Meat Minus Animals
Cultivated meat: It’s made headlines as a hot topic but still can seem like an impossible science fiction concept for many. It's exactly this myth that science communicators like Bianca Le are trying to debunk. Having attained a PHD in biomedical research and becoming passionate about the topic herself, Bianca began investigating the current climate for cultivated meat in Australia - only to find there wasn’t much going on when compared to hubs of innovation in the field overseas. That’s precisely what led her to form Cellular Agriculture Australia, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting and accelerating the development of the industry. In this week’s episode we chat to Bianca about what cultivated meat is, the science behind the process, as well as some of the components that have caused controversy. We also discuss price parity, major barriers and recent milestones achieved in the industry so far.
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Image: Founder of Cellular Agriculture Australia, Bianca Le.
As a nonprofit looking to accelerate and promote the advancement of cellular agriculture within Australia, Bianca and her team are focussed on 3 major things:
1) Promoting existing talent and ensuring students are able to enter this research field
2) Create a connected network of academics, industry professionals, government members and policymakers, students and scientists
3) Generate positive public awareness
But Bianca wasn’t always aware on what cellular agriculture was, or how it could benefit our food system. She initially came across the term 4 years ago when volunteering for Effective Altruism Melbourne.
Bianca: ‘Effective altruism is a research field about doing good better - so how do we make the world a better place with the limited time and resources that we have’
Simultaneously completing her PHD in biomedical research at the time, once learning about the benefits it could have for humans, animals, climate change and overall biodiversity she knew she couldn’t look back.
Bianca: ‘It just ticked off so many boxes for me.’
Bound from overseas by a national lockdown after graduation, she began digging deeper into Australia and where the industry was headed here.
Bianca: ‘Despite the fact that Australia is really well placed to become a leader in this field, there just wasn’t as much happening compared to overseas. I wanted to change that.’
One of the ways in which she aims to do that is by creating a positive public awareness on the topic. Seen by many as something sci-fi, and ‘unnatural’ due to being grown in a lab, there is a hesitancy from people around campaigning for and pushing cultivated meat, with many fearing the idea of their protein being ‘lab-grown’.
Bianca: ‘By the time this product goes to market, it won’t be produced in a lab. It will be produced in food-grade facilities just like all the other foods we eat today.’
Others have concerns over the health risks of cultivated meat, with meat derived directly from animals being a public health concern.
Bianca: ‘Because we’re starting with starter cells, we have complete control over the process unlike relying on an animal’s genetics.’
‘We can control the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fats in our beef steaks, or we can introduce healthier fats like omega 3 fatty acids.’
So what is the process of actually creating meat from the cellular level?
1) Take a biopsy of muscle tissue from an animal, around the size of an almond. This biopsy contains the muscle cells, fat cells, blood vessels and connective tissue scaffold that together create the meat.
2) These cell components can then be isolated, and this is the point at which stem cells can be derived (blank cells that can be turned into any other cell type)
3) Stem cells sit in a bioreactor and are grown in a mixture called a growth medium, which contains amino acids, electrolytes and nutrients that the cell needs to grow.
4) Desired cells can then be harvested and perfused on to a structural scaffold
Bianca: ‘We can customise the proportion of fat to muscle cells, the structure of the scaffold and how it feels when we bite into it - basically we have control over that process.’
Some of these components required to grow cells have caused controversy, in particular when it comes to the type of medium used.
Bianca: ‘Fetal bovine serum is the gold standard when it comes to cell culture in the biomedical research field.’
‘With the R&D phase of cellular agriculture it’s definitely still used. However in the final product we will definitely be using non-animal derived products and there are actually companies in the cellular agriculture industry that are 100% focussed on just developing the growth media.’
An example of this is Queensland-based startup Heuros, who are developing plant-based growth factors and media for cell culture.
Bianca: ‘It’s definitely one of the biggest technical challenges that the field is facing, however many companies have already reduced the cost of their plant based media by tenfold over the past few years.’
And some companies are skipping the use of plant-based growth factors altogether, instead using something called a ‘feeder-cell system’. This method includes using the same cellular agriculture methodology to mimic organs within the bioreactor that can supply the nutrients required for the cells to proliferate and grow. Companies taking this route include Integriculture in Japan and Fork and Goode in New York.
Just as there is a diversity of growth mediums, there are also a wide variety of scaffolds ranging from using mushroom fibres to the fibres of fermented coconut.
Bianca: ‘There are companies also looking into the 3D printing space, to generate the same beautiful marbling you find in expensive wagyu steaks.’
But all of this isn’t without cost. Is the cost equation of clean meat heading in the right trajectory?
Bianca: ‘There are definitely companies that are trying to reach price parity.’
Bianca mentioned one company in particular that has managed to develop a beef patty equivalent to the cost of $10.
Bianca: ‘However other companies are not trying to take that approach at all, and are trying to develop a premium product.’
What are some of the biggest cost factors?
Growth media
Producing this product to scale ie. having automated bioreactors that are completely sterile
There is also a lack of public funding in the field for the industry to commercialise, something that requires nonprofits across the globe to have conversations with policymakers and people in government to ensure that cellular agriculture is on their radar.
Bianca: ‘We’ve had a lot of success in the US with the National Science Foundation giving lots of money to different universities. There is also a university in Israel and Singapore that are getting a lot of government funding.’
There are also several organisations that are working to ensure more open-access research. Some of these include New Harvest and The Shojin Meat Project, who are dedicated to citizen science.
Bianca: ‘They’ve gone into primary schools and taught students how to culture cells under $70.’
Bianca also went on to say that the transition to cellular agriculture would ensure more job opportunities, a topic which has gained some controversy by critics of the industry who argue that it will have negative impacts on the local farming community.
Bianca: ‘Cellular agriculture still requires farmers to be on board. We need to develop the plant-based scaffolds and growth media.’
‘In terms of the animal agriculture industry, we see a lot of trends in the US where meat industries are investing in cellular agriculture because they can see the economic and ethical implications of this new technology.’
And there are many opportunities available within the community.
Bianca: ‘With any new emerging industry you don’t just need technical experts. We’re also going to need everyone else that builds an industry. We need people who are experts in finance, in marketing - we need to develop the industry from the ground up.’
Cellular Agriculture Australia’s website has a lot of resources for people who are looking to get involved, a jobs board, links to youtube videos and other nonprofits who are publishing interesting and important work in the space.
There also hasn’t been a more perfect time to jump on board, the field reaching an impressive milestone reached earlier last month with Singapore being the first government in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat.
Bianca: ‘That news was definitely incredibly exciting. That was the approval for Eat Just’s chicken bite.’
In terms of whether or not this is hyped up, or reflects a genuine readiness to take cultivated meat to market?
Bianca: ‘Governments don’t approve the sale of novel food products if companies aren’t ready to sell the product, so Eat Just are very close to commercialisation.’
And there are companies following a similar path close behind with a company in Israel doing public taste tests of their product. Sydney-based startup Vow is collaborating with one of Australia’s best chefs Neil Perry to plate these products in-situ and taste how the meat sits with other ingredients.
Bianca: ‘It’s close but I also don’t want to speculate and say you will see cultivated meat on supermarket shelves in two years, or within the next five. We just have to wait and see.’
If you want to get involved with the Australian cellular agriculture community you can head to cellularagricultureaustralia.org and join the slack to meet others, as well as chat to Bianca about any other questions you may have.
You can also stay up to date by signing up to their newsletter, or following them on social media @cellagaustralia.