In celebration of New Harvest’s 10 year anniversary on 23 July 2014, we are looking back at some of the milestones on our timeline of events, which covers the many achievements and breakthroughs in New Harvest’s work and the research into alternative meat production over the last 10 years.

August 5th, 2013: A live tasting in London exhibits the first cultured meat product- a burger created by Dr. Mark Post’s research team in the Netherlands

Written by Isha Datar

Happy Cultured Meat Day!

Exactly one year ago today, Dr. Mark Post of Maastricht University unveiled the first cell cultured beef burger before a closed audience of journalists. Also revealed that day was the burger project’s funder – Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder.

I had the amazing opportunity to be in the audience that day. No, I didn’t get to taste the burger (that would have been beyond exciting and would have helped considering how often I am asked how it tastes), but I did get to sit alongside cultured meat researchers Henk Haagsman who played a role in the Dutch Cultured Meat Project from 2005-2009, and Cor Van Der Weele, a cultured meat social scientist from Wageningen University.

Thankfully, the whole live event was captured on film, and you can see the burger being revealed, then pan fried, then tasted. At the end, you will also see me ask a question about the importance of philanthropy in the development of cultured meat.

Tasters Hanni Rutzler and Josh Schonwald found the burger to be definitely not like a soy alternative, but requiring more flavor. I guess this is to be expected considering this burger was created with 0% fat… completely lean. And we all know the fat and gristle is where the taste resides.

New York Times article summarizing the tasting event

Isha Datar’s reflection of the event in an op-ed piece for CNN

What’s next?

Dr. Post intends to build a better burger – one with fat, and one that is completely animal free.

And the burger that was tasted was actually one of two burgers!!! The first burger was cooked the day before, to see how it would perform in cooking conditions. Turns out that that burger has since been plastinated  - a la Body Worlds – and put on display in the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands. This important Dutch museum also houses the world’s first microscope, created by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.

We got a picture of the burger’s display (at right) from a friend visiting the museum.

Have there been any other tastings?

We know that Modern Meadow has been sharing it’s cultured steak chips in less publicized, more private venues and events (google “Modern Meadow steak chips” to find some stories on them).

We’re looking forward to the better burger and more iterations of steak chips. Perhaps we’ll also see something tastable from a bioreactor in the near future? The future has yet to show us what the next cultured meat milestones will look like.

Happy Cultured Meat Day!

Ben Davidow is a 27-year old web developer living in San Francisco. He has been concerned about animal rights since becoming a vegetarian when he was 8 years-old and later reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer.

Ever since learning about cultured meat in 2005, he has been incredibly excited about its potential and recently wrote an essay arguing its importance entitled “The Case for Cultured Meat.” The essay appeared in his book, Uncaged, which provides insight on effective farm advocacy from the leading activists in the field.

Ben is also a member of the Effective Altruism movement which is all about using evidence and reason to figure out how we can have the greatest positive impact in our lives.

Ben Davidow: I didn’t exactly have a well thought-out philosophy at that point. I made the connection that meat comes from animals, it doesn’t grow on trees. It just didn’t seem right. Later on I read Animal Liberation and found out about factory farming, I became more passionate about it and adopted a more utilitarian approach and thought this is one of the most effective ways to reduce suffering in the world.

Great question, my family was really supportive. I think that is actually a barrier that gets in the way of more kids becoming vegetarian. Many kids make the connection, but their parents don’t give them that choice and convince them eating meat is the natural thing to do. My parents were very  supportive and if they weren’t, we might not be having this conversation, so I’m very grateful for that.

I went through a phase when I was 9 and was a jerk…if people were eating meat around me I would go silent and cringe at them. I gave that up eventually, because aside from being a jerk, it was also just not effective. The most effective thing to do is be a role model; people will follow if you set a good example. My family has moved a lot towards that direction.

What did you learn from writing your book, Uncaged? Are there one or two pieces of advice to summarize the most effective farm animal advocacy strategies?

I would say two things. (1) Don’t preach to people, outreach is more about listening than talking. Find out where people are coming from, you have to empathize with people to influence them, understand their values and the barriers coming between their current lifestyle and more compassionate choices. (2) Don’t be absolutist. Really look at which consumption choices cause the most suffering. If you crunch the numbers it turns out giving up chicken has much more effect than other animal foods. This is mainly because chickens are smaller,  200 chickens produce the amount of meat that 1 cow does. Convince someone to give up chicken, and it has almost as much impact as convincing someone to go vegetarian and way more than persuading someone to give up red meat.

