Betting on the next harvest: Why agtech’s moment may finally have arrived
For the first time, agricultural innovation may align with both the economics of venture capital and the urgency of supply disruption
Chloë Payne
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Reporting and analysis on science, policy, and business in food, agriculture, and biotechnology
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Fresh commentary
·Nick Cooney
After exit: How food tech founders can maximize their impact
Exiting a company is a milestone—but for mission-driven founders, it’s also a chance to rethink how they create change
·Jonathan Avesar, Jasmin Kern
The case for cultured meat has changed
A new wave of cultured meat startups is doing what techno-economic models said couldn’t be done
·Iago Dominguez Teles
Microalgae as a protein source for the future
Microalgae offer a promising source of sustainable protein, but wider adoption depends on overcoming cultivation constraints and exploring alternative growth strategies
Latest Headlines
Chronological feed
·Chris Anderson
Building political will to fund academic research in cellular agriculture
Cell-cultured meat seeks to scale the tools of tissue engineering to agriculture—a goal constrained less by invention than by sustained public investment in basic research
·Emiliano González
Designing a future that works for all
Biotech is not inherently neutral, but we can design it to be fair
·Catherine Lammert
Chitin: Providing structure and biofunction to cell-cultured meat
Chitin- and chitosan-based scaffolds show promise for improving both the scalability and nutritional value of cell-cultured meat products
·Tomas Linder
Reimagining global protein production for the 21st century
What options are on the food-tech menu for achieving long-term protein security? Cell culture, plants, microorganisms, algae, and fungi may all have roles to play. But from a sustainability and resilience perspective, is there a clear winner?
·Avery Parkinson
Could molecular farming unlock the secret of cheese?
Gene-recombinant biotechnologies aim to produce key animal proteins at a fraction of the cost of conventional animal husbandry. The implications for research, medicine, food systems, and the climate could be huge. But can these emergent technologies scale quickly enough to spur system-wide change?
·Steven Hermans
Seaweed aquaculture's untapped potential
Seaweed is the collective noun for a group of at least 10,000 species of macroalgae, and new species are being discovered each year. Although seaweeds have been consumed for millennia, they’re increasingly (and rightly) viewed as a hero ingredient. With only half a dozen species cultivated at scale right now, seaweed’s potential for the alt-protein industry is only just starting to unfold.
·Avery Parkinson
Cellular agriculture's rising star: A conversation with Avery Parkinson
Every now and again a young person comes along whose intellect and wisdom seem to defy their age. Over the past year, we’ve had the privilege of working closely with one such individual. If you haven’t yet heard of her, you probably soon will. Meet cellular agriculture’s rising star, Avery Parkinson.
·Richard Munson
Nurturing proteins with algae and mycelia
While attention has focused on novel foods themselves, less notice has been paid to the serums and substrates that make their production possible
·Yuki Hanyu
The Shojinmeat Project inside story
Japan is forging a unique development path for cellular agriculture — one in which no one is left behind and anyone interested can get involved in helping create an open, inclusive future for the technology. This is the story of the Shojinmeat Project and how a citizen science experiment came to have big impact on national policy.
·Doug Grant
Interview with Michael Aucoin, CEO of Eat Beyond Global Holdings
Brave New Meat podcast host Doug Grant talks with Michael Aucoin, CEO of investment firm Eat Beyond Global Holdings. As a publicly traded stock on the Canadian Securities Exchange, Eat Beyond (CSE: EATS) is currently one of the only options available offering retail investors early exposure to emerging protein tech startups.
·Avery Parkinson
Closing the loop: Cellular agriculture meets the circular economy
“Many other industries use a linear model — take, make, use, and dispose — which is clearly unsustainable. Once a supply chain is established,” says New Harvest Research Fellow Dawne Skinner, “it is essentially locked in because it is too costly to reconfigure. Given that the cell-based industry is nascent, we are in the stage of initiating a new supply chain. My research aims to figure out how we can start this supply chain off on the right foot.”
·Ann Begley
Promoting the benefits of sustainable proteins and how to get there responsibly
New food technologies are advancing faster than the regulatory frameworks meant to govern them
·Doug Grant
Investing in the cultured meat industry: An independent analysis of Agronomics
Rarely do retail investors have the opportunity to gain exposure and access to a new technology this early. That’s partly because Agronomics — which bills itself as “a thematic investment play into the clean meat sector” — is one of the only publicly traded options available to those who see the potential in cell-cultured meat.
·Avery Parkinson
Cellular agriculture finds its true north
Though perhaps not thought of as immediately as startup magnets like Silicon Valley, Singapore, or Israel, it would be a mistake to overlook the innovation culture of Canada — the outlook for cellular agriculture there is highly optimistic
·Avery Parkinson
Protein literacy basics: Antimicrobial resistance
Although antibiotics are generally thought of in the context of treating infections within our healthcare systems, that’s not where most are actually used. Globally, around 73% of all antibiotics are used in animals grown for food.
·Avery Parkinson
Lab to table: Identifying the genes responsible for muscle tissue development in cows
What distinguishes a muscle cell from a fat cell or a skin cell? The answer is “gene expression.” Although genome sequencing and analysis has been employed vastly in the study of disease and pharmaceuticals, there has been little application in the emerging field of cellular agriculture.
·Samantha Sanders
UC Davis sets its sights on the main course
The school that helped turn California's wine industry from afterthought into economic juggernaut has set its sights on cultured meat
·Avery Parkinson
Cellular Agriculture Australia launches pathways tool for students and professionals
There is no shortage of intelligent and passionate people who want to get involved in cellular agriculture, but there are few resources directing them to the various pathways into the field. In order to solve this problem, Cellular Agriculture Australia has developed an online resource called “Pathways into Cellular Agriculture.”
·Doug Grant
Reading the tea leaves for the first cultured meat IPO
Over the next two years, many cultured meat startups will bring products to market leading to acquisitions and IPOs as the industry matures. Looking toward this future, it’s worth considering how valuable these companies could be.
·Avery Parkinson
Brief: CellulaREvolution raises £1 million for scalable cell-based meat tech
UK-based startup CellulaREvolution has announced new funding to accelerate development of their technology which promises to solve key scalability challenges in cell-based meat production.