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1 | ELEPHANT | ADDITIONAL INFO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Covid 19 and cellular agriculture | If Covid and similar viruses are zoonotic, how can we focus more of the conversation around mitigation of future pandemics by stopping factory farming of animals? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Cost-competitive cultured meat (and dairy?) products | Many reports are skeptical that cultured meat can ever be cost competitive with commodity animal meat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Conflicts between animal ethics and environmental ethics | How do we account for conflicts between animal ethics and environmental ethics in building out the norms and polices surrounding cellular agriculture? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002764219830467 | A lightly edited and anonymized archive of the New Harvest community's elephant in the room submissions for our (canceled) 2020 and 2022 conference. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | New foods instead of replicating animal "products" | See the first point of the author of _After Meat_ https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aBtr6iDevMEvemMNT/ama-i-ve-authored-a-new-book-after-meat-about-the) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Plant-based proteins vs cellular agriculture | Plant-based foods are already getting more and more indistinguishable from animal "products." Should we be focusing our efforts there instead? | Special thanks to volunteer Sophie Troyka for her help editing and condensing the submissions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Cell ag and social media | Cell Ag on social media is pretty bland and disjointed -- how do we better take advantage of social media to create a voice for and community around cell ag? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Technical advances in continuous cell production | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
9 | The cost of disrupting seafood to fishers' livelihoods | Social aspect of cell ag - minimizing impacts to fishers, their inclusion in the cell ag process | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Applying cell ag to endangered vegetable products | We're duplicating mammal, bird, and fish tissues, but what about endangered vegetable products, especially citrus, banana, chocolate, almond, and coffee? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Funding gap for scaling production capacity | How do we fund the massive CAPEX required to create bioreactor capacity that will allow cultivated meat to scale? Cultivated meat will not be an impactful part of the alt protein food system with current bioreactor capacity. But VCs backing cultivated meat startups (i) don't have the massive dollars needed to fund these projects and (ii) don't fund projects like this because they don't meet their return targets. Government's at this point are still not going to put major dollars toward this in a timeframe that will allow construction and completion to occur quickly. Project finance/debt companies who are more conservative from a risk profile standpoint still see these types of projects as "venture like" and too risky. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 | How to incentivize open-source research vs "black boxes" with private, IP-protected research | How do we get cultivated meat companies to have more open source info sharing so they can avoid pitfalls/mistakes that have already been made? Current biotech approach to the space with closed off IP and companies being "black boxes" will make it hard and ineffcient for the industry to quickly progress. Current state allows for new companies to make the same mistakes as predecessor companies but not even know it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Large scale manufacturing considerations | Can alt-proteins and cultured meat scale to feed the world? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Where could/should insect cells for nutritional foods fit with the future of cell ag? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
15 | What is the role of genetic engineering of cells for use in cell ag in the future? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
16 | How can we apply a whole systesm approach to a transition to cellular agriculture? | Whole systems transition. On what basis will our new economy be built? What resources will be extracted to power our growth? How do we transition to a non-extractive bioeconomy, if this isn't possible then how can we ensure the extraction is democratically controlled and open for common usage? To go further, how can we ensure this transition away from extraction includes social and economic extraction as well? What do we need to do to ensure our work empowers people rather than creating new dependencies for them? How can we input with other movements to proliferate mass action towards climate and social inequity causes? What can we do to facilitate understanding and discourse within our movement to improve the clarity and inclusivity of our goals and actions? How can our actions support Indigenous rematriation of land while helping those communities build capacity in this space? In what ways can we reconsider our actions to support reparations as a future-oriented project to tackle climate change with distributive justice at it's core? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Balancing the ethics of patenting food technology that has the potential to feed the world more sustainability whilst still enabling businesses to retain their value | Is it morally right to own patents on food technology which could be the solution to feeding the world and ending global poverty? What is the alternative? How can alt protein companies collaborate and share important intel to help achieve our common goals whilst still retaining value inherent in their businesses? What about food justice? Inequality? What lessons can we learn from the world domination of FB, Twitter, etc, that we can apply to our food systems? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