Three factors; (1) environmental, (2) health reasons, people are told saturated fat leads to heart disease, red meat has saturated fat, etc. (3) it’s easier to empathize with cows and larger mammals than with chickens.

If you can, support an effective non-profit like New Harvest, The Humane League, or Mercy For Animals. A large idea in Effective Altruism is what’s called “earning to give” which means trying to earn as much as you can, cutting unnecessary spending in your lifestyle, and then giving as much as you can to the most cost-effective non-profits. Effective Altruists argue that it’s often more effective to Earn to Give than to work directly for a good cause. It’s counter intuitive but there’s lots of evidence to support this strategy.

I described the process in the footnotes, it’s a very speculative. But if you take all the meat and animal products consumed globally, and look at how many hours of factory farming that translates into (billions and billions) and then you find that an hour is this fraction of a year… so very rough, but it conveys the scale of what we are talking about.

Well I would say a few things. First off, I would challenge the idea that everything unnatural is evil, like vaccines for example. People didn’t have vaccines in prehistoric times but they have saved countless lives. Second, you have to look at how “unnatural” cultured meat is compared to what we have now. Factory farming is arguably one of the most unnatural things we have created. Chickens live in cages so small they can’t flap their wings, and they are never allowed to be outside in the sunshine. They are given hormones and antibiotics to cover up the problems created by putting them in such a small space. Cultured meat is a much less harmful and arguably more natural alternative to factory farming. Look at not what is “natural” but what is more compassionate- what creates the least suffering.

I think that the potential benefits far outweigh any potential downsides. I suppose it could further distance people from how food is created, further industrialize meat production. Isha has mentioned a system of people creating in vitro meat in their homes, like microbreweries, which is a neat idea but that said, there is a risk of further centralizing food production. Not that centralizing is inherently bad, but big decisions in fewer hands that stand to make a lot of money tends to lead to problems. We have those risks already in the food industry though and the bigger thing is that the benefits of cultured meat are so much greater than any associated risks.

Things are already starting to get better, it terms of people becoming more aware and making better choices and some of the cruelest practices in factory farming being phased out. I am really optimistic because of technologies like cultured meat and also what’s going on at Hampton Creek Foods. People have this idea that factory farming has been around forever, and it’s this big force we can’t do anything about, but if you really look at the timeframe… if you condense animal agriculture into one year, factory farming wouldn’t show up until late afternoon on December 30th. It’s a very young phenomenon and we are in a great position to move on from it with new technologies.

I would like to encourage getting involved in Effective Altruism. There’s a growing community of Effective Altruists, even a Facebook group specific to Effective Altruism for animal causes. There’s an upcoming convention too, basically it’s a really welcoming community of awesome, thoughtful people. What I encourage if anyone is unfamiliar with the concept- watch Peter Singer’s TEDTalk or read The Life You Can Save, which is about how to end extreme poverty, and is the book which really opened my eyes to Effective Altruism.

If you’d like to find out more about Effective Altruism, get in touch with Ben at bendvw@gmail.com

New Harvest Anniversary / Muufri Hiring / Isha Datar “Investing in Ag” / Animal Rights Reflections / Alexandra Sexton at International Food Design / Mark Post on Twitter

Read the whole newsletter here.

The best way to keep up with New Harvest and our activities, meet our community, and see how you can get involved is to subscribe to our newsletter.

In celebration of New Harvest’s 10 year anniversary on 23 July 2014, we are looking back at some of the milestones on our timeline of events, which covers the many achievements and breakthroughs in New Harvest’s work and the research into alternative meat production over the last 10 years.

2011: New Harvest-funded environmental analysis on cultured meat production is published

New Harvest put out a request-for-proposals to find a researcher who would b
e interested in investigating the environmental impacts of cultured meat. The research was to be peer-reviewed and New Harvest would simply fund the investigation.

Hanna Tuomisto at Oxford University had the best proposal, and was chosen to perform an environmental analysis, based on a review of current research, of the impact of cultured meat production as compared to conventional meat production. The authors explored the impacts that cultured meat would have on greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, as well as opportunity costs of land use, should it completely replace conventional meat production in all 27 member states of the European Union.

The paper predicted that, based on current published figures and research, complete replacement of conventional meat with cultured meat would result in an incredible 78-98% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 99% reduction in land use and 82-96% reduction in water use,and 45% reduction in energy use.

