Rational optimism for cultivated meat
Elliot Swartz, Ph.D.Perspectives from the beginning of a long journey
Science
GFI celebrates UPSIDE Foods’ groundbreaking cultivated meat production facility, calls for public investment to massively scale and accelerate production
As UPSIDE Foods opens the world’s most advanced cultivated meat production facility, GFI urges increased investment from public and private sectors to speed up production and bring this better way of making meat to the masses.
GFI India’s Smart Protein Summit
The Smart Protein Summit is your chance to hear from thought leaders, industry titans, pioneering scientists, and avant-garde entrepreneurs - from India and beyond. Designed to facilitate action, learning, and networking, your world-changing smart protein plans could come to life through the Smart Protein Summit 2021.
Optimizing media development for cultivated seafood
Join Dr. Reza Ovissipour, Assistant Professor in Cellular Agriculture in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Tech, to learn about his work in optimizing media for the production of cultivated seafood.
Animal ingredient substitution
Enabling easy animal ingredient substitutions in a wide range of food products.
B2B growth factors for proliferation
There is a need for a supplier of low-cost growth factors produced without the use of animals to support the proliferation phase of cultivated meat production. The cost of growth factor production will need to be brought down significantly as cultivated meat production is scaled up.
Plant-based protein makerspaces
Plant-based protein makerspaces would be publicly available spaces where interested members of the public could learn, experiment, and work collaboratively on projects related to plant-based proteins. They could offer access to the physical equipment necessary to conduct projects as well as technical assistance to inform them. The aim would be to encourage more interaction between the public and the alternative protein industry, thus stimulating the exploration and development of more ideas. Makerspaces may also be able to increase positive consumer perception of the technology by increasing familiarity with the relevant production processes. The logistics of the makerspace should be done in such a way to maximize democratization and inclusion of a large segment of the public.
Cultivated meat makerspaces to promote public engagement
Both the cultivated meat industry and interested members of the general public would benefit from the creation of makerspaces focused on cultivated meat. These would be publicly available spaces where community members can learn, experiment, and work collaboratively on projects related to cultivated meat. Here, they would have access to the physical equipment necessary to conduct projects as well as technical assistance to inform them. The aim of this project is to encourage more interaction between the public and the alternative protein industry, thus stimulating the exploration and development of more ideas. Makerspaces could also promote greater understanding of and openness to cultivated meat among future consumers of the product.
Alternative protein high school summer program
There is currently a lack of resources for high school students interested in alternative proteins. Students interested in entering this field would benefit from the creation of summer courses that provide motivated high school students with the theoretical background, hands on experience, and a network of peers to help foster their interest in alternative proteins. The aim of initiating such a program is to encourage students to pursue self-directed learning in this area, thus stimulating growth in the alternative protein community.
Co-cultured support cells for cultivated meat
Cultivated meat research focuses primarily on muscle fibers and fat cells. However, other cell types serve functions that are often under appreciated in their relevance to cultivated meat. Co-culture methods with various support cells could solve a variety of challenges on the road to developing affordable, high-quality cultivated meat.