18 | The cost of disrupting animal agriculture to existing livelihoods | There is wide ranging language in the industry (from hyperbolic to understated) about the speed and intensity of replacing and/or supplementing conventional animal agriculture and it is largely devoid of a realistic discussion about the consequences for the farmers and ranchers. This has substantive consequences for the advancement of CA on a variety of levels and is definitely an elephant in the room that should be addressed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
19 | How to engage with criticism of cellular agriculture | As public discussion, scrutiny, and criticism of cell ag increases, the industry needs to think about how, when, and why to engage (or not) with criticism and commentary, including valid critique, bad faith critique, and outright misinformation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
20 | New foods instead of replicating animal "products" | We are at this juncture right now where so many companies in cultured meat are focused just on making meats we already have. Trying to contort inflexible biology to make products that animals have been producing for millenia at a lower price point. Cultured meat is so damn exciting because it can do things animals can't. We are on the precipice of making entirely new types of foods that are delicious and can make us healthier than animal meats ever could. That's what makes cultured meat so exciting. Not making another chicken nugget. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
21 | How governments can support cell ag scale-up | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
22 | Will Cultured Meat ACTUALLY be more sustainable than conventional meat? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Why are there no cell lines available to accelerate basic research on the topic of cultured meat? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
24 | How to stop contamination during large scale production, at low cost? Are antibiotics okay if the final product doesn't have any? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
25 | Botllenecks to scale | Cultured meat companies are making leap-and-bound progress on cell line/process development and on lowering raw material costs – what’s next? How long the journey will be from small-scale/high-cost bioreactor to industrial-scale/low-cost bioreactor? Will there be enough bioreactor capacity in the world to even make a dent in the meat market? Will there be a skilled workforce to operate them? Now the industry needs to start thinking about what bottlenecks exist in the scale-up, infrastructure, and human capital needed to support industrialization. We all know that for cultured meat to succeed, we need to move on to industrial-scale/low-cost bioreactors. But how do we get there? The conventional approach involves iterations at each x5 or x10 intermediate scale, which would be costly and take a long time. Can we use a different strategy? Just to reach 1% meat market penetration, the cultured meat industry needs a capacity far great than the entire cell culture bioreactor capacity in the world today. This is a huge opportunity for new solutions customized for this industry. The planning today likely leads to a new infrastructure that is unlike anything we see today. How can we get there? The new infrastructure requires a large workforce of diverse skills to operate. If operated in a similar way as biopharma, our industry will run into a huge shortage of skilled workforce. Can we build a new infrastructure while re-shaping the way of working at the same time? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
26 | Work culture in cell ag | If you look at Glassdoor reviews for cell ag companies, some are concerning. In some instances, these reviews are disproportionally negative for certain companies (and seem to echo each other). It’s a delicate topic to discuss, but if we want to attract top talent and build a sustainable workforce, we should have open and honest conversations about work culture in cell ag. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
27 | Collaboration outside of cell ag | How do you get startups to work with other academic labs, startups, industrial partners? How do you incentivise farmers to work with startups to develop cell lines? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
28 | Work culture in cell ag | CellAg as an opportunity to set the tone for how companies treat their employees compared to traditional biotech or pharma | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | Open supply chains | We would love to talk about the role of open supply chains in the cultivated meat industry. Cultivated meat is a transformational innovation that combines structural, integrative, and systemic change. This change can't be realized one company at a time, but as a community. To eliminate key hurdles in the commercial viability of the innovation, and to meet the environmental objectives of cultivated meat (net zero carbon for example), we must develop solutions that are available to all players in the ecosystem. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
30 | Growth Factors for Cultured Meat Production: Safety, Efficacy and Affordability | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
31 | Assessing the Safety of Cultured Meat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
32 | Plastic pollution in cell ag | How to deal with plastic waste resulting from cell culture? Scaling up cultivated meat production may require large amounts of plasticware dedicated to cell cultivation and there are not sufficient discussion about the destination of this material. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | What should our regulatory systems for cellular agriculture look like? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
