Meat the Future (2020) Movie Script
[atmospheric music playing]
[birds chirping]
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Jane Goodall] This is
a story of planetary hope
inspired by one of the
biggest ideas of the century,
the fate of our planet may
depend on a new food science
that grows real meat
directly from animal cells
without the need to breed,
raise, and slaughter animals.
Let's face it, conventional
animal agriculture
is wreaking havoc,
it occupies nearly
half of the world's land,
produces huge amounts
of greenhouse gases
and there's a potential
breeding ground
for health pandemics
like COVID 19.
With meat consumption
expected to double by 2050,
we urgently need solutions.
Welcome to the next
agricultural revolution.
[gentle music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
This is the first time a
meatball has ever been cooked
with beef cells that did not
require a cow to be slaughtered
[sizzling]
[waves crashing]
[seagulls squawking]
This has been something
that I've been dreaming
about since I was a kid.
Thinking about the impact on
human lives and animal lives
and the ills of food production.
It's been ten years
since I finished training
in cardiology at the Mayo Clinic
and wanted to be able to pursue
an idea of can you grow
meat from animal cells
and I'm extremely fortunate to
have the support I have at home.
My wife and kids are being proud
of what I am doing.
Over the last few years
we spent a lot of time
talking about what if
your dad started this company.
And if we had to move,
how would it look like?
It was extremely hard for us
even to have the conversation
because I'm a very involved dad.
The last year has
been determined
by the amount of
changes in our lives.
So you know, I
founded the company
built an amazing team here.
I quit Cardiology, operating
from my home in Minnesota.
I've never been away from home
more than 20 days a year.
In the last year,
it's been like
250 days or something so.
It just went up in magnitude.
And I can see it
only getting busier
and I can see that you know,
this requires that I'm under
someone to focus, and passion.
We just have to keep trying.
Hi, Jason. Can you hear me well?
[Jason]
Yes, I can.
And how do I sound to you?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
You sound clear.
[Jason]
Okay, great.
So let me make sure I'm
pronouncing your name, right.
Dr. Uma Valeti, Right?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
That's correct.
[Jason] How much
funding did you take on?
Is this venture back
now or give us some idea?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So this was
founded by Nick and myself
and Will from Memphis
and the three of us,
we raised about $3.1 million.
We had a venture capital
group called Indy Bio
that funded us.
[clearing throat]
[Jason] Okay, this will be
an edit, so just a moment.
What type of doctor are you?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
I'm a cardiologist.
[Jason]
Okay, oh great. Let's just,
let's just dive in and do this.
It's my pleasure to
welcome Dr Uma Valeti.
He is CEO of Memphis Meats.
So Uma, lab grown
meat brings to mind
Frankenfood,
playing with nature.
All of this kind of stuff
take us through the process
of how you grow
meat in your labs.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yes,
so let me just preface this
by saying we are not calling
this lab grown meat
because there is
confusion out
there that 'are you
making this
from plant proteins?'
'Are you synthesizing
something?'
What is this?
This is authentic meat.
[Jason]
But when you
say it's authentic meat
I just beg to differ
with you, maybe.
Just correct me if I'm wrong
you are engineering it.
It's not. It's not completely
natural, if you will?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
So we take cells
from whether it's a cow, a pig
or a chicken
then we provide
them with rich nutrients
these cells grow and
become meat tissue.
So that's the process
of making the meat and...
[Jason] Okay, okay.
But I want you to explain
what's happening here.
I mean, are you
basically cloning meat?
Right? Is that
what you're doing?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we
are not cloning anything.
We are growing these cells.
So these cells are growing
and becoming muscle tissue.
Look, we are
pioneers in this area.
We're starting this on
the commercial side,
[Jason] But, it's so funny,
like you have to change
your thinking and
your vocabulary to even
discuss the subject.
It's just such
an odd new concept
This is a real mind blower.
This is a huge shift.
