Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast

Thanks for joining us on the Future Food Show. This episode is part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins. 

On this episode, we are excited to host MJ Kinney and Cameron Semper.

MJ Kinney is a food scientist and the Founder of FareScience, a consulting company that specializes in next generation food product development. Her specialization in alternative proteins has spanned b2b, b2c, and non-profit sectors, throughout which she has built collective experience in R&D, technical sales, and project management.

Cameron is a research scientist who specializes in molecular biology and recombinant protein technology. As a New Harvest Research Fellow (2019-2021) he used protein biochemistry to study potential cost reductions for growth media used in fish cell culture. He is passionate about the potential of cellular agriculture to facilitate the transition to a more sustainable and decentralized food system. Cameron holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Calgary and is currently a postdoctoral fellow.

Thanks for joining us on the Future Food Show. This episode is part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins. 

Ziliang is the Founder and CEO at CellX, a leading cultivated meat startup in China. Over the past 3 years, he has built a team of 40 and raised ~$20 million to bring cultivated meat products to consumers in China and around the world. He was recognized as Forbes Asia and Forbes China 30 under 30 in 2022, and top 50 entrepreneurs by innovation China.

He has been a flexitarian for six years and cares deeply about the negative impact of factory farming on the environment, humans, and animals. As an impact entrepreneur, he is working to create large-scale social impact through a sustainable business model.

This episode is part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins. 

Prince Khaled is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of KBW Ventures, and works across several tiers and levels of the business.
Highly active in the green technology ecosystem, he often participates in events pertaining to sustainability, climate change, food security, and how food technology and breakthrough research and development promise to alleviate these pressing world issues.

This episode is part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins. 

Bernhard is the Head of the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator, which he created in 2015. The Accelerator sources, nurtures and scales start-ups and nonprofits working to achieve Zero Hunger, as well as running accelerator programs for external partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Humanitarian Grand Challenge, and other UN Agencies.

Jordan is the founder of Cultured Supply, a B2B purchasing platform for the bioeconomy. Starting with food and beverage ingredients and products, Cultured Supply is focused on helping companies building more regenerative and localized supply chains direct from the source.

Learn more at https://culturedsupply.com/

Thanks for joining us on the Future Food Show. This episode is part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins. 

On this episode, we are excited to host Dr. Sirli Rosenvald, head of alternative protein research at TFTAK. Sirli is a highly experienced food scientist with over 10 years of experience in food research. She has vast experience in managing different teams and projects with a specific emphasis on alternative proteins and sensory and consumer research. She is a recognized expert in the alternative protein space, having published numerous scientific articles and presented at industry and scientific conferences.

Thanks for joining us on the Future Food Show. This episode is a part of the Transforming the Future of Proteins series, where we explore the work of XPRIZE Feed The Next Billion, a global incentivized competition that challenges innovators to reinvent alternative proteins.

On this episode, We’re excited to host Doug McNish, Greg Potter, and Laura S. Hackl, three of the members of Team ProFillet, to the show.

ProFillet is a collection of some of the world's best minds who have come together to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: How do we Feed the Next Billion? The founders at ProFillet come from a variety of industries and have a range of talents: from professional kitchens, science and technology, to marketing, finance and operations. This diversity of perspectives and experiences allows the team to approach challenges from a variety of angles, leading to innovative solutions and better outcomes.

Robert Yaman is the Founder of Innovate Animal Ag, a new non-profit organization dedicated to introducing and promoting new technologies to the animal agriculture industry.

Chris will be speaking at the upcoming Future Food Tech Alternative Protein Event in New York City this June. You can register for the event at https://futurefoodtechprotein.com. Get a 10% discount on tickets using the coupon code CM10. 

Chris Landowski is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Onego Bio, a company producing animal-free egg white proteins with precision fermentation.

Chris is a cellular agriculture trailblazer and the scientific mastermind behind the technology. 

The chosen method for producing egg white protein is based on harnessing the microflora Trichoderma reesei for protein production and Chris believes this technology is superior because of its efficiency and productivity.

Prior to co-founding Onego Bio, Chris spent 15 years developing breakthrough precision fermentation platforms at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

He has extensive experience in recombinant protein production and translating this knowledge to enable commercial scale production of animal-free proteins.

One thing I greatly appreciate about this episode with Chris is that he breaks down fairly technical concepts into very digestible bites.

Jeremy Agresti has spent his career developing tools to drastically change the pace of biology with massive-throughput measurements using microfluidics. His seminal contributions as pioneer of miniaturizing biology with microfluidics have resulted in a large number of publications and patents, which have been cited more than 9,000 times, and form the foundation of several companies in the space. His work has allowed Amyris to bring their biofuels and chemicals to market faster, and for companies like Bio-Rad, Illumina and 10x Genomics to bring new single-cell genomics tools and clinical diagnostic tests to market. Jeremy is a co-founder and advisor to Slingshot Biosciences and founder and CTO Triplebar, where he leads a team of scientists and engineers to leverage the power of evolution to bring new biology-produced products to the world and build a sustainable future for the planet.