34 | Plastic pollution in cell ag | A panel on what to do about the use of plastics in cell ag, considering that majority of plastics are single use, and derived from petroleum products. As the cell ag industry expands, the demand for plastics will also increase; fossil fuel companies are already pivoting to increased plastic products to keep them viable. How does then the reduction in emissions from cell ag measure up to increase in carbon emissions in plastics production? The relevance of this suggestion is whether cell ag will be able to achieve the negative emissions that they are hypothetically meant to do. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
35 | Funding sources for cell ag and implications for social justice | The connection between funding for cell ag, both private and public money, within the context of social justice. E.g., Jordan Teicher recently wrote an article on veganism in Israel for The Baffler (https://thebaffler.com/latest/vegan-nation-teicher) where he describes how the institutions/orgs funding cell ag actively participate in upholding the apartheid state. The question becomes whether cell ag, as it is increasingly privatized through startups, can escape becoming an eco-fascist/imperialist technology. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
36 | Cell ag within the context of other sustainable tech | Cell-based meat is one part of the high tech food revolution. What is the larger context of sustainable / food innovation and what are parallels with other tech (ie the sustainable energy movement)? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
37 | Cellular agriculture and deep space exploration. | Primarily, Cellag could serve as an alternative/complement food system in future space exploration missions. Current food systems (based on prepackaged food items) likely wont be sufficient due to lack of stability, variability and loss of nutrient over long-term travels. In this context, Cellag could serve as an alternative to provide on-demand fresh and highly nutritive foods tailored to the needs of the crew. Secondly, developing a cellag system (i.e. cultivated meat) for space would require complete optimization in all aspects of the system, as constrains such as volume, waste generation, altered gravity and radiation preclude the use of already-developed ground systems. This could represent a significant technological return to Earth applications as ground systems would likely benefit of the potential technological advances on input/waste management, automation and bioprocess optimization. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | Unsaid assumptions within the community about how change can be achieved | Too much of the discussion of the politics of cultured meat frames publics as 'consumers' and locates their key agency in a purchasing decision to either buy or not buy cultured meat. I know not everyone uses this frame all the time, but some people use it some of the time, and that is too much. It reduces the multifaceted aspects of human experience and politics to a binary purchasing decision that occurs after the technology is on the market. I also think this consumer acceptance model feeds into a model of society as somehow predicable and manageable, and that well thought out interventions can have knowable outcomes. But life is more complex than that, and that ambiguities and uncertainties means that this kind of engineering approach to social change has limits. (To be clear, I still think consumer acceptance studies are important, but these are just one part of a bigger story). More broadly, this would fit well within a critical discussion about how the cellag community talks about people and social change, and trying to unpick some of the assumptions (good and bad) that are implicit in how the sector sometimes tries to shape the narrative, and effect behaviour change. For example: how CellAg people too often say we need to 'educate the public', in a really unreflexively way about the nature of knowledge, and how inherently political and contingent all claims to knowledge are. We need dialogue, not education. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
39 | Scalable sources of omega-3 fatty acids for cultured seafood | I think our industry needs to talk more about the need for scalable sources of omega-3 fatty acids for cultured seafood! I would consider this to be an "elephant in the room" that could become a major bottleneck in the future. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | Lack of scaffolding for later maturation stages of cells | In cultured meat, there is one critical but major component that is not being shined upon. That is the creation of scaffolds necessary for the later maturation stages of the cells. They need to be cheap, vegan, standardized, edible and resemble the natural ECM as much as possible. Many laboratory techniques, such as using collagen coating, synthetic microcarriers, are not goanna be scalable and they will have to go through harsh regulations. Fungi and algae scaffolds are an option, but it is very hard to get them with the right material properties, namely: stiffness, thickness, cell adhesion, standardization, non-cytotoxic, good nutrient diffusion, etc. Other production technologies such as electrospinning, hydrogels, synthetics (that require later cell de-attachment), etc., are not easily scalable to make economic sense. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
41 | Environmental cost of research | Life Sciences research is inherently bad for the environment (single use plastic, stuff going down the drain, chemical vapours being vented out into the world etc). What are companies/orgs/academic labs doing to lower their environmental impact? Otherwise, it feels like we are saving and destroying the planet at the same time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