I would like to be an investor
because I have a
feeling this might be
one of the biggest ideas
in the history of the world.
[gentle piano music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we literally
moved into the space
about four and a half weeks ago.
You know it will take another
four to six weeks
to get this place up and running
and that creates a sense of
restlessness in me and
Nick and you know everybody
on our team because, you know we
want to get going like yesterday
[gentle piano music continuing]
I know eventually
the speed at which
we can come to the
market is going to be
a function of funding
and I think it's our goal
to keep printing when we can,
take brief periods of rest
and then start printing again.
So operations update.
Right? This is the key for us.
The focus for April will be
for all of us is to
get up and running.
And I'm thinking we should
look at the farm,
the large equipment
or the small equipment, and
you know what you have in terms
of timelines for those.
There will be lots of,
you know, challenges we have.
Of course, there are challenges.
It's never been done
in the history of the world.
But I think we are
taking the first step
and I think this first
step is going to have lots
and lots of people also
join us in that step
and we feel like we're going
to kick start a revolution.
[footsteps]
[office chatter]
I have always had an interest in
my social justice issues,
environmental justice issues.
Pretty much my whole life all I
wanted to do was be a chef
and I wanted to focus on meat.
About half way through college
and I was like, no
more basketball.
I need a career. I love
science, I always have.
What I get really excited about
is engineering biology.
So my training is in
biomedical engineering.
I was actually
a tissue engineer.
I learned about some of
the animal welfare implications
of animal agriculture, and that
was kind of what did it for me.
I learned a lot
about factory farming
and the conditions
that animals are kept in.
The impact it has
on the environment that I
just had no idea about.
I took an
urban agriculture class
that really opened my eyes to
what we were doing to the planet
just by feeding ourselves
At first, I actually thought
it was
kind of strange because
I had been very ingrained
in the medical applications,
and then I started reading
more about it.
Uma Valeti wanders across my
Facebook feed with a meatball.
My brain exploded
and I was like, 'I have
to talk to these people'.
Yeah, it's like I got
to be a part of this.
Like I have the skills.
Assert yourself
and it will happen.
Basically. Pretty much.
[all laughing]
I thought this could be a really
great way to change the world
and incorporate
my love of science,
but also my desire
to make cool stuff.
That's kind of my story of
way, why and how I got here.
[Matthew Leung]
So these are the samples of live
tissue.
Billions of cells in this
tiny portion right here.
These ones are called punch
biopsies, where a large needle
essentially is inserted in
the animal
and takes out
a small cylinder of tissue.
The taste, texture
and flavor of meat
is a combination
of manufacturers.
It's not just muscle
cells, it's fats.
It's connective tissues.
It's all sorts of things. And
we're taking those small
samples of meat or tissue apart
so we can better understand
the different components and
use that to build our product.
These are very precious
biological samples
which are going to
give us huge insights
into the biology of the animals.
And these are stem cells sources
for future products.
These small tissue samples
will produce extremely
large amounts of meat.
Traditionally in tissue culture,
one of the elements of the food
that you're giving the cells
is fetal bovine serum.
If you start with
fetal calf serum,
essentially, you're
starting with this perfect
rich broth of awesome
stuff that is designed
to make things grow and thrive.
But one of the scientific goals
of the company right now
is to eliminate any animal
derived product from our
process as soon as possible.
We want to separate the
animal from meat making.
To develop a consistent
media with no animal derived
components in which our cells
could thrive at a large scale.
That would definitely be a...
really great moment
for our company.
It would probably be
a while before we announced
that that had happened.
because you want there to be a
lot of internal validation.
[liquid bubbling]
There are all these systems that
animals have been building up
through
millions of years of evolution
and that includes a digestive
system and an immune system.
So in some ways, cellular
agriculture is more simple
because you're just focusing
on this one part of the animal.
Instead of saying, you know,
all I want is the Tenderloin.
