of understanding the minimum inclusion rate required to create the same experience as conventional beef. This strategy will allow for the improved unit economics and scale that will ultimately maximize the chances of reaching commercial viability.” Note: Clear Current Capital is not an investor in SciFi Foods.

    hybrid meat
    Courtesy: SciFi Foods

    The company plans to launch through foodservice channels – as Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat and Upside Foods have done – at the end of 2024, pending regulatory approval. SciFi’s cultivated beef product, which the company hopes will be the first cultivated beef product to launch on the market globally, will need to be cleared for sale by the FDA, while its harvest process and product labelling will be supervised by the USDA.

    Molino recently attended a SciFi Foods burger tasting and left very impressed: “Cultivated companies will not be successful by creating things that are simply better than plant-based products. They’ll win if they can create the same, ordinary experience animal products offer, which is loved by the masses. The SciFi burger did just that, and both myself and the meat eater I brought along with me thought ‘it simply tastes like a good hamburger’.

    The company’s Series A round was followed by a partnership with Michigan State University to test and finalise the plant-based part of its hybrid burger, as well as further investments that have taken total financing to over $40M. One of its early backers was the British brand Coldplay, so it does beg the question: could the scientists at SciFi Foods fix you(r meat cravings)?

    Read the first two instalments of this series: interviews with 50/50 Foods CEO Andrew Arentowicz and Mush Foods CEO Shalom Daniel.

    The post SciFi Foods CEO on Cultivated-Plant Hybrid Meat: ‘Buying Food is a Very Emotional Decision’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • mycelium china
    5 Mins Read

    Shanghai-based cellular agriculture startup CellX, known for cultivated meat, has ventured into mycelium fermentation to expand its portfolio of sustainable proteins. The company plans to use fermented proteins in meat and dairy alternatives and combine them with cultured proteins to make more affordable hybrid meat, with regulatory filings planned for China and overseas.

    CellX’s mycelium venture comes three months after it opened China’s first large-scale cultivated meat pilot factory. At the time, the company had stressed the importance of price parity with animal-derived meat, with production costs at well below $100 per lb of cultured meat already (although it would need to reach $2.92 to be price-competitive).

    The new mycelium programme helps this cause. CellX says mycelium proteins have near-term advantages in both cost and scale and have differences in raw material performance. This will help supplement the company’s mid-range protein product portfolio.

    cellx bacon
    CellX’s mycelium bacon prototype | Courtesy: CellX

    CellX’s fermentation protein raw material uses a mycelium strain that boasts over 40% protein and over 20% dietary fibre, and is rich in trace elements and active ingredients like antioxidants. Plus, its amino acid score coefficient is as high as 0.98, which is on par with conventional beef.

    After screening for 2,000 microbial strains, the company has found several fungi strains suitable for fermentation in collaboration with “well-known institutions in China”. It has already commenced its fermentation process, with a pilot production of 10 cubic metres. And it intends to partner with downstream developers to create new meat and dairy alternatives as well as functional foods using its mycelium protein.

    Advancing the hybrid meat category in China

    CellX will also tap into the cost-effectiveness of mycelium fermentation to “enhance the competitiveness” of its cultivated meat portfolio by creating hybrid meat products – which combine cultivated proteins with plant-based and fermented ones. This reduces the cost of cultivated meat, which as mentioned is still far from price parity, and ensures the same, “if not better”, nutritional profile as conventional meat.

    The company has previously showcased hybrid products, exhibiting a cultured minced pork product mixed with plant protein in 2021. CellX believes these are “ultimately a more compelling product choice for the consumer”. It’s a path taken by several companies globally, allowing them to go to market faster, given the cheaper production costs and more scalable manufacturing aspect.

    cellx mycelium
    Courtesy: CellX

    CellX’s mycelium venture is a shrewd move, given that it’s a market set to grow by 7.7% annually to reach $5.21B in 2030. According to one estimate, China produced 75% of mycelium globally in recent years. But while there are a host of companies working with fungi-based meats around the world – like Meati, Quorn and Libre Foods, to name a few – there aren’t many doing so in China. Last year, Shanghai-based 70/30 Food Tech became the country’s first mycelium protein company.

    cellx cultivated meat
    Courtesy: CellX

    Other companies working with fermentation proteins in China include ProTi Food Tech, Blue Canopy, Changing Bio and Geb Impact Technology. In a report evaluating the fermentation protein market in China, Tao Zhang, co-founder of Chinese alt-protein investment firm Dao Foods, wrote: “The fermentation approach has a lot of potential in China given its history in the country, China’s manufacturing advantage, and its relatively faster speed in terms of mass commercialisation.”

    He added: “Without a doubt, China can play an important role in both the strategy and execution of any new protein company [that] has the wish and will to learn and take advantage of what China can offer on this front for these reasons.”

    Outside China, California’s The Better Meat Co. and Israel-based Mush Foods both make mycelium-based proteins for applications in blended meat (which refers to a mix of conventional and plant proteins).

    Regulatory approval and government support for alt-protein

    CellX, which has raised over $20M following a Series A+ round in June, has earmarked 2025 as a launch year for both its cultivated and fermented proteins. Its co-founder and CEO Ziliang Yang previously confirmed to Green Queen that the company was planning to file for regulatory approval for its cultured meat in Singapore and the US – the only two countries that have cleared the sale of these products.

    Now, the company says it’s preparing to submit an application to regulators in both China and abroad for its mycelium protein. A report earlier this year by Asia Research Engagement suggested that 50% of China’s protein consumption must come from alt-protein sources if it is to decarbonise, with 24% coming from plant-based proteins, 16% from fermentation-derived protein, and 10% from cultivated meat/seafood.

    cultivated meat china
    Courtesy: CellX

    This spells an opportunity for CellX, which is working on cultured beef, pork, poultry and seafood, especially given the fact that China’s one-billion-plus population leads the world in meat consumption. There’s also proof that consumers are interested in cultured meat, with one survey revealing that 90% of its citizens are willing to combine their meat intake with cultivated proteins. Last year, the industry association the China Cellular Agriculture Forum (which includes CellX) held its first event, attended by about 30 companies.

    There is government support too. Last year, China included cultivated meat and future foods in its five-year agricultural plan. And earlier this week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization collaborated with the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment to host a roundtable meeting on cultivated food production and precision fermentation. The meeting provided international stakeholders to discuss the latest developments in regulation and production, an event that CellX called “a significant milestone in the development of cultivated meat and precision fermentation in China”.

    The post Chinese Startup CellX Enters the Mycelium World to Create Hybrid Proteins with Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.