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The following content is sponsored by CULT Food Science (CSE: CULT)
Imagine a world where humans can thrive without harming any animals for food.
By cutting meat consumption and shifting to a plant-based diet, we could reduce greenhouse gases by 70% by 2050 and spare 105 animals per person each year.
Cellular agriculture has the power to make this shift less daunting. The infographic above from CULT Food Science (CSE: CULT) explores five reasons why foods produced from cell cultures could make this world a reality.
First things first, the term cellular agriculture describes the process of growing animal agricultural products directly from cell cultures instead of using livestock.
Foods produced from cell cultures—also known as cultured foods—can provide a promising solution to a wide range of problems we are currently facing.
Sounds too good to be true? Let’s dive into some of the reasons cultured foods are here to stay:
With populations rising at an unprecedented pace, more healthy and affordable food options are required urgently.
Cultured foods can provide a more efficient solution compared to conventional meat. In fact, it takes just 2-3 weeks to create a cultured meat product compared to the 52 weeks+ it takes to raise a farm animal such as a cow.
Compared to animal-sourced industries, food produced from cell cultures could also be more resilient to supply chain disruptions.
Conventional agriculture contributes 15% of all emissions globally, with beef producing the highest level of greenhouse gases per serving.
A cultured foods manufacturing plant on the other hand could produce emissions that are:
The caveat is that these figures refer to a plant that uses renewable energy. Foods created from cell cultures also require less land and water use, meaning they could be an more environmentally friendly option overall.
In 2021, the price of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs shot up by 11.9% in the U.S.—the fastest increase since 1990.
While plant-based alternatives have attempted to disrupt the meat market, these products will not experience price parity until at least 2023.
Because this is unchartered territory, there is a huge opportunity for new companies in the cultured foods space to provide solutions for cost reduction at scale.
“Some experts posit that cultured meat products will be cost competitive with traditional meat products within the decade.” —Food in Canada
The long-term consumption of eating meat has proven to be harmful. In fact, there is a clear link between eating red meat and heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and premature death according to Harvard Medical School.
Similarly, while there are many benefits to eating plant-based, some plant-based products on the market may contain fillers, added sodium, and higher saturated fats.
In contrast, cultured foods are grown in a safe and controlled environment which comes with several benefits:
Therefore cultured foods could provide a healthier alternative to both meat and plant-based products in the long-run.
Despite rising populations putting pressure on the food supply chain, meat consumption is in fact shrinking.
This means that the market for conventional meat products will be overtaken by other options like plant-based alternatives and cultured meat as soon as 2040.
To keep up with these major market changes, innovation in stem cell research and tissue engineering is accelerating. A whopping $2 billion in investment has been pumped into the market since 2020 according to Crunchbase.
What’s more, we’re starting to see changes in regulation around the world with Singapore being the first nation to legalize the sale of cultured meat products.
CULT Food Science is an innovative investment platform advancing the technology behind the future of food with an exclusive focus on cultured meat, cultured dairy and cell-based foods.
The company’s portfolio spans four continents and includes exposure to a diverse pipeline of:
>>> Click here to subscribe to the CULT Food Science mailing list.
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The U.S. alone generates ∼12 million tons of asphalt shingles tear-off waste and installation scrap every year and more than 90% of it is dumped into landfills.
Asphalt, also known as bitumen, has various applications in the modern economy, with annual demand reaching 110 million tons globally.
Until the 20th century, natural asphalt made from decomposed plants accounted for the majority of asphalt production. Today, most asphalt is refined from crude oil.
This graphic, sponsored by Northstar Clean Technologies, shows how new technologies to reuse and recycle asphalt can help protect the environment.
Pollution from vehicles is expected to decline as electric vehicles replace internal combustion engines.
But pollution from asphalt could actually increase in the next decades because of rising temperatures in some parts of the Earth. When subjected to extreme temperatures, asphalt releases harmful greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere.
Asphalt paved surfaces and roofs make up approximately 45% and 20% of surfaces in U.S. cities, respectively. Furthermore, 75% of single-family detached homes in Canada and the U.S. have asphalt shingles on their roofs.