In addition, the authors note that cultured meat could help reduce most environmental impacts of livestock production if the land released from livestock farming was used for providing environmental services. Cultured meat production could have potential benefits for wildlife conservation for two main reasons:

i. It reduces pressure for converting natural habitats to agricultural land

ii. It provides an alternative way of producing meat from endangered and rare species that are currently over hunted and over fished for food

However, they point out that it may also have some negative impacts on rural biodiversity due to the reduction in need for grasslands and pastures, depending upon how the land is used. In some hilly areas, livestock plays an important role in maintaining the open landscapes that are preferred over forested hills. The conversion of grasslands into forest, and arable-lands to producing energy crops for biofuel, for example, might benefit some species whilst others may suffer.

This key environmental assessment paper has since been cited a countless number of times in quantifying the potential environmental benefit of cultured meat, by both researchers and the media.

It has also received some criticism for inaccuracies. The main criticism is that since a cultured meat production industry doesn’t yet exist, the paper is basically “a fairly complex thought experiment.” It therefore is based on a number of assumptions, such as the use of Cyanobacteria hydrolysate (a bacterium cultivated in ponds) as the nutrient and energy source for muscle cell growth, when we have not yet proven that meat tissue can even be grown using this bacteria.

The authors do acknowledge that “as the technology for producing cultured meat in large-scale production plants is currently not well defined, there are many uncertainties about the data of the environmental impacts of cultured meat production presented in this paper.” However, Tuomisto has recently announced that she is working on updating the paper with better knowledge about advances in cultured meat technology to be more accurate. We’re looking forward to seeing the results!

In celebration of New Harvest’s 10 year anniversary on 23 July 2014, we are looking back at some of the milestones on our timeline of events, which covers the many achievements and breakthroughs in New Harvest’s work and the research into alternative meat production over the last 10 years.

2011: Modern Meadow is founded

Modern Meadow is an innovative company founded in 2011 that is currently developing cultured leather and meat, which requires no animal slaughter and much lower inputs of land, water, energy and chemicals than conventional production. It was co-founded by Andras Forgacs, who first co-founded the now $530 million dollar Organovo, a company which bioprints human tissues for medical research and therapies.

Using the same bioprinting technology that brought us artificially grown body parts like ears, windpipes, skin and bones that have been successfully implanted into human patients, Modern Meadow intends to adapt this technology for biofabricating meat and leather products without the need to slaughter animals. They replaced animals in research with Organovo, and now want to replace animals in animal products.

In June 2013, Forgacs spoke about his meat and leather production at TEDGlobal, an annual conference that celebrates human ingenuity by exploring ideas, innovation and creativity from around the world. Here he explained how biofabrication can be used to grow leather, and presented the first pieces of cultured leather to the audience.

A year later, in June 2014, Modern Meadow received a $10 million investment from Horizon Ventures to further expand the company’s facility, open a larger research headquarters in Brooklyn, New York and hire additional employees. This substantial sum of money will hopefully rapidly speed up the company’s ability to bring these products to market much sooner than would have otherwise been possible.

Modern Meadow, although working on both meat and leather, is focusing most of its current attention on the production of leather. This is because growing leather is technically simpler than growing meat as it mainly uses only one cell type and is pretty much two-dimensional, unlike meat which is far more complex. Producing biofabricated meat will also require much testing and regulating before it can be sold to the general public, but none of these obstacles are present in the sale of consumer goods made from leather. In addition, Forgacs believes that people will be much more willing to use and wear novel materials than they will be to eat novel foods. He hopes that once consumers have accepted cultured leather, they may be more open to accepting cultured meat too.

Modern Meadow’s research and development of cultured leather is certainly a very new and exciting idea! Imagine, in just the next few years, a world where animals are no longer slaughtered for their skins to make leather, but flawless leather produced by biofabrication will still be widely available for sale in all the same ways!

If you are interested in learning more you can follow Modern Meadow’s progress by signing up for email updates here.

In celebration of New Harvest’s 10 year anniversary on 23 July 2014, we are looking back at some of the milestones on our timeline of events, which covers the many achievements and breakthroughs in New Harvest’s work and the research into alternative meat production over the last 10 years.

2008: PETA offers $1 million reward to the first group to produce and bring to market cultured chicken meat 

In 2008, PETA announced its competition for a $1 million prize to the first person to make commercially viable cultured chicken meat by March 4, 2014. They stated that the contestant must do both of the following:

• Produce a cultured chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
• Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states.

Click here to read the complete contest rules.

Chickens have been labeled as the most abused animal on the planet, as more are raised and killed for food than all other land animals combined, yet there is not a single federal law is in existence to protect them. Over 99% of the 7 billion killed each year in the United States are reared in unnatural intensive conditions on inhumane factory farms.