42 | The counter article / skepticism around the scalability of cell ag | Examples of arguments why it's not feasible that should be examined and discussed include: a) That to shift from a Big Ag-based food system to lab- grown protein system world-wide by 2030, the Ground Zero year for fending off catastrophic global warming, the price of lab-grown meat has to come down FAST - right now a dinner of lab-grown chicken nuggets would cost ≈ $50. And cultivated meat companies have repeatedly missed launch deadlines. Add to the mix the fact that building enough bioreator factories to generate the needed amount of protein would cost ≈$450 million per factory, and the total number of factories needed would add up to ≈$1.8 TRILLION dollars, it's hard to see how it could be financially feasible. b) To make the 4000 mega-facilities to produce ten percent of the world's protein needs by 2030, one would have to be built every day for the next ten years. (One mega-facility built in a day?????????????????) c) These facilities would have to be both super-large and super-sterile, since a small amount of bacteria could ontaminate an entire batch. According to an expert, you can make one or the other, but not both. d) Proponents of lab-grown meat ignore the environmental and phytochemical benefits of meats derived from pasture-fed animals. Animal-derived meats are both more nutritious and better-tasting than lab-grown meats could be, according to the co-owner of a New York-based food chain called 'Blue Hill.' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | Religious perspectives on cellular agriculture if/how/when will cell ag be permitted and accepted by faith communities | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Private capital & IP protections vs funding public academic research | We have seen a meteoric rise in the amount of private capital raised for cellular agriculture, but there has not been a corresponding increase in funding available for academic research. This risks further locking key research insights behind IP walls, which may ultimately slow progress of the field as a whole. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | Future of livestock rearing under a large transition to cell ag | What will happen to livestock rearing if cellular agriculture becomes a dominant form of meat production? Will livestock farms become irrelevant if all meat comes from cell lines? Will there be farms dedicated for rearing animals ethically for the sole purpose of cultivated meat biopsies? What are the regulations that will need to be implemented if this happens? How will this affect societal infrastructure and jobs and people who are currently involved in the livestock industry? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | Cultural bias in product development | Most of the food products that are being redesigned continue the bias of the current Eurocentric perspective of food. What are some examples of how can we use synthetic biology/biodesign/cell agriculture to subvert cultural bias and enable new food categories to be introduced? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | What is Ovalbumin production using Trichoderma reesei culture, and how could it mitigate the environmental impacts of chicken-egg derived ovalbumin? | The global egg industry and its mass farming is responsible for a significant environmental impact. In a recently published LCA report (Nature food 2021, co-authored by the proposed speaker) researchers compared the environmental impact of chicken egg white to the precision fermentation alternative with a clear result: The potential for a positive impact by using precision fermentation for the production of egg white is huge - and it is still a blind spot in consumer communication. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
48 | What is the Environmental Cost of Animal-Free Growth Media? | We want to tease apart the insane environmental impact of bioreactors for producing "animal-free" recombinant proteins which are needed in growth media. We also want to dive into the origin of animal-free and what it means in the context of growth media. We'd like to walk down the evolutionary ladder and ask hard questions about neurological complexity, sentience, and reagents for cell ag. Are rigid ideaologies hamstringing progress in the backdrop of a climate crisis? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
49 | Accessibility of Cellular Culture Technology in Developing Countries as an alternative for individuals in animal farming operations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | How sustainable will this industry actually be? | How do we source the materials (scaffolds, cells, media components) in a way that ensures they are not fully depleted? Can we build in pledges to ensure decreased land and water predictions are fulfilled? Can we commit to only source renewal energy? Ensure a net zero carbon emission? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | Scalability of bioreactors and production | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
52 | Is cultivated meat inherently good for the environment? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | How do we as a community support and accelerate the translation of foundational research from academia to industry? | • Is there a risk that the important academic foundational research that New Harvest is supporting gets stuck in academia? • How to we help to build the right partnerships to ensure that research is translated to industry and commercial applications? • What are some case studies where this has happened successfully in cell ag (i.e. Natalie Rubio’s work, etc) • What are case studies from other industries where this has happened successfully? How can we learn to accelerate this type of tech transfer to move the industry forward in the right way?" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
54 | Can cell ag be developed in a way that supports a cultural shift towards ecocentric living vs perpetuating a capitalist mindset of continously consuming? | Many of today's ecological crises stem at least in part from modern society's sense of remove from the ecosphere - the colonial/capitalist/human-centric approach of innovatively taking more and more from a 'resource' for which responsibility is predominantly and narrowly economic rather than related to kinship or ecojustice or even just plain sustainability. Cellular ag and cultured meat is obviously good for the ecosphere on multiple fronts, but can it be developed in a way that concurrently and inseparably supports a cultural shift towards ecological inclusivity, eco-centricity if you like? Rather than an increased sense of remove from the planet we are part of, can cellular ag consciously move forward with actions that simultaneously commit to active and responsible relations with the life on earth that is outside any immediate business plan? Not just coincidentally good for the planet but part of an active, reaching-out of support for and involvement in eco-centric living. Here's your cellular ag AND here's the forest care, river care, eco-care you get to be involved in by participating in this product, etc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