Similar to roads, asphalt shingles have oil as the primary component, which is especially harmful to the environment.
Shingles do not decompose or biodegrade. The U.S. alone generates ∼12 million tons of asphalt shingles tear-off waste and installation scrap every year and more than 90% of it is dumped into landfills, the equivalent of 20 million barrels of oil.
But most of it can be reused, rather than taking up valuable landfill space.
Using technology, the primary components in shingles can be repurposed into liquid asphalt, aggregate, and fiber, for use in road construction, embankments, and new shingles.
Providing the construction industry with clean, sustainable processing solutions is also a big business opportunity. Canada alone is a $1.3 billion market for recovering and reprocessing shingles.
Northstar Clean Technologies is the only public company that repurposes 99% of asphalt shingles components that otherwise go to landfills.
Cultured meat could become a $25 billion market by 2030, but investment into the technologies that underpin the industry is required.
Cultured foods—also known as cell-based foods—are expected to turn our global food system as we know it on its head.
In fact, the cultured meat market is estimated to reach an eye-watering $25 billion by 2030 according to McKinsey, but only if it can overcome hurdles such as price parity and consumer acceptance. To do so, significant innovation in the science behind these products will be crucial for the industry’s growth.
In the graphic above from our sponsor CULT Food Science, we provide a visual overview of some of the technologies behind the creation of cultured meat products.
To start, cultured meat is defined as a genuine animal meat product that is created by cultivating animal cells in a controlled lab environment—eliminating the need to farm animals for food almost entirely.
“Cultured meat has all the same fat, muscles, and tendons as any animal…All this can be done with little or no greenhouse gas emissions, aside from the electricity you need to power the land where the process is done.” —Bill Gates
Because cultured meat is made of the same cell types and structure found in animal tissue, the sensory and nutritional profiles are like-for-like. Let’s dive into how these products are made.
The main challenge facing the cultured meat market is producing products at scale. But thanks to the vast amount of research in the stem cell biology space, the science behind cultured foods is not entirely new.
Given that we are in the very early days of applying these learnings to producing food products, those looking to invest in companies contributing to the industry’s growth stand to benefit. Here is an overview of some of the technologies that underpin the industry that you should know:
This is the process of using living cells and their components to create new products. According to experts like the Good Food Institute, bioprocess design holds the key to unlocking cultured meat production at scale.
Specifically, innovation in bioreactor (where the cells grow) design represents a massive opportunity for companies and investors alike.
Tissue engineering techniques are used to produce cultured meat that resembles real meat textures and flavors. The first step is taking tissue from the animal for the purpose of extracting stem cells and creating cell lines.
The extracted stem cell lines are then cultivated in a nutrient rich environment, mimicking in-animal tissue growth and producing muscle fibers inside a bioreactor. The muscle fibers are processed and mixed with additional fats and ingredients to assemble the finished meat product.
Cell lines refer to the different types of cells that can be propagated repeatedly and sometimes indefinitely.
Access to cell lines is a major challenge facing the industry today and is an area that requires significantly more research. This is because there is not just one cell type that can be used in cellular agriculture to produce cultured food products.
Cells (or cell cultures) require very specific environmental conditions. Cell culture media is a gel or liquid that contains the nutrients needed to support growth outside of the body.
More research in this space is needed to determine optimized formulations and make these products more affordable.
Scaffolds are 3D cell culture platforms that mimic the structure of complex biological tissues, such as skeletal muscle. This platforms can be created through the use of 3D Bioprinting.
Scaffolds are predominantly made up of collagen and gelatin. The problem is these are both animal-derived ingredients which defeats the purpose of cell-based products. Therefore, more sustainable plant-derived options are also being explored.
CULT Food Science is an innovative investment platform advancing the technology behind the future of food with an exclusive focus on cultured meat, cultured dairy, and cell-based foods.
The company’s global portfolio spans four continents and includes exposure to a diverse pipeline:
>>>Want to stay updated? Click here to subscribe to the CULT Food Science mailing list.
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