Meat system failings are creating opportunities for cell-cultured startups
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Welcome to Pluripotent — it’s Thursday, June 4th. I can report that, here in NYC, the ability to concentrate on anything other than the news has all but evaporated. Feel free to send news tips through direct message and follow me @chasepurdy.
NEW YORK — In just three months, the number of ways cell-cultured meat and fish startups can reason with consumers about the perceived advantages of their products has blown wide open.
Since Mark Post unveiled the world’s first cultured burger patty in 2013, startups in this nascent space have predominantly floated two arguments for consumers to consider when thinking about cell-cultured meat: Animal welfare and environmental implications. In most cases, the latter is deployed more heavily by startups when engaging with press coverage.
In the last three months, though, the number of communications strategies startups have in their quivers have increased. The spread of Covid-19 is recasting how people can potentially connect with cellular agriculture. Here are just a few:
The rising case for a wider distribution model. The novel coronavirus unveiled one of the biggest weaknesses of the hyper-consolidated system that churns out some 85% of US meat. When just a few big plants go offline because workers fall ill, the meat supply gets disrupted. In this case, it led to a more than 25% decrease in meat production. That forces more conversation about growing meat regionally, in communities rather than in big, central hubs — part of a case for a return to more localized agricultural economies. I chatted with Finless Foods, Future Meat Technologies, and New Harvest a bit about this for Quartz a couple weeks ago.
A return to The Jungle — or did we ever leave it? The spread of Covid-19 has given cultured meat startups an opportunity to open a dialogue with people about the state of workers inside meatpacking plants. I’d point to Jacobin, Eater, The Guardian, and NBC News for further reading on the current system’s proximity to what Upton Sinclair wrote about back in 1906. Actually, I think Bloomberg’s Deena Shanker put it very poignantly recently on Twitter: “If you care about black and brown lives, you should care about slaughterhouse workers.” That comment was attached to her story on how Tyson Foods has reinstated its attendance policy, even as workers remain fearful of exposure to the virus. According to research by the Center for Economic and Policy Research published in April 2020, 44.4% of meatpacking laborers are Hispanic, and 25.2% are Black. Also of note, about 35% live at least 200% below the poverty line. And these are dangerous jobs.
Avoiding the next health disaster. It’s tangentially related, but the economic fallout of Covid-19 on economies around the world can reignite conversations around the threat of antibiotic resistance. Simply put, we pump a hell of a lot of antibiotics that are medically-important for humans into the animal agriculture system. Gail Hansen, an expert in this field, tells me about 65-70% of medically-important antibiotics are used on farm animals. The FDA recently reported an uptick in the amount farmers are using. That’s causing some bacteria to evolve to become immune to these medicines, which in turn makes them increasingly less effective when treating common diseases. Because cell-cultured meat companies don’t need live animals to make their products, they can point to their own products as a way to help safeguard certain antibiotics from being rendered less effective.
It will be interesting to follow how cell-cultured meat startups position their messaging to consumers as they continue to ramp up the construction of pilot production facilities, inching them closer to commercialization. To be sure, none of them will likely pivot from a heavy climate activism argument (and truly that is the most existential threat) — but there are a few more tools they can now think about using that are less abstract. People are noticing increasing prices — that in the past those prices just might have been fixed — and giant meat companies have floated that there will be shortages.
In other news…
When is the last time you built a blanket fort?
In a twist of fate wrought by Covid-19, I found myself doing just that last month, gingerly overlaying thick quilts and comforters over a table and pair of bar stools in my apartment. Without access to a proper audio booth, this is apparently how we’re recording audiobooks in this time of social distancing.
It felt good to feel 13 years old all over again. And after two-and-a-half humid days stuck recording beneath that thick cotton canopy, it felt good to wrap the official reading of Billion Dollar Burger. If anyone is interested, you can get an early earful of the prologue, recently posted to Soundcloud by Penguin Random House:
And if that was intriguing, I invite you to RSVP for a couple upcoming book events that’ll surely stir up some topics of interest.
On June 23, Christopher Leonard (author of The Meat Racket and Kochland) and I will be taking part in a discussion hosted by New America.
On July 8, I’ll be in a conversation about Billion Dollar Burger with JUST founder and CEO Josh Tetrick. That event will be hosted by The Battery in San Francisco.
On July 9, I’ll be chatting with Sophie Egan, the author of How to Be a Conscious Eater, as part of The Commonwealth Club's environmental series called Climate One.
Finally…
If you’ve made it this far and are inclined, I would love for people to take a moment to check out The Okra Project. It’s an organization that I learned about recently through a story published by them. Basically, contributions to The Okra Project funds Black Trans chefs to go into the homes of Black Trans people to cook them healthy, home-cooked meals at no cost. Within my own LGBTQ+ community, it’s too often Trans people of color who bear the brunt of often-violent discrimination. This is just one way to help support and nourish. Thanks!
And that’s a wrap. Feel free to drop me line, letting me know what kind of stuff you’d love to see explored as the newsletter evolves.
Thanks!
The list of specific benefits will likely become even longer over time as 'climate' can also split out into drought/water use, or land use/deforestation, or the shorter term impact of methane reduction vs CO2. All of which are topics likely to increase in importance the next few years...