Vanessa Haley-Benjamin - New Harvest Fellowship Series

On this episode, we’re excited to have Joshua March. Joshua is Co-founder and CEO of SCiFi Foods, a startup creating transformational products by combining cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients to make burgers shockingly close to the taste of conventional beef.

A serial entrepreneur with two exits to his name, Joshua was previously the Co-founder of Conversocial, a digital care platform for messaging that integrates with many of the world's leading brands.

Joshua has a passion for all things food science, environmental sustainability, and believes in the potential of synthetic biology to create superior products for a rapidly growing world. Originally from England and now based in San Francisco.

Sophie Letcher is a PhD student and New Harvest Research Fellow in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Tufts University. She is a part of David Kaplan’s (growing!) cellular agriculture research group, and so far, her research as focused on two main topics. The first is using bioelectricity (endogenous electrical currents) to control muscle cell proliferation and differentiation, and the second is furthering the field of entomoculture (insect cell culture for food). Prior to starting at Tufts, she received her B.A. at Kenyon College in Neuroscience, then worked as a research technician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.

This episode was originally recorded in December 2021.

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2022 is taking place on October 28-29, 2022. Learn more and register for the event at https://cms2022.com

On this episode I chat with Lejjy Gafour of CULT Food Science. We chat about Lejjy's background, his start within the cellular agriculture industry, touch on Future Fields, and learn about CULT Food Science.

Additional show notes will be posted soon.

Are you a regular listener? Be sure to Subscribe or Follow on your favorite podcast platform.

Alex Shirazi sits down with Deniz Kent, Co-founder and CEO of Prolific Machines. Prolific Machines is a Stealth startup based in San Francisco. They are working on technologies that seriously reduces the cost of cultured meat production. On this episode we chat about Deniz' background and how the company came to be.

Learn more about Prolific Machines at https://www.prolificmachines.com/

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2022 is taking place on October 28-29, 2022 in Downtown San Francisco. Learn more and register at https://cms2022.com

This episode of the Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast features Patricia Bubner of Orbillion. Alex and Patricia chat about Orbillion, different cuts of cultivated meat products, and the importance of messaging within the industry.

Learn more about Orbillion Bio at https://www.orbillion.com/

On this episode I speak with Yonatan Golan of Brevel. I was introduced to Brevel in one of my favorite ways possible, at a networking event! The event was hosted by Black & Veatch at the Future Food Tech event in New York City. There I met someone from the Brevel team who eventually connected me to Yonatan. I am so glad I was able to speak with Yonatan about the fascinating topic of micro-algea and how it could very well be one of the biggest protein solutions. 

Learn more about Brevel at https://brevel.co.il/

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2022 is taking place in San Francisco on October 28-29, 2022. Learn more and register for the event at https://www.cms2022.com

This episode features Dr. Peter Nesaei and Dr. Reza Ovissi of OceanTastes, Inc. OceanTastes, Inc. is a cultivated seafood startup based in California. We discuss how the Peter and Reza met, their inspiration for creating OceanTastes, Inc. and the exciting journey ahead.

Learn more about OceanTastes, Inc. at https://www.oceantastes.com

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2022 is taking place on October 28-29, 2022. Learn more and register for the event at https://cms2022.com

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2022 is taking place in San Francisco on October 28-29, 2022. Learn more and register for the event at https://cms2022.com.

On this episode, Alex chats with Brett Thompson of Mzansi Meat Co., one of the first cultivated meat companies in South Africa and even on the continent of Africa. Learn about how Brett's background in plant-based foods and animal advocacy lead to the first investor check and what's next for Mzansi.

References in this episode:

South African Consumer Adoption of Plant-Based and Cultivated Meat: A Segmentation Study: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.744199/full

Plant-based and Cultivated Meat Adoption in Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria: https://www.credenceinstitute.org/_files/ugd/e40e4e_ec6909e70bc242e894d42d5eb34f85fb.pdf

The Cultured Meat Symposium is taking place on October 28-29, 2022. Learn more and register for the event at https://cms2022.com

On this episode, Alex Shirazi sits down with Caroline Wilschut of Meatable to chat about who we need to educate about cultivated meat products and the understanding of the technology over the last few years.