But I have to grow the liver,
too but it's also a little
bit more complicated
because you need to
engineer these systems
to protect the cells.
And you know, engineer
sounds like a big word,
but it's just like figuring
out what's the best fence
to keep the cow in
but keep the wolf out?
except kind of in a more a,
more modern environment.
It's what's the best fence
to keep the bacteria
out of our cells
but keep the cells healthy
without using antibiotics
because that's a major concern
with current animal agriculture.
The whole goal here
is to make cells exist
in a bioreactor.
So it's like what you
would grow yeast in if
you were making beer.
So we're going to take cells
and put them in an
artificial environment
so that they can
grow and proliferate.
[lab machinery
whirring in background]
There are known
ways of producing animal muscle
in a laboratory.
The science is established and
lots of people have studied it.
What we're looking
at is chicken,
the sort of structure,
the typical structure
of chicken.
I am still blown away by how
complex the tissue itself is.
All poultry is very similar
and these are very early
in the process, so they
haven't completed anything yet.
But you can see it's starting
to adopt this sort of...
it looks like a Van
Gogh like "Starry Night".
The muscle fibers
are trying to align
and form these
beautiful tendrils.
This is a huge,
huge paradigm shift.
This meat production depends on
the division cycle of the cell
rather than the reproductive
cycle of the animal.
[device beeping]
This was a goal that for
many years I sought out,
but there were no like-minded
individuals or resources
to support this goal.
Uma was very passionate,
and we both took a leap of faith
and decided to start a company.
And use our complimentary
areas of expertise.
You know his business
in administrative expertise
and my scientific expertise
driven by the same
mission, the same motivation.
You know, personally
growing up in a family farm,
I would raise the animals
and they looked up to me for
their care and their protection.
I was their guardian.
And as their guardian,
I sent them to auction...
I sent them to auction,
and I sent them to slaughter.
And this... after doing
this for a couple of years,
I realized this is a problem.
So I wanted to be
part of that solution.
So this is a conventional beef
from a local store
to compare against our product.
[meat sizzling]
We want to make sure
that whatever we're giving
to consumers is the same
as what they're used to.
And when they
get it in their hands
that it will behave
just the same.
And so I am today
looking at cooking loss.
I want to make sure that
the moisture loss is the same.
Fat loss is the same.
It needs to behave like
functionally as
close as possible.
Going up to puncture it.
- I guess that's why--
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] I got 185
on this, so...
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
The meat industry knows
that they can't meet
the demand of the people
And if the demand for meat
is going to double by 2050,
there is just no method
of production
that they have
at their disposal now
that will satisfy that
hunger for meat.
There just isn't.
[fast piano music playing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[restaurant customers bantering]
[cameras shuttering]
[Director] Uma would
you just take your hands
and clap them in front
of your face like that?
- Okay, everybody's standing?
- [Cameraman] Yup.
[Director] Okay. Any time, Uma.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So March
14th, 2017. That is today, team.
We are here to do something
that has never happened
in the history of humanity.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Thank you,
guys. Thank you for being here.
[Director] Here we go! Ready?
Let's rock!
Whenever you're ready.
[Announcer] All right, are
we ready for the cook off?
[meat sizzling]
[Director] What's that?
[Chef 1] Right there?
You see that?
[Director] Who touched that?
[Director] Let's just get
the ingredients shouted out
if you would?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] In terms
of technical breakthroughs
that allowed us to do what
we did over the last year
we had a few substantial,
isolated breakthroughs,
so one of the things that was
more relevant to the poultry
is starting to have texture,
because the meatball,
there was a texture,
but not the types of texture
we had with poultry,
where we could have
very clearly fibers
that you could see in there.
Fiberosity starting to have
three-dimensional nature
to the meat that
we're producing.
[all cheers-ing]
[clapping]
[joyful laughing]
[progressive music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] August 23rd,
2017 we announced the closing
of a major round of financing
[progressive music continuing]
We were able to put together
a group of investors
that really care about
what we're doing,
and it includes
impact investors,
but it also includes the
meat industry incumbents.
