Faux Meat Faux Our Future
We are currently living in one of the most exciting times in culinary history. Hate it or love it, lab-made meat is closer to mass production in the world. Before we get into the argument of, “Stephen, we have meat, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel”, we need to take a look at the transformation these products bring to global economies.
The most fascinating story (to me) in plant based meat development is that of Nature’s Fynd. Thomas Jonas founder of Nature’s Fynd began developing food possibilities for the fermented protein they call “Fy”. This research was originally funded by NASA, as they wanted to explore space as the environment to find organisms that could change the structures of native species.
However, it wasn’t space that introduced these organisms, it was Yellowstone National Park here in our own backyard. Dr. Mark Kozubal was studying extremophiles in Yellowstone and found a microbe that could change food as we know it. This microbe was developed into a technology that creates a food source for our growing population. By fermenting this microbe, they were able to produce a complete protein. This protein contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals and fiber that can produce vegan, nutrient dense food.
More info at: https://www.naturesfynd.com/
Aside from chemical jargon and the soap box I seem to be standing on, let’s take a look at why this actually matters.
We are beginning to create a form of life within bio-reactors and this life is able to be consumed/modified. GMO’s have a bad rap, but this is where they truly can become king in a volatile market. Not only can products be made to feed, but we can begin to chemically fortify this food to feed underdeveloped communities. We can begin to fortify products to meet the needs of malnourished communities.
-Adding vitamins for communities where it might not be readily available in the geographical climate for example
Not only are we providing for malnourished communities, but it is simply a way to produce more food, with less space, and less waste in an already worn out world. As we continue to grow these microbes and organism we are creating a new “ecosystem” per say. Climate change, extinction, public health are all major parts of this movement.
Nature’s Fynd isn’t the only company doing this. Below are a few companies that I follow closely and I recommend reading more about.:
-JUST (www.jus.st)
- Just uses a mung bean base that scrambles like an egg, can rise like an egg and taste extremely similar to that of an animal produced product. JUST eggs uses 98% less water and 86% less land than that of conventional eggs.
-Upside Foods (upsidefoods.com)
-Uses cells directly from chickens, that are cultivated and follow a natural cell multiplication process to form meat. After 2-3 weeks, meat is ready and harvested. Uses 77% less water and 62% less land than conventional meat.
-Wild Type Foods (wildtypefoods.com)
-Uses cells directly from salmon and cultivates much like that of Upside
-Wild Earth (wildearth.com)
-Biotech (biotech-foods.com)
-Supermeat (supermeat.com)
There are quite a few more companies on the market, but I will let you do more research yourself! This is an incredibly interesting topic to me, and is becoming one of the fastest growing markets in the world. I love throwing a classic ribeye in a pan, butter basting it and enjoying it with my family. The next ribeye we eat could very well be a “lab to table” product!
In my opinion, these products need a lot more work before they are completely accepted in today’s markets, but all are on the right track. This will be very exciting to watch in the next few short years.
