Meat the Future (2020)

A profile of Silicon Valley based Upside Foods (formally Memphis Meats), which grows meat from meat cells, and the emerging clean meat industry is profiled. From a product perspective, the task for the company is to make something that resembles what consumers know meat to be, get away from the possible perception that what it is is akin to "Frankenmeat" (i.e. that it is not "real" meat) and sold at what is comparable to conventionally raised meat from animals, the several hundreds of thousands of dollars per pound of product cost in 2016 which may partly be rectified by scale of production. The social goals of the company include increased animal welfare in not having animals killed for human consumption, environmental protection and addressing issues around climate change as mass animal farming can be damaging in both respects, and increasing food security and meeting demand as the desire to consume meat globally is only increasing. The process to obtain investors in this unproven market is shown. And the views of traditional meat producers and the government, who must ultimately set the regulatory framework for this, a product that does not yet exist on the commercial market, are also presented. Within this profile is that of Uma Valeti, the company co-founder and CEO, a former cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, that individual profile which includes his motivation to move from a stable career to this high risk one.—Huggo