55 | Non-technical factors needed for cell ag's success | What non-technical factors and"just transition" efforts are needed for cell ag to succeed? For example: subsidies and policy-based economic incentives for other fields (i.e. renewable energy, battery tech, etc.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
56 | Inclusivity in cultured meat economic development | How do we include low-income countries in the rapid developments in the cultured meat sector and how do we avoid that their role will be limited to the role of passive players, such as suppliers of nutrients and possible consumers? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | Barriers to investment in cell ag (return timelines, scalability barriers, etc) vs other long-bet technologies | Food as Infrastructure: Why The Most Impactful Investments and Technology for the Next Generation Will be Physical, not Digital. The last few decades of popular technology innovation and investment has focused mainly on the evolution of computing and the internet. Today, there can be no doubt that software has changed the world and will continue to do so. A drawback of this is it has also set the precedent for what both everyday people, investors, and even entrepreneurs expect to see in timelines and outcomes for making technology have a true impact. (And for many, make a lot of money). This is at odds with the timelines and realities of developing cellular agriculture. Software and bits have zero cost of distribution, physical things like biology do not. And yet, "hard tech" like cellular agriculture has the potential to shift everyday life for people as much as software has. Investors are willing to make long bets on things like AI and space tech in the billions of dollars, so why is investment in cellular agriculture and alternative proteins still the odd one out? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
58 | Public funding of cell ag | Public Investment Landscapes - Understanding how public funding can accelerate the cellular agriculture field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
59 | Genetic engineering for cultured meat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | The nutrition of cultivated meat and the degree of importance we place on it being healthy vs. not as an industry | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
61 | Does how an animal is raised affect the quality of the cell structure and final product? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
62 | Full transparency in production | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
63 | Will there be an Elizabeth Holmes for Cell Ag? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | Who participates in the field vs who is impacted by the growth of the field? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | Is the price of "media" still an issue? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | Manufacturing - can it be done at scale? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
67 | "Connection infrastructure" to increase collaboration in the field | The role of connection and networks has been heavily undervalued. I call this the "connection infrastructure" or "connective tissue" that ties people together and helps facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources. This connection infrastructure has not been invested in nearly enough. Which organizations are working on finding the right people and bringing them together in the right ways? There are millions of people who want to transform the food system. What are we doing to find them and connect them into our efforts? What work has there been to increase the level of interconnectedness in this space between people, and to increase the effective flow of information? There are certainly some efforts here—but not nearly enough. From a social network theory point of view, increasing the connectivity of the network of people working on these issues would have huge positive effects on technical and social progress. When we connect people together, we make progress faster. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | Shaping consumer perception | Educating the public on what cultivated meat is and isn’t and making the case for why it should be a fundamental part of our future food system is paramount. Ultimately, if proponents cannot make a compelling case to consumers, there will be no cultivated meat industry and the years of hard work and hundreds of millions of dollars that have already been poured into the sector will be all for naught. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | Supply chain issues | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
70 | Cell Cultured Supplier and Supplier Approval Programs | The elephant in the room here is that in order to produce cell culture proteins, we need growth media ingredients that don't come from traditional food facilities. These raw material facilities are certainly not registered with the FDA as a food facility and aren't accustomed to following FSMA or traditional food HACCP. Additionally, these facilities are unlikely to have employees with the expertise needed to ensure FSMA compliance and documentation so the process of approval requires significant effort and guidance from the customer. In order for any cultivated meat company to gain regulatory approval, we need to show that the raw materials going into the cell cultured meat process are safe for consumption. This will be a pain point for everyone hoping to succeed in this arena. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
71 | "Inclusive rulemaking" to get public & private stakeholders on board with cell ag development | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
