Why Cultivated Meat is the Future

We’re excited to share insights from our advisor, David Kay , on why cultivated meat remains a promising industry despite current challenges.

In the last couple of years, the cultivated meat industry has faced a wave of skepticism, as headline after headline has questioned its funding challenges, regulatory obstacles, and its fundamental techno-economic viability. Where does this leave the cultivated meat movement? Is the industry cooked? Or is it just marinating??

First, it is useful to consider the cultivated meat industry in the context of other innovative industries that have changed the world. Consider the Dotcom Bubble of the 1990s, where faith in many internet companies was fundamentally shaken. In 2001, a New York Times article headline boldly declared that “Dot-Com is Dot-Gone”. Fast forward to today, and tech companies are easily the highest-performing sector on the stock market. Not only that, but the critical industry infrastructure that was developed during the bubble would come to play a major role in the development of the modern tech sector. There are countless other examples of innovative technology being accused of being over-hyped, only to bounce back stronger than ever – think electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, or the “Railway Mania” of 1840s Britain.?

Professional prognosticators will wax and wane on the viability of an industry, but what matters is the industry specifics. So let’s take a look at industry trends that might impact the cultivated meat industry.?

Reasons for Optimism

To be clear, the obstacles facing cultivated meat are very real. But in spite of the current challenges, there are numerous reasons to remain hopeful about the future of cultivated meat:

First, governments from every corner of the world are supporting cultivated meat. Many national governments have allocated public funds towards cultivated meat research and development. For instance, Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) (an Alt Protein Partners collaborator) received $10 million from the US Department of Agriculture to support its critical research on cultivated meat. Outside the US, many regions including Japan, Singapore, Israel, and the European Union have funded cultivated meat research. Perhaps most importantly, in 2022 China included cultivated meat in its 5-year agricultural plan. China is known for heavily subsidizing high-tech industries to help them get through the so-called “Valley of Death,” and their effort has helped enable electric vehicles and solar energy, among many other industries, to be economically viable.?

The reason for this governmental embrace of cultivated meat differs for each region. For some countries, like Singapore and Israel, it’s a matter of food security. For some, like the United States, it’s a matter of keeping the US competitive in the global food industry. Others like the European Union are concerned about the climate impacts of animal agriculture. With such a broad coalition of government supporters spanning geographies, political systems, and motivations, there is a strong and diversified foundation of public support for cultivated meat.

Governments have shown support in other ways. Both Singapore and the US approved the sale of cultivated meat. Most recently, the UK approved the sale of cultivated pet food from Meatly , which made the first-ever sale of cultivated meat in the UK (and the entire European continent) earlier this month.??

Second, philanthropists are opening their wallets. Donors such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Iron Man himself (Robert Downey Jr.) have put their money behind cultivated meat. Most recently, the Bezos Earth Fund opened two centers for alternative protein research, including cultivated meat, in the US and the UK. Bezos’ net worth alone, $252 billion, is more than 80 times the amount of total funding that has been invested in the history of the cultivated meat industry.?

In a world of fickle private sector funding, alternative sources of funding from government and philanthropy is an added advantage.?

Speaking of the private sector, a third reason for hope is that economic trends are improving for cultivated meat startups. In the short term, the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates in 2024 and likely continue down that path in 2025 will hopefully create new opportunities for private sector investment in cultivated meat. Indeed, lower interest rates are known to increase venture capital spending. In the long term, the intensive resource constraints our globe is facing–not to mention the impending impact of climate change on the world’s agricultural system–is expected to reduce the supply and increase the price of conventionally-produced meat. We are already seeing it with beef, where climate-induced droughts have driven up cattle feed costs, pushing up the price of conventionally-produced beef. This creates an economic opportunity for cultivated meat to get to price parity faster. Indeed, this is one of the reasons that many of the world’s largest meat companies–including Tyson Foods , 嘉吉 , and JBS –have invested in cultivated meat.??

Finally, future leaders care about this solution. I have spent the last 1.5 years at 美国哈佛商学院 , sometimes referred to as the “West Point of Capitalism.” During that time I’ve been surrounded by future global leaders in business, philanthropy, government, and culture, and it is clearer to me now more than ever that the future food system does not involve animals. Every day I meet new students interested in understanding how to make the food system more sustainable and humane. As co-president of the school’s Food & Agriculture Club, I see the overwhelming interest in new ways to produce meat, and I’m frequently asked by students how they can get involved in the cultivated meat industry.??

This is one of the reasons I’m excited to be an Advisor on Cellular Agriculture to Food Impact Partners . Alt Protein Partners is doing incredible work connecting talented individuals with companies on the frontlines of food industry innovations. We’ve worked with leaders in the industry, including Mission Barns , Meatable , and Deco Labs . With an active user base of 21,000 people on its job board, Food Impact Careers , and an extensive executive network within food innovation companies globally, Alt Protein Partners is the premiere recruiting agency for the future of food. An industry can only be as good as its talent is, and bringing the best talent to the cultivated meat ecosystem is mission-critical to its future success.

Looking Ahead

I don’t want to sugarcoat things: the challenges the industry is facing are real, and many cultivated meat companies will fail, as is always the case in startups with highly innovative technologies. The success of this industry is not–and has never been–an inevitability. But I would argue that there has never been a better time for talent to get involved in the industry. From an impact perspective, the industry needs talent now more than ever to recover from this challenging phase. From a career development perspective, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help lead an industry out of the desert and into the Promised Land, and in doing so win the professional accolades associated with this turnaround.??

Alt Protein Partners offers executive search and recruiting services to employers in the alternative protein industry and in the intersection of food and climate. In addition, the organization provides a job board and career resources through Food Impact Careers . For more information about service offerings go to altproteinpartners.com, or reach out to Noga Golan .

About the Author:

David Kay was the first employee and Director of Communications at UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats). He is currently an MBA student at Harvard Business School. At UPSIDE, David played a key role in the founding of The Association for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), the world's first trade coalition for the cultivated meat, poultry and seafood industry. He previously served on the Board of Directors as the Vice President of AMPS Innovation. David has spoken at or been quoted in CNN, Reuters, USA Today, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast and SXSW, and has given the keynote address at the Cultured Meat Symposium, Cell Agri, and the Food Innovation Summit.? In 2023 he was named one of The Propel 100 Most Influential Startup PR Professionals in the World. David is an advisor at From Fauna (formerly the Cellular Agriculture Society) and Alt Protein Partners. David has a BA from Stanford University in political science.