[progressive music continuing]
[Spokesman] So it's all about
sustainability.
It's about, call it
"clean meat", if you will?
It's not going to replace
the consumption of beef
or chicken or duck overnight
but nonetheless it's a way
to produce meat in a different
alternative
that isn't as
resource intensive.
[Newscaster] Memphis Meats has
raised a total of $22 million
which signals a commitment
to the "clean
meat" movement.
Which other companies
are working on as well,
including Tyson,
which is one of the
largest chicken suppliers
in the United States.
[progressive music continuing]
So here we are in the
epicenter of venture capital.
We have invested
about $4 billion.
Companies like Skype, Hotmail,
Baidu, Tesla, Twitter, Twilio.
[laughing]
There's a long list
we've had, I think
28 companies that
have exited with
over $1 billion valuation
and certainly food
is a huge area,
certainly a big market,
and there's a lot of change
going on with technologies
with respect to the production
and distribution of food.
And then there are also
changing consumer behaviors
and changing consumer taste.
And Memphis was really special
The timing felt right.
So we, you know,
DFJ led the series.
Memphis Meats was
in the enviable position
of having more money
coming at it than
it wanted to take.
So it was an
interesting dance to...
For example consider, do
you want strategic investors?
So investors who themselves
are in the meat industry.
What are the pros
and cons of that?
What would that say about
us? What kind of restrictions
might they put on us
in order to do that?
So, you know, we ultimately
ended up with both Tyson's
and Cargill as investors, and
they've been wonderful partners.
And they've been really
helpful in various ways,
such as understanding some
of the regulatory environment.
[progressive music playing]
[power drill whirring]
Hey.
[office workers bantering]
[progressive music continuing]
[office workers bantering]
I don't think 110 pounds of dry
ice is going to be enough.
Now we just gotta move them.
We currently
occupy about this much space.
- Yeah.
- We're getting this much space
which is 17,500 square feet.
We have these two rooms
that are functional cold rooms.
And then the process development
space over here, where we
define the right conditions to
grow the cells into functional
meat tissues all of that space
is here and then leads right
into the kitchen space.
[progressive music continuing]
[crane motor whirring]
We're going to
build up the process to allow us
to make scalable
large quantities of meat.
We can do this at small
scale now, but to scale that up
is going to be one of the
really, really big challenges.
Yeah, if you just wanna throw it
in that small room...
The scale for food production,
the more we dig into
this and think about it,
it's unfathomable.
It's so large.
And so, I have this
analogy that I say,
if San Francisco is
roughly a million people
and if every person
had one burger a week,
which is like a quarter of
a pound, then in a month
they would each eat a pound,
which is 12 million
pounds a year.
And so to feed everyone
in San Francisco,
one burger a week,
12 million pounds a year,
if we make meat
50 weeks a year,
that's two 240,000
pounds every week,
which is approximately
the size of a blue whale.
And so every week,
week after week after week,
for San Francisco,
it's a blue whale.
[office workers bantering]
Anyone have
a marker, or a Sharpie?
- All right, here.
- We want our present.
- You want your present?
- A housewarming gift.
All right, let me get the gift.
One of the most important
milestones you guys have,
at least one of the
ways we think about it,
is price per pound,
which is kind of a singular
thing that over
time, presumably,
will continue to go down.
So I went home last night
and I made you this little
sign as an office warming gift.
So it's like a little old
grocery store sign and it says
"Memphis Meats, today's price".
[all clapping]
And it's out of glass, because
this is my hobby, I make glass.
So you want to
write in todays' price?
- Go ahead, Nick.
- Do it.
[Nick] Do we need
to consult on this?
- [Man 2] No, Go for it.
- [Woman 5] Go for it!