Because of this, PETA has stated that their primary aim is to replace conventional chicken production to save the millions of chickens that are slaughtered every hour from the suffering they must endure on factory farms and inside slaughterhouses.

While many researchers may agree that $1 million dollars to bring a biotechnology product to market is not a big prize, compared to the R&D costs involved; the prize definitely succeeded in getting the word out about the importance of producing cultured meat.

Whilst the deadline has now gone by there have been significant developments in the production of cultured meat since PETA first announced their competition, most notably of which was the creation of the world’s first ever cultured hamburger by Mark Post in 2013. In addition, over the last year New Harvest has successfully built a large community of cultured meat supporters, including many scientists that have been brought together in their mission to create commercially viable cultured meat. New Harvest has also helped researchers obtain thousands of dollars worth of research grants into cultured meat production. Scientists now predict that cultured meat could be on our supermarket shelves in as little as 10 years, replacing the need to factory farm chickens and other animals used for human consumption.

PETA has now announced that they are currently entertaining ideas for how to put that unclaimed $1 million prize to good use in combating cruelty in food production in other ways, stating that “We’re eager to move on to yet more innovative ways to combat animal suffering in the meat industry.”

Well, there may no longer be a million dollar prize reward for cultured meat production, but there are plenty of other reasons for scientists to race to be the first producers of commercially viable cultured meat. And on behalf of the pro-cultured meat community…good luck!

From Isha:

Just got back from LA, at my first Animal Rights National Conference. Months back, Sherrie, a long time dedicated New Harvest volunteer recommended that I sign up to speak at this year’s conference.

Upon landing I couldn’t help but ask myself how I ended up at an animal rights conference. My apologies to Matt Ball, but I think I’m the accidental activist!!

When I first got into cultured meat, it was because of the environmental, unsustainable atrocities of factory farming. Yes, I knew that the ethical question was there but it was not the main priority for culturing meat, for me. Now I see it’s as strong an argument as any other for the end of factory farming.

It was completely eye-opening for me to see the important work that is done by undercover factory farm workers who film the inner workings of these horrible farms in order to blow the doors open for change. It was amazing to see just how much you can do without eating meat, from being an NFL football player, to being a kid born via a vegan pregnancy.

I was curious to see what the reception was going to be to cultured meat, given that you really do not experience any kind of physical limitations for living a plant-based life (the only limitations are perhaps societal).

The response was overwhelmingly positive. There were converts too, after hearing about New Harvest’s activities and non-profit status. One prominent activist called cultured meat “the best chance we have at saving animals over the next few years”. I have to say, I couldn’t agree more!

I was thrilled to have a chance to thank Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and President of PETA, for a recent donation to New Harvest and her support for cultured meat in general. She said she was excited to see all the new alternatives coming out in the near future. (Then I kicked myself for not taking a photo).

Which leads me to another revelation: should we be calling cultured milk, cultured meat alternatives? I mean they are literally THE REAL THING, the only thing different is that nothing with a face had to die or suffer in the making of it. Plant-based products I suppose are alternatives, but even that I wonder about, especially considering how Beyond Meat calls their products meat. I mean technically, meat doesn’t mean flesh, it just means food!!

I had a great time speaking. I have to admit I left it until the day before to make the talk, primarily because I wanted to get a feel for what I could tell the audience that would be new and exciting. I noticed a lot of “old information” being shared at the conference, and I wanted to be sure to come in with a ton of stuff that no one had ever seen before, but still be introductory enough for newcomers. I made sure to refer to some prominent people in the movement and their opinions of cultured meat, and to share what New Harvest DOES, which isn’t the most straightforward thing. I think I did a pretty good job. You can check the slides I made in the post below!

I have to say the thing I liked about AR2014 the most was being there with three New Harvest community members, Natalie Rubio, our summer intern; Erin Kim, and Sherrie Tullsen-Chin. New Harvest is becoming a really lovely, interesting and inspiring group of people and I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait to see the New Harvest team grow!!!!

And with that I think I’ll pass it on to Natalie to share her thoughts!! It’s all yours, Natalie!

From Natalie:

ARC2014 was my first experience at an activist conference! I couldn’t help but compare it to the other conferences I have attended- which have all been related to a university organization of which I am involved in- the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE). At these events, speakers present on topics such as cleaning validation protocol and FDA regulations… needless to say, very little passion in these talks. The booths are dominated by white men in suits who casually discuss their various bioreactor designs as they take advantage of the open bar.