72 | Universally accessible cellular agriculture infrastructure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
73 | How will cultivated meat fits with the existing meat industry and how this can be an "and" rather than an "or". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
74 | The regulatory landscape for commercialization of cultured meat in the US & EU | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
75 | Lack of downstream suppliers to help CM companies scale | A number of cultured meat companies have raised large sums of capital to begin scaling their production and have announced the goal of first commercial products this year. There is significant risk to their ability to scale if there are not reliable suppliers of key ingredients and value-added inputs that they will require to scale. It will likely be too capital intensive for these companies to scale their own supply chain (vertically integrated) rather than sourcing these components, but there have not been collective conversations around the need for suppliers to emerge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
76 | How can cultured meat sync up with blockhain and web3.0? | Which other paradigm-shifting emerging technologies can cellular agriculture partner with to achieve synergy and multiplicity on *both parties’ paths to wide adoption? At this point, the achievements and research funding already realized in the space seem to suggest that the tech and distribution frameworks are not greatest hurdles even if they are still in front of us. For example, what about leveraging blockchain technology, which is currently being used to make all-cost ecological accounting within reach. Could that further highlight the viability/efficiency of cellular meat? Basically, which other tools can help accelerate the parity or overtake of conventional animal ag supply chains in a world that is increasingly forced to face facts but flailing at pivoting in the face of them? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
77 | Taste vs. nutrition | Most attention is placed on whether the taste of cultured products matches the taste of the natural product, but its equally important to produce a product that is nutritionally equivalent to the natural product. ere are many reasons that cultured products may not contain all the nutrients present in the natural product. One example would be the case of Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's), which may not be in the cultured product because fish do not produce it, but get it from eating algae. It would be very unfortunate to give the meat, etc., industries reason to criticize cultured products as nutritionally inferior. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
78 | Whole cut versus ground cell-based meats | The structure and composition of whole cuts are challenging to replicate using methods based on proliferative cells | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
79 | Challenges of working on new cell lines as a cell-based meat startup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | Integrating farmers into a future cell ag supply chain (e.g. farm transformation initiatives). | Having this discussion early enough could help us determine if we can change the negative perception some stakeholders have about this new field. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | 3D printed hydrogel cell scaffolds for suspended bioreactors | Suspended-cell bio-reactors could be key to meeting safety requirements to isolate products from genetically engineered cell lines. This will be key to solving some of the scale-up and separation problems related to cellular agriculture. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | Regulation, especially in the US | The regulatory conversation around cell-based meat has been evolving over the past 2 years in earnest. Interagency groups have been formed at the FDA and USDA to flesh out a regulatory path forward. Understanding the evolving regulatory conversation is critical to facilitating commercialization. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
83 | Using insects to produce growth factors and insect cell lines to grow meat | A big elephant in the room is the limitations of cellular meat to create enough food cheaply and quickly enough to feed the broader population. Insect cells allow cell-meat to reach bigger markets faster at a more competitive price. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
84 | Obstacles to commercializing cellular agriculture | Many companies are facing an inflection point expanding significantly. Founders and investors would benefit from a better understanding of what obstacles other biotechnologies have faced and lessons learned to improve success. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | Anti-science skepticism of cultured meat | The proliferation of divisive misinformation that fosters public mistrust and fear of science and technology is a very big elephant in the room. Many people today -- anti-vaxxers, GMO skeptics -- profoundly mistrust science, and their beliefs are reinforced through the propagation of misinformation in digital media. And cellular agriculture is already under aggressive attack from Big Meat. How can we help people to understand the science and embrace the benefits? What's the role of the research community as ambassadors?It might not be comfortable for scientists and business leaders to confront it, but everyone will need to become savvy about effective communications strategies to combat and overcome it and deliver positive messages that will secure cellular agriculture's "license to operate." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
86 | 3D nano-fiber scaffolding and cell proliferation technology | Industry incumbents are continually claiming they are a year away from shelves, but have yet to solve the issues we have solved with regard to scaffolds and bringing costs down that will help make this claim true. The scaffolding and cell proliferation technology solves many of the biggest issues keeping cultured meat from the market. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