[Woman 5] See if it matches
what I saw in the deck yesterday
[laughing]
All right, just a
little ways to go
[laughing]
We had a couple of extra 0's
next to it when we started.
[Woman 5] I know, I know,
this is already progress.
Maybe three zeros next to it.
Like I said, if we keep on
at the same rate,
we'll be there in no time.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay,
so February 16th, 2018.
The last harvest of
meat at Memphis Meats
was $1,700 a pound
- That was beef.
- Beef. Yes, yes.
[champagne bottle popping]
[team cheering]
Day one in the new building is
always extra exciting.
[team cheering & clapping]
[champagne bottle popping]
I'm filled with gratitude.
I've always said I'm
here because of my family
Then it started up with
Nick and I joining here.
Now, this is our
extended family,
and I want to really
thank you very much.
I raise a glass for
better meat, better world.
Cheers.
[all "Cheers!"]
[ambient music playing]
[Dr. Parvataneni] I haven't
been here since 2012.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah,
we've been in this business
for a very long time.
[Dr. Parvataneni] I mean this
company's so diverse.
You were still practicing
as a cardiologist then.
[laughing]
[Dr. Parvataneni] That
seems like eons ago.
[mobile phone ringing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Hello?
[speaking Hindi]
[speaking Hindi]
[Dr. Parvataneni] Uma's talked
about this idea of growing meat
for as long as I've known
him which is almost 25 years.
He's talked about this
in some form or another.
It's among the values that
we talk about as a family.
[speaking Hindi]
- [Dr. Parvataneni] Mm, thanks.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
[partygoers bantering]
[all speaking Hindi]
[Dr. Parvataneni] He spent
a lot of time thinking about it
and one thing you
know is that when
you have a desire like that,
it doesn't go away
with ignoring it.
It only grows, especially
when you know it's meant to be
[camera shuttering]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
The only process that we
are changing is one step.
Instead of these cells
growing in an animal,
we are growing them
outside the animal.
Meat is still the same
meat, and we're harvesting it.
[mobile device beeping]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] The
idea was to go to the U.S.
wanting to do cardiology
and cardiac surgery at Mayo,
and I had a number
of interviews at Mayo
Clinic but my visa got
rejected multiple times.
So, back then when
your visa was rejected,
you could try, I think
three times in total.
And I believe I got
rejected three times.
[Dr. Parvateneni] Any
reason why they give you?
Why they rejected you?
No, I mean, it was hard to know.
I think I went well prepared.
[Dr. Parvateneni] Okay.
But it was
all over in a few seconds
and there was
really no explanation.
So it was at that
time I thought
the world was turned upside
down and it was a shade of shock
because I pretty much thought
this is where I would train.
But then you go into solutions
more than they decided
that I would go to Jamaica
and work there for a while
and reapply to go to
the U.S. to train again.
So that started my
journey to leave India.
But...
If I didn't get
those rejections,
I wouldn't have gone to Jamaica.
And if I didn't go there, I
wouldn't have met my wife
[Dr. Parvateneni] Oh, can
you tell me the moment when
it took that big leap of faith?
You know, your journey
from cardiology to business?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] As
I started working in
cardiology at the Mayo Clinic
That's when stem cell research
was really being worked on
to grow heart muscle
and I started to think about
how could we translate
the benefits of stem cells
into treating
disease and later on
in my practice, I was injecting
stem cells into patients' hearts
do regrow heart muscle, and
that's where the idea came from.
I started thinking about
if I practice cardiology
for another 30 years
I would probably save
two or three thousand lives,
But there is very little
in the form of any idea
that even comes close
to the level of impact
of what this could be impact
on billions of human lives
and trillions of animal lives.
And it felt like it
was not even close to
the choice of me
continuing cardiology.
Although it was
enormously satisfying.
I felt good about
leaving cardiology
and starting
something that had
a transformative impact.
[ambient music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I would
say coming to India
it feels like connecting
back with the roots
of where the idea came from.