By contrast, each and every speaker at ARC had immense devotion to their respective causes, and most speeches were met with standing ovations by the equally passionate audiences. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many inspiring and selfless people. The exhibitions were engaging and informative- my favorite discoveries were the vegan donut company Donut Friend and the Beagle Freedom Project, where I met a rescued beagle named Timmy

Honestly, I was quite apprehensive about attending ARC as a representative of New Harvest. Perhaps I read too many internet comments, but I had the perception that many in the animal rights community despised the idea of cultured meat. I have even heard opinions of extreme activists that oppose plant-based substitutes designed to resemble the shape of meat! So, I was quite apprehensive on the first day I arrived. However, from the first interaction Erin Kim and I (we spent a day before the conference exploring Beverly Hills) had with the bellhop- introducing New Harvest and the concept of cultured meat- the reactions were positive. We handed out business cards to waiters who were intrigued by the idea, and even encountered a casting director who seriously wanted to find out how he could get on a list to culture his own cells.

At the conference, activists agreed that a cultured meat and dairy industry would be highly beneficial to the cause, reducing suffering of farm animals and acting as a step towards total animal liberation. The few polite concerns were: how many animals will be needed to supply biopsies? How often will biopsies have to be taken from the donor animal? Isha was met with great applause when she addressed in her panel, that one cell can theoretically divide 1 trillion times, and as science progresses even donor animals may become unnecessary. Isha’s entire talk was so inspiring! A few people even told us that we had completely changed their opinion on the subject.

Another common question- when will cultured meat be available? (Some people had the misconception that cultured meat already exists on the market.) We conveyed that while the estimate timeframe is seven to ten years, what really matters is getting funding and having more researchers working on the topic.

After making great connections with animal rights activists, New Harvest folks will have to sit down and think about how we can utilize this powerful community to help advance our mission (and theirs). I hope I get the chance to return next year, when the conference will be in Washington D.C.! I can only imagine what successes New Harvest will have to share by then.

View  Isha’s Animal Rights Conference presentation here (pdf).

The Animal Rights Conference (ARC) is the largest annual gathering of animal rights activists from around the nation and world.  This year, the ARC is being held in Los Angeles, California from July 10th-13th.

New Harvest volunteers Sherrie Tullsen-Chin, Erin Kim, and summer fellow Natalie Rubio have accompanied Isha Datar to this important conference to represent the organization as a solution-driven approach to animal, human and environmental welfare.

Executive Director Isha Datar will be speaking tomorrow morning (July 13th) at 10:30am PST on a panel entitled Using Technology to Replace Animals in the La Guardia conference room of the Westin LAX Hotel. See Isha’s presentation here.

Isha’s talk will be an update on New Harvest’s most current projects and successes to some, while to others it will be an initial introduction to the concept of cultured meat technology. We hope to gain support of activists by pointing to Ingrid Newkirk’s award-winning NYT essay in support of cultured meat as “perhaps the only ethical meat” and the written work of Bruce Friedrich which claims “if Madison Avenue can sell meat from industrial farms, it can certainly sell the comparative advantages of meat grown in a clean laboratory without the filth, inefficiency and cruelty of the modern meat industry.”

To become further acquainted with New Harvest’s current projects, subscribe to our newsletter, and please consider making a tax-deductible donation to a future of humane, healthy and sustainable alternatives.

Perumal Gandhi (Muufri co-founder), Natalie Rubio (New Harvest intern), Ryan Pandya (Muufri co-founder) and Isha Datar (New Harvest) at University College Cork, Ireland

Biocurious’ Vegan Cheese / New Possibilities for Bioreactors / “Accidental” Culture / Muufri in Dublin / 10 years!

Read the whole newsletter here.

The best way to keep up with New Harvest and our activities, meet our community, and see how you can get involved is to subscribe to our newsletter.

It’s been so much fun! I’ve been following the news on topics related to New Harvest for a while now: food, biotech, sustainability, animal rights and welfare issues, and fashion. What gets talked about in the media is such a reflection of society, and without a doubt, the interest in cultured meat as a solution is growing. That’ a huge source of motivation for me in my work. There are supporters everywhere. Just the other day Grimes (the musician) followed and tweeted about us! Lots of other cool people doing really mind-blowing things are following and retweeting us too. Like I know Rob Rhinehart of Soylent is a fan of what we’re doing, and Josh Balk of Hampton Creek. So that’s all very exciting. And it’s only the beginning!

True, the beginning of an exciting and unpredictable journey for New Harvest! Thanks for chatting with us, Erin!

If you’d like to get in touch with Erin and find more about her interests, she can be reached at erin@new-harvest.org