The disrupters that will change our world forever
Clean Meat — Meat-Free Meat
In an era where many are beginning to think about what we harvest from the planet, what we dispose of and what we waste it is exciting to hear of revolutions not just evolutions. Disrupters excite me because with change comes progress and by challenging the status quo we strive to improve. That’s why the clean meat and meat-free explosion is fascinating and so exciting. About 2 years ago after living with a vegetarian for many years I suddenly started thinking about what I was eating. I was your average joe eating meat with most meals, it was the norm. So, I began reading about what I was eating versus what the human body needs. In an ideal world we would scan our bodies to find out for that day what it needed depending on our goal and then create a meal aligned to that requirement. Even better the food would be created with our favourite tastes and textures and be full of all the nutrients needed for that day. Let’s be clear I don’t want a world where at 5pm I wash down a pill that feeds my body for the day. There is a pleasure that comes from the social and family side of food as well as the enjoyment of eating great food.
So, what is the oldest industry in the world? The food industry. What is one of the least advanced industries in the world yep the food industry. That’s why over the last 12 months I have become more and more excited about the advancements being made to disrupt and revolutionise the food industry. The area that I think is the most exciting at the moment is the long overdue revolution in meat production. There has been lots of talk over the years about how long it can be sustained. Technology has enabled many countries that previously consumed very little meat to add it to their daily diet, that alongside overall population increases means meat demand is soaring. This has led to animal agriculture becoming the most pollutant and water consuming industry in the world. It is estimated that over 60 billion animals are killed a year, apparently McDonalds alone requires about 70,000 cows a day to create its burgers. That’s nearly 50 cows harvested since you started reading this article. Now just think how much water, feed, grains, drugs etc are needed to rear these animals. Wow! and the need is growing every day. So, something has to change, and I am delighted that a group of people are beginning to disrupt our world for the better. They are all part of the “clean meat” or “meat-free” movement who are re-inventing our food using science and technology. Their vision: to provide meats for the future that do not require harvesting or harming animals. This isn’t just an alternative to meat its meat re-invented. Impossible Foods, Supermeat, Memphis Meats, Beyond Meat, Finless Foods & Geltor are the six teams I am excited about. If you haven’t heard about them before then below is some info to wet your appetite.
Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown is aiming to produce meat-free meat with $257m behind the team. Yep that’s right they are re-engineer food from the molecular level to create plant-based meat and dairy products that taste just like the real thing, it’s like the Pepsi taste test all over again. In 6 years they have gone from theory to understanding the molecular structure that makes up meat and beginning to replicate that using plants. The proof of this is replicating heme, which is the iron based molecule that provides the taste and aroma of meat. Impossible are replicating this using leghaemoglobin from plants to release the meat flavours. I know what you are thinking mmm that’s impossible… exactly. Why not try them yourselves as you can buy an Impossible burger in more than 400 restaurants across America, hopefully they will be in the UK soon.
SuperMeat are on the verge of disrupting the poultry market using bioengineering to culture meat from animal cells without every harming a single animal. CEO Ido Savir has a real focus on ending the suffering of animals and with that will bring healthier cleaner meat for human consumption. They have all the backing they need and have topped that with a recent $300 million trade deal between Israel and China to export lab-grown meats.
Beyond Meat is another fantastic company lead by CEO Ethan Brown who are replacing meat with no meat products using plants. Also, like the Impossible Burger, the Beyond Burger “bleeds” red juices when you take a bite, thanks to the use of beets. Already Beyond Meat has plant-based beef and chicken available across over 9,000 American outlets. It is now also proving to be a massive hit in TGI Friday restaurants across America. The burger so far has caught the headlines with its taste tests. Chicken and sausages are also now available, and they have also major backing including companies which already distribute animal-made meats.
Memphis Meats are led by a cardiologist who wants to save billions of human lives and trillions of animal lives. While creating muscle tissue from stem cells for a human heart Uma Valeti thought what if he could do the same and create real meat without hurting any animals. So if still not convinced by plant-based meat then this is for you real meat but clean-meat. Based in San Francisco they a transforming his lab engineered meat into a reality. They have already unveiled the world’s first chicken and duck meat that didn’t require any animals. This is the first big breakthrough but it is still expensive to produce and so their target now is to optimise the process to reduce the costs and get to the retail market by 2021. If they hit their target then our childrens children may live in a world that breeding, growing and killing animals for food will seem like a fairy tale.
Finless Foods CEO Mike Selden has his teams focused on the oceans as they aim to create lab grown fish protein. With over 53% of earths fish stocks fully exploited and demand rising, something must change. It’s still early days but the team are hard at work creating bluefin Tuna without the need for real Tuna. Over fishing is a growing problem and the finless team want to deliver a solution before it’s too late for some species. The exciting thing about this is finless fish is it will be clean fish without the pollutants that are absorbed into the many fish we currently consume.
Geltor aims to replace animal products in jelly sweets and other products by replacing animal derived gelatine with plant-based gelatine. Gelatine is normally produced from animal skin or bones but Geltor are programming microbes to product collagen and then gelatine without the need for animals. CEO Alexander Lorestani also has the team producing collagen for the beauty industry and animal-free leather. I cannot wait to have Haribos one day made from animal free gelatine.
With the revolution underway what could our world look like in 20 years if these disrupters are successful. Healthier humans, healthier Planet, healthier/safer animals and scalable food production. Should animal farmers be worried, or should they embrace and be part of the revolution? As innovators and technologists why not think about how you can support and accelerate the innovation in food, what can you do to support the pioneers and their teams change our planet forever?
I can’t wait to see which of the teams above bring their products to the UK shores first.
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