[ambient music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
When I was twelve years
old, there was a party
for one of my friends
in this neighborhood.
There was a birthday party.
There was a lot of people.
He was like dancing,
and there was a lot of food
and I just happened to
walk to the back of the home
where they were making the food
where I saw the animals,
chickens, being slaughtered.
It was an experience
where I saw intense
and, you know, true happiness
in the front of the home
where they were celebrating
my friend's birthday.
And then I walked back. And
then there was this moment
where that happiness
is being supported
by ending life, and that
was very hard for me and...
It was just this feeling in
me that how, as humans,
we were incredibly
capable of having
a lot of joy, fun, generosity.
And on the other
side, there was
this dark reality of
you know, ending life.
There was a birthday
on one side and there was a
death day on the other side.
and it was happening
at the same time.
Obviously, as a kid, I thought,
Why don't we all stop eating
meat?
And that is a solution
that is on the table always.
[Indian music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] What I
thought I would do today
is talk to you about
the stages in my life.
I want to talk about the four
kilometer circle I grew up in.
But some of the things that
happened in my life,
the experiences
and the stories that shaped
who I am, I'm going to talk
about my progression
from being a kid
walking the streets here to
what brings me back here today.
[Students bantering]
[speaking Hindi]
[Indian music continuing]
[audience applauding]
[speaking Hindi]
[Presenter 2] What I want is,
out of 1,200 students,
if two people get ignited
and if two people reach
the level of Shaker
where he is that wonderful.
That is our wish.
[audience applauding]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
Can you hear me okay?
Thank you very
much for having me.
I feel like I'm
still a 16-year-old
seeing all of you in this room.
So I want to talk to you guys.
Vijayawada has
autonomous schools.
So we had to run
our own cafeterias.
Then we would go to
the market shopping
for, you know, a thousand kids
and I saw a large scale
slaughter.
So when you see
large scale slaughter like that
that's automated on
machines like in a few seconds,
you know, hundreds
of lives are taken.
It was hard for me to understand
how we could allow
some things like that
which at that point
is when I said, okay,
I am going to stop eating meat.
But I love the taste of meat.
It's not something
that you want
to give up easily,
but it was one of
those things I said,
Well, let's just stop
and I used to dream
at that point, about,
meat growing on trees,
but that was pretty unusual
to dream about meat trees.
50 years from now
people will look back and
say, My gosh, you had to raise
billions of animals, kill
them to get meat to the table.
Why could you not
just grown it directly?
So the implications are massive.
I know. I've spoken for
about 30 - 40 minutes.
I want to kind of bring us back
in the full circle
back to this colony.
I grew up in front of
this building my entire life
before I left Vijayawada
I was in a four kilometer
radius in this colony
with a number of people
that I finally remember as
people that I depended on
it's the relationships around
me that made me pull through.
My family, my friends,
my teachers, my neighbors.
Thank you again for having me.
I'm happy
to take some questions.
[audience applauding]
- Hey.
- Hey.
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Oh, Auntie Alanaru. Oh,
I'm so happy to see you.
Thank you.
[speaking Hindi]
Yeah, so nice to see you.
Thanks for coming.
[speaking Hindi]
What? Do you want
me to write on this, mom?
[helicopter blades whirring]
[bongo music playing]
[police sirens sounding]
[bongo music continuing]
[Jessica Almy]
The U.S. Cattleman's
Association filed a petition
with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture
asking for the
USDA to change its policy book
to define meat and beef in
ways that make it impossible
for clean meat to use
those terms on their labels.
[bongo music continuing]
Usually, when consumers
pick up a package of beef
in the grocery store,
they expect it to be
from the flesh of
an animal harvested
in the traditional manner.
[bongo music continuing]
If you have these other products
floating around on shelves
and potentially being co-mingled
with our products we see
not only food safety concerns
but obviously consumer's
rights issues, because,
everybody deserves to know
where their food comes from.
it should be more along
the lines of alternative
protein or, you know, specifying
that it's coming from a
muscular tissue sample.
now is a make or break
moment for clean meat.