87 | MIsfit between technology and science | If you have ever worked in a scientific lab, there is very little chance you haven’t come across a rig or piece of experimental lab equipment that has been improvised and put together out of the things lying around by another researcher. There is also very little chance you haven’t stumbled upon a very expensive machine that has been sitting there untouched for many years.The nature of both of these occurrences originates from the same principle – a misfit between technology and science. We have seen time and time again a lot of money being spent on technology and equipment that eventually ceases to serve it’s purpose and is discredited. Science tends to be very live, very dynamic, with many loose ends. To follow this dynamic nature with the development of technology, things need to be set flexible enough and make adaptations welcoming. In the traditional way technology is being developed, it is almost impossible to do that. How can technology be as quick as science? What strategies need to be implied to be able to accelerate scientific advancement with technology? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | Modern skeletal muscle tissue engineering strategies aren't all that different from how they were 30 or 40 years ago | A lot of the same questions, same experiments, etc | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | What about the farmers? | Cultured meat /cellular agriculture are typically presented as disruptive for animal farming - and therefore for farmers. But most citizens care about farmers, and many farmers are very ambivalent themselves about present production methods. In order for cellular agriculture to become a societally responsible innovation, we need to talk about consequences for farmers. Shouldn't we try to find ways in which they can become involved in cellular agriculture, so that it becomes an option for them instead of merely a threat? This might be beneficial for farmers as well as for (societal acceptance of) cellular agriculture. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
90 | Enormous potential of cell-based MATERIALS like leather, fur, wool, silk, and biopolymers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
91 | With the rise of non-cell ag meat alternatives (beyond meat, impossible foods), what place is there for cell ag? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | Is vertical farming feasible and can cell-based ag fit into that model? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
93 | Antibiotics! | Everyone is curious about and cares about antibiotic use in cell-based meat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
94 | The absolute necessity of critical thinking when evaluating claims | We don't want cellular agriculture to be lumped in with proven money-wasting scams such as Theranos, solar roadways, the Hyperloop, the Waterseer, thorium cars, or ideas that would be economic disasters because they are outrageously overpriced versions of well-established technology, such as dehumidifiers. For this, we need hard-hitting critical thinkers & critical questioners. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
95 | Social acceptability of cultured meat | There is a need for social discussions about cellular agriculture products. Those discussions would be beneficial to the whole field. The criteria of a successful market integration is often seen throughout the aspects of consumer insights and attitudes towards the usual barometers: price, texture, taste. Using the lenses of social acceptability, I am looking at consumers' perceptions in a different angle, which is also important to take into account. With the tools of qualitative research, it is possible to go deeper into the feelings of consumers and get answers about their expectations on the utility of the technology, the worries it might trigger and how it is possible to build a sustainable food future by keeping a dialogue open with the public and various other stakeholders. Even if those discussions might be difficult to address, bringing those topics to the table can include numerous stakeholders, some of them that we would not think of at first glance, and benefit the whole industry with a constructive dialogue about the future of the food industry. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
96 | If FBS is solved, why am I still using it in the lab? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
97 | Inclusivity in innovation | As a mother working on technology that will predominantly resonate with a female audience, I think it's important that the cellular agriculture community think more broadly about the types of problems our technologies can address and the impacts they can have. Milk is a fundamental component of the human diet, and breastmilk in particular is the optimal source of nutrition for a human infant. The ability to produce this life-sustaining food outside of a woman's body has the potential to improve infant nutrition across the globe, empower women to achieve their goals, and remove animals from the food supply by reducing demand for bovine-based infant formula. Would love to see more conversation around the importance of women's entrepreneurship in cellular agriculture and an increased focus on technologies that can address the needs of women as they balance competing demands. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
98 | Ethics of adoption | Ethical norms are the ultimate elephants in the room of science—and always have been. The questions of "why?" and "who benefits?" need to be asked. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
99 | Remaining technical challenges to producing cultured meat | Sometimes people downplay technical hurdles or they are given lip service without real action or intent. It also doesn't make sense for cultured meat companies to attempt to do every aspect of product development in-house, e.g. media and bioreactor development. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
100 | The Absolute Necessity of Traditional Mathematical Theorem-Proving Towards Cellular Agriculture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||