Cultured meat 2.0
What I talk about when I talk about protein made with light, the hidden costs of our food system and fake pistachio ice cream.
Hello! Welcome to my new readers. Thank you for subscribing. A few of you are likely here to read the profile I wrote about Prolific Machines for The Information. I’ll include a link to the PDF at the end. For everyone else, writing about Prolific gave me the opportunity to research optogenetics – a technique to use light to control cells. Primarily, it’s been used in labs and focused on neurons and protein cells. But now it could potentially widen into being used to create therapeutics, antibodies, and alternative proteins. In the opening to this story I tasted a meatball grown by light. (OooOOooh)
Despite my good news profile –- they closed the first half of a Series B at $55 million including investment from both Bill Gates and Robert Downey Jr’s climate funds — most other cultured meat startups are failing to raise money and are shutting down (SciFi Foods) and cutting staff (Aleph Farms). Some US states are hoping to squash it by passing sales bans. Florida’s ban goes into effect on July 1st.
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To that end, Upside Foods is hosting a cultured meat tasting in Miami, Florida a few days before the sales ban goes into effect. The chef will be Mika Leon so expect some Latin / Florida vibes to the food. I wish I lived closer, had a private plane or deep pockets, but if you’re able to go it’s on Thursday, June 27th at 6:30 PM ET. If you *can* go, reply to this email and I’ll forward your name along. They can serve around 130-150 people and expect to run out.
Eric Schulze, formerly of the FDA and also formerly of Upside Foods, told me he considers Prolific Machines to be “Cultured Meat 2.0.” Can the sector rethink how to scale and grow alternative proteins beyond pop ups and taste tests? Will light be the way forward? Much seems to be pointing that way, including that Schulze was hired by Prolific to work on regulatory approvals.
About those alternative proteins. Adam Yee, who had me on his podcast ‘My Food Job Rocks’ and recently launched Sobo Foods, a plant-based dumpling company, called into the office hours of the Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway. He asked: “Is the alternative meat era was over?” Yee talked about what turbulent times alt proteins is going through. Then, Yee asked how he should brand his food company in order to beat “Big Meat”?
Galloway told Yee not to worry about branding. He said: “You’re in a nuclear winter. Cut costs, lay off 60% of your staff, cut burn and get through this nuclear winter. Fifty to 80% of alt meat companies are going to go away.” But he also holds out. “You gotta assume this is going to happen. Let’s assume that it’s a given, but you have to get to the other side. There’s going to be a valley of death. Don’t focus on sustainabilty, focus on taste. Extend your runway as long as possible. Do sampling. Be really scrappy, throw nickles around like manhole covers.”
Eventually, says Galloway, there will be a brightside: “When the market comes back it should be champagne and cocaine because there will be fewer players.” Preach.
I’m just here for the tidbits:
“Cheap food in reality is sometimes very expensive.” A great look at the true-cost accounting of our food system by Arizona State University. A quick hit on the stats you’ll read about: The American food system accounts for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 44 million people are food insecure. More than half of US land is used for crops, but only a fraction is used for food. The hidden costs of our food system equal $12.7 trillion dollars, which “translates to $5 per person, per day, worldwide.”
Sometimes I don’t pick up a story, and this was certainly one of those. Two companies using the same strain of mycelium to make food for human have been slogging it out in the court system trying to determine whether one took IP from the other. I cover these food-tech companies that often raise money based on the tech they can prove, which comes from patents and IP. The question here is: Do we allow startups to “own” or productize the natural world like a mycelium strain? Read AgFunder’s post about about Meati vs Better Meat Co.
Less serious but still being duked out in court, a Long Island woman is suing Cold Stone Creamery for serving pistachio ice cream that doesn’t actually include real pistachios. Later, when the plaintiff read the website she learned that the flavor was made of pistachio flavoring” made of ethanol, propylene glycol, natural and artificial flavor, yellow 5, and blue 1. (Yeachhhh!) Should we expect real foods to be in our ice cream or any other wholesome food similar to ice cream? (Yes.) Do you watch over the “natural flavors” term on the nutrition facts panel? (Yes.)
In a similar vein, a competitive eater was banned from Nathan’s annual hot-dog eating contest held on July 4th because he signed a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods to help launch the company’s new plant-based dogs. (I can’t make this stuff up!) In other “dog” news, I’m told Raw Dog: The Naked Truth about Hot Dogs is an excellent read.
Where you can find me:
I profiled Prolific Machines for The Information. Read the PDF.
I wrote about how to get plastics out of our kitchens for Sierra Magazine. I am very passionate about the deluge of single-use plastic we’re being buried under and after researching this piece I’m adding to my list with plastic food storage containers, plastic straws, plastic coffee lid covers, food that comes in plastic bags and any kitchen utensils that are black. If you want to go deeper on microplastics, read this New Yorker story about 3M.