Is it going to be FDA
or is it going to be USDA
and whichever agency it is
is it going to be a reasonable
process for coming to market?
[bongo music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we started
talking to the Meat Institute.
[bongo music continuing]
And on August 23rd, 2018 we
wrote a letter to the president.
[bongo music continuing]
The letter was a culmination
of lots of discussions.
It took a lot of back
and forth conversations.
[slow music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
We, you know, we wouldn't
have even dreamed of this
a year ago or two years ago.
I think the moment
felt very surreal.
And I also saw...
enormous amounts of,
you know, conflict within me.
I can't imagine I am signing
a letter with the largest meat
trade association in the world.
Felt like the right thing
to do and this is signing my
name behind it and saying
we are going to
truly bring everybody
under this tent in saying
this is a solution that the
world is looking forward to.
[Researcher] Using
markets and food technology
to solve problems? That's
not a left or a right issue.
There should be governments,
there should be massive
foundations,
there should be billion
dollar philanthropists.
We need Manhattan projects.
We need moon landings.
We need absolute commitment
to making this happen
as quickly as possible.
[typing intently]
[computer mouse clicking]
It is just true
that the vast majority of people
are not going to incorporate
ethical considerations
into their dietary choices
So let's take ethics off the
table and let's just create
products that people want to
buy because they are delicious
they are reasonably priced
and they are everywhere.
So that's, you know, the
brainstorm and the focus GFI.
One of the things that GFI does
is thinks about
consumer acceptance issues
and we just had so many people
who would hear cultured meat
and they would
just sort of recoil.
And obviously lab grown
meat is even worse.
In-vitro meat is even worse.
And so we surveyed everybody
in sort of the community
of clean meet at the
beginning of 2016.
We said, what do you think?
You know what should we call it?
And the results came back
and clean meat was about,
led to about 20% greater
consumer acceptance
than cultured meat.
[typing intently]
We can eliminate
industrial animal agriculture
in the next 20 - 30 years.
The best way to do that, it's
markets, it's food technology,
it's creating products that
people actually want to buy
that they can afford
and that they can find.
[marketgoers chattering]
[suspenseful music playing]
Hello! Hello.
[microphone feedback]
Hello, everyone.
[Crowd] Hello.
Welcome to the first
annual Good Food Conference.
[audience applauding]
[suspenseful music continuing]
[Man] Hey, hey Uma. How
are you? Good to see you.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] The last time
we met you were moving faster.
What do you call this?
Our hometown.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Our hometown.
- [Man] Yes.
So we started to think about
making a hamburger
from stem cells
or making meat from
stem cells in 2004.
Funded by the Dutch government
we could start those
technologies, develop
those technologies.
Unveiling of that
first hamburger was in
August 2013 in London.
We got the money for
that from Sergei Brynn
who put something
like $1.5 million in it.
We made three
hamburgers for that money.
What I knew is this is
a big societal problem,
and this is a potential solution
for that societal problem.
What we had experienced,
of course, in the project was
yes, there was media attention
for it, but there was not
a whole lot of
public interest for it.
Actually the trigger for the
whole thing was the story
of William Van Eelen
at that time already 86
and who basically was so
enthusiastic about this project
and really wanted us to do this.
[Ira Van Eelen]
Pan it to me too.
[Photographer] Will do.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I'm
really honored to meet you
and you know your dad's work
has inspired me while I
was in training in cardiology.
I was about fourteen when he
started working on this.
And that's 40 years ago now.
and where there was
a handful of people
that you could talk to and
to be here now was about
450 people in a
sold out conference.
And everybody knowing
what clean meat is, is for me
like, a very weird situation.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] In many ways,
your dad's kind of stimulated an
entire generation of thinking.
[Ira Van Eelen] Yes, he did.