Learn more about Meatable at https://meatable.com

Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest, the advisor to the VegTech™ Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF. The VegTech™ ETF has created a completely new impact asset class: plant-based innovation and alternative in the capital markets. The company has also launched the industry benchmark index, VegTech™ Plant-based Innovation & Alternative Proteins Index. Elysabeth is a plant-based industry expert and speaks globally on the intersection of sustainability and our global food supply system, including recently at the U.N. Global Leaders Compact Summit. She is the CEO of Plant Powered Consulting, and advised multinationals and C-Suite Executives on the industry landscape, direction and whitespaces. Finally, Elysabeth hosts the Plantbased Business Hour, which features the CEOs and thought leaders in the industry. The Plantbased Business Hour is considered, “The Gold Standard” for those who want to understand, participate in, and capitalize on this secular trend.

Learn more about Future Food Tech Alternative Proteins at www.futurefoodtechprotein.com

Laura is the Founder and CEO of Helaina. Founded in 2019, Helaina is the first company to produce human milk proteins that are identical to those in breast milk, creating a new category of infant formula. Disrupting the infant formula category which has been stagnant for decades, Helaina has raised more than $25 million. Laura became NYU’s youngest ever adjunct professor in Food Science & Technology in 2017 and was featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2022.

Learn more about Helaina at www.myhelaina.com

Learn more about Future Food Tech Alternative Proteins at www.futurefoodtechprotein.com

Alex sits down with Will Patrick of Culture Biosciences, the company leading the way for bioreactors in the cloud. 

Design, monitor, and analyze high-throughput bioreactor experiments in Culture's Cloud Lab from your laptop. 

Culture essentially acts as a Bioreactor in the cloud allowing companies to radically accelerate their research. We learn about the basics of the platform and the ideal applications.

Learn more about Culture Biosciences at https://www.culturebiosciences.com/

Trevor Williams is a former high school agriscience teacher turned podcaster that started the FarmTraveler podcast in 2019.  Farm Traveler has one goal, that being to connect consumers with farmers, ranchers, and entrepreneurs in the agriculture industry.  Trevor has published over 150 podcast episodes, educational videos, and Farm Tours on the Farm Traveler Youtube channel, and produces two other agriculture-focused podcasts.

Subscribe to the Farm Traveler Podcast at https://thefarmtraveler.com/

Listen to Alex's episode on the Farm Traveler Podcast at https://thefarmtraveler.com/2022/04/13/ep-145-what-is-cultured-meat/

Thanks for tuning in to the Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast. On this episode we are exciting to have Tim Olsen of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Tim joined Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in 2020 as Head of Commercial for the Cultured Meat program. His goal is to commercialize technologies that enable large scale cost effective and sustainable production of cultured meat and seafood products. Previously, Tim directed laboratory operations and led the development of bioinks at Allevi, a 3D bioprinting company. Tim then held the Senior Scientist position on the Process and Product Development team at RoosterBio, a regenerative medicine company focused on fueling the rapid commercialization of scalable human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) and exosome manufacturing technologies. His skillsets include stem cell culture optimization, media development, and scaling manufacturing in bioreactor systems. Tim then transitioned into commercial operations at RoosterBio as the Northeast USA and Europe Account Manager to leverage his technical skillset to focus on bringing solutions to the customers who were working on bringing regenerative medicine products to the clinic and the market. Tim received a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Clemson University (2015) and sits on the External Advisory Board for the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The College of New Jersey, his undergraduate alma mater.

Dr. Aletta Schnitzler is the Chief Scientific Officer at Turtle Tree. Previously, Aletta held various roles at Merck KGaA across Cell Therapy Bioprocessing and Cultured Meat R&D and Strategy. Aletta received her Ph.D. in 2007 from Boston University School of Medicine in the fields of immunology and neuroscience, focusing on trophic factors that influence immune cell activation, as well as neural differentiation and maintenance of phenotype.

Learn more about TurtleTree:

https://turtletree.com/

Tobias Messmer is a Jr Scientist in the Stemness & Isolation team at Mosa Meat and a PhD student at Maastricht University.

After completing his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology at Heidelberg University, and internships at Cambridge University and Harvard University, Tobias’ current work focuses on molecular characterization of muscle cells during the proliferation and differentiation stages of cultivating beef. In 2020, Tobias has co-founded the Cellular Agriculture Online Symposium (CAOS) - an online platform to facilitate scientific exchange in the Cell-Ag space.

Read the Blog Post:
https://mosameat.com/blog/cultivating-beef-without-fetal-bovine-serum

View the Publication:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00419-1

Jamie has a History degree from Oxford University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Nottingham University. Dedicated to reducing animal suffering, he has volunteered for a variety of effective animal advocacy organizations, including Faunalytics, The Humane League and the Good Food Institute. He is also working to grow the effective altruism movement by managing the local group Effective Animal Altruism London.

Joe Fassler's piece "Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story." brought new discussions to the cultured meat industry.

Joe Fassler is deputy editor of The Counter, a nonprofit newsroom covering the business, politics, and culture of American food. Twice a finalist for a James Beard Media Award, his food journalism has been anthologized in The Best American Food Writing and appeared in publications like TheAtlantic.com, The Guardian, and Smithsonian.

