n January of this year, I wrote an article
for Innovators Magazine, Make money
and save the world. In the article, I
documented some of the many problems
with how we currently produce meat, from
the way that current systems contribute to
global hunger to the link between the meat
industry and environmental degradation.
For more, please see this TED Talk: Markets &
Food Technology Will Save the World.
Luckily, innovators around the world are
creating better ways to produce meat. Some
companies are breaking meat down into
its constituent parts – amino acids, lipids,
minerals, and water – and replicating all
those elements with plants: plant-based
meat. Others are making clean meat, taking
a cue from Winston Churchill’s prediction
in 1931: “We shall escape the absurdity of
growing a whole chicken in order to eat
the breast or wing, by growing these parts
separately under a suitable medium.”
These clean meat companies have made
tremendous strides. It was only fve years
ago this August that former Harvard Medical
School professor, Dr Mark Post presented
the frst clean meat hamburger, courtesy of
$1 million grant from Google co-founder
Sergey Brin. In the time since, there has been
tremendous growth in the feld. Nearly 20
clean meat companies have formed or are in
the process of forming, from Silicon Valley to
Israel to Japan. There have been tastings of
clean meat meatballs, chicken, duck, steak
chips, foie gras, fsh, and more.
In addition to Sergey Brin, plant-based
and clean meat are backed by a range of
tech visionaries: from Bill Gates and Richard
Branson to venture capital kingmakers DFJ
and Google Ventures.
But it isn’t just the tech world that is
supporting clean meat. Tyson Foods – the
largest meat producer in the United States
– has invested in both Memphis Meats and
Israel’s Future Meat Technologies. Meat
conglomerate Cargill has also invested in
Memphis Meats. And PHW Group, Germany’s
largest chicken company, has invested in
Israel’s SuperMeat.
Governments are also starting to see
the need to fund this transformative
technology. The Netherlands was the frst
to support clean meat research. Since then,
there has been interest from India, and the
Israeli government’s innovation fund is
supporting Aleph Farms’ development. In
May of this year, the Japanese government
invested in Integriculture.
While clean meat’s widespread
commercial availability is still in the future,
amazing plant-based meat is available now.
Cutting-edge companies like Impossible
Foods and Beyond Meat are capturing media
attention, as well as hundreds of millions
of dollars in global investments. This is not
surprising, given that the companies are
targeting meat eaters by bio-mimicking
meat’s structure and taste.
When Bill Gates tasted Beyond Meat’s
plant-based chicken strips, he said he
couldn’t tell the diference. Gates declared:
“What I just ate was not just a clever meat
substitute; what I just ate is the future of
food.” Since then, Beyond has introduced the
Beyond Burger and Sausage, both to great
success. For example, the Beyond Burger was
restaurant chain TGI Friday’s fastest test-to-
table menu item ever.
Other plant-based meat companies
have upped their game in response to
growing demand. Tofurky’s Slow Roasted
Chick’n is superb, and their new ham roast
is so good it’s scary. Canada’s largest meat
producer, Maple Leaf Foods, has purchased
innovative plant-based meat companies
Lightlife and Field Roast. Maple Leaf’s
plan? To be the most sustainable protein
company in the world.
Plant-based and clean meat are
advancing so quickly that it is almost
impossible to keep up. This is a major reason
The Good Food Institute is hosting The
Good Food Conference this September at
the University of California Berkeley. It is
being co-hosted by the Sutardja Center for
Entrepreneurship & Technology as well as
Dr Mark Post himself – fve years and one
month after he launched the clean meat
burger into the world
With Dr Post’s help, we are gathering
the world’s leading scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs, investors, and policy experts
to discuss every aspect of the new food
system we’re building. The speakers include
plant-based and clean meat pioneers Dr
Uma Valeti of Memphis Meats, Josh Tetrick
of JUST, Dr Pat Brown of Impossible Foods,
and Seth Goldman of Beyond Meat.
A few other notables include James
Joaquin of Obvious Ventures, Tom
Mastrobuoni from Tyson Ventures,
and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Ann Veneman.
Moderators include representatives from
the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MIT
Technology Review, Inc. Magazine, Wired,
Vox, the BBC, and Business Insider.
If you can’t make the conference, please
be sure check out this TED Talk: Markets &
Food Technology Will Save the World and
please be a part of this transformation of the
meat industry.
Sign up for the Good
Food Conference
6-7 September. University of
California Berkeley
www.goodfoodconference.com
Bruce
Friedrich
IMAGE CREDIT: MEMPHIS MEATS