Josh Balk is the Vice President of Farm Animal Protection at the Humane Society of the U.S. In addition, he is the cofounder of Hampton Creek, now Eat Just Inc, a food technology company famous for producing the Just Egg product.

Prior to working with HSUS, Josh is known for his work at Compassion Over Killing. He has been an advocate for animals for almost 20 years.

This is Josh's second episode on the future food show, where we dig a little bit deeper into the great work that he and his team are accomplishing and the future of food.

John Sanbonmatsu is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where he teaches ethics, political theory, and the philosophy of technology.  He is author of the book, The Postmodern Prince:  Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject, editor of the book, Critical Theory and Animal Liberation, and is the creator and curator of the www.CleanMeat-Hoax.com website.  His new book, The Omnivore's Deception:  What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and the Nature of Moral Life, is expected to be released at the end of 2022.

As a passionate food scientist, Michelle looks to combat global food security and malnutrition in everything she does. She has expertise in dairy fermentation, formulation, and processing and is thrilled to ditch the cows for humans. Inspired by upstream solutions for infant nutrition at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she became obsessed with advancing human nutrition through better infant feeding options. Michelle seeks to harness the capacity to drive environmental and social change through creative food solutions with a consumer-first design. Her entrepreneurial expertise in social impact and sustainable business models drives her commitment to seeking mission-aligned partners.

Anita Broellochs is a mission-driven entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Balletic Foods (Balletic, Inc.), a cellular agriculture startup focused on creating high performance protein. Anita is also the inspiration behind SVCMS, the organization behind the Cultured Meat Symposium, and this very podcast.

Anita has a background in Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering and she has previously worked on developing optical clearing techniques of skeletal muscle for multi-photon microscopy for medical purposes at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, in Germany.

Learn more about Balletic Foods at www.balleticfoods.com

Brian Kateman is the lead producer of Meat Me Halfway, a documentary about finding common ground at the dinner table. He is cofounder and president of the Reducetarian Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy to create a healthy, sustainable, and compassionate world.

Learn more about the Reducetarian Foundation:

https://www.reducetarian.org/

Learn more about Meat Me Halfway (Documentary):

https://www.meatmehalfway.org/

The Cultured Meat Symposium (CMS21) is taking place this October 22-23, 2021 in Downtown San Francisco. Learn more and register for the event at https://www.cms21.io.

Linda Lilly is the Director and Founder of The Cocoa Concept. She grew up in the south of Germany, studied Film and Literature in Munich and Vancouver before moving to London to work for Sony Pictures. After changing her take on nutrition and fitness in 2018, Linda went through a physical and emotional transformation herself that led her to not only lose over 20kg but also to spend more and more time researching products that will benefit her mind and body. In 2020 she founded her own company The Cocoa Concept with the purpose to introduce the benefits of Cocoa Husk Tea to the UK market. Whilst still working full time at Sony Pictures she realized that there is an opportunity, people like her who want to lead a healthy lifestyle who want to enjoy themselves without feeling guilty need to know about this product. She constantly tries to challenge herself, practice mindfulness and set positive affirmations to achieve her goals. Linda is currently a candidate at the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator Program.

The Cocoa Concept wants to underline the importance of what we are putting into our bodies – they create a pure product with a natural chocolatey sensation, no dairy, no artificial sweeteners, no sugars, or additives. Their first product is called Cocoa Husk Tea, which is made from the outer shell of the cacao bean. Cocoa Husk is a by-product in the chocolate making process that would otherwise go to waste. That's where The Cocoa Concept comes in and uses it to create a unique and healthy way to enjoy a calorie-free hot chocolate suitable for everyone – no matter whether you are vegan, dairy free or want to cut down your sugar intake. The Cocoa Concept was born to support people in leading a healthy lifestyle, elevate their fitness journey and promote mindful moments.  You can buy their product directly on their website or find it in cafes and health stores across London. They’ve recently been featured in Vogue Magazine as “the latest tea trend”.

Learn more about The Cocoa Concept here:

https://www.thecocoaconcept.com/

The Cultured Meat Symposium 2021 is taking place in San Francisco this October 22-23, 2021. Learn more at https://cms21.io.

David Kay is the Director of Communications and first employee at UPSIDE Foods. David leads the company's communications and public relations strategies, and helps develop and execute the company’s policy strategies. David played a key role in initiating the founding of AMPS Innovation, the trade coalition for the cultured meat, poultry and seafood industry in the US. David has spoken at or been interviewed in The Atlantic, Vice, The Chicago Tribune, Quartz and SXSW, and has given the keynote address at the Cultured Meat Symposium, Cell Agri, and the Food Innovation Summit.   Prior to joining UPSIDE Foods, David studied political science at Stanford University and worked with a variety of non-profits to encourage more sustainable eating practices.