You don't have to be
a scientist.
You have to have
conviction on your vision.
And I think he's kind
of sewing the seeds
for all of us to kind of
stand on his shoulders.
He wrote
the patent and he got funded.
And then, of course, Mark took
over the torch which was good.
I am the daughter
of William Van Eelen.
He's considered the great
grandfather of clean meat.
In 2010 I organized
the first ever
clean meat, or at that time
was called Pure Meat Conference
in Nemo Technical Museum
in Amsterdam. And there we got
the first footage of very
small slivers of pig meat
that Mark Post had made.
And that was the first ever
pictures of actual clean meat,
and they went into the media
and that is actually
how the investors of
Sergey Brin found Mark Post.
So this is a story
full of domino tiles.
[Reporter] Tell me you are kind
of the rock star here.
You have been described
to me as a rock star.
You and Mark Post,
people are so interested
in Memphis Meats,
you've got all these investors
Why is there so much
interest in your company?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Well, I'm flattered to
hear what you're saying
about me and Mark,
but ultimately this is something
that caught the imagination of,
I say, every country,
every continent.
[Reporter] Cell based
Sounds a little scary
and clean meat implies that
implies the conventional
meat is dirty.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Right.
So the background for this,
in the context of it
is then we started
talking about this industry
and starting the company,
Memphis Meats was the
first company in the space.
We started talking
to a number of people
and people uniformly got
excited and they started calling
the product clean meat.
Clean duck, clean chicken,
clean beef.
Because it mainly communicated
the benefits of a cleaner
production environment
as well as the benefits
we thought we could have
at scale in terms of energy
savings.
But as we started talking
more and more about this
it became particularly clear
that there are people that
felt like while they want this
innovation to come to market,
using a prefects like
clean was not inclusive.
Our nomenclature.
Why cell based or why
clean or why cultured?
Or you know what are the...?
Rather than saying what it is,
because what it is, is meat.
Isn't there a quick way
to just say how it's made?
When a consumer is buying it,
we want them to know it's
coming from animal cells.
versus, a meat alternative.
Why are we so fixated on having
a word in front of meat?
It's almost like gluten free,
like you want it to be
like factory farm free.
[Lou] Consumers
want transparency.
They want you to be honest
with what you're doing.
So that's why I
support cellular.
And we want to be transparent.
I don't want people mixing up
with stuff with regular--
[Lou] No, but on the other hand,
what we're not communicating
is... we're communicating back
to being too
technically driven.
We're communicating
the process.
What if the adjective is
more about a global solution?
[Erin Brodwin] Yeah, I'm bullish
on factory farm free. #FFF.
[Lou] FFF.
But there's a lot of meat out
there factory farm free.
So you shouldn't
define it by what it's not.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] How's it going?
[Josh Tetrick] Good. Going.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Really good?
Really, busy?
The alternate would be bad.
So how about you?
Are you travelling or?
[Josh Tetrick] Uh yeah, just
got back from Zurich.
When we thought about
the next thing we were
in 4,000 Walmarts,
we were in 3,300 public schools,
We were making tens of millions
of dollars in sales so we easily
could have done meat with plants
that was there for us to take,
but I couldn't imagine a world
where McDonald's would replace
all of their hamburgers
with the plant based burger
and we decided to go
headlong into cultured meat.
[Announcer] All right, guys,
we're going to get ready here in
just a second.
This is a jam packed panel.
I'm so excited for it.
[Josh Tetrick] More people are
eating meat today than yesterday
and more people unfortunately
will eat meat tomorrow,
than today.
We think it's
going to be critical
ultimately, to get the
price of meat below the cost
of conventional meat.
Proof of
concept has been demonstrated
to the public, but now
we're about proof of scale.
You know, what is this
factory of the future?
It is a food factory. It
has a lot of the similarities
to any other food factory
following
some the same principles.
And I really see this industry
as being a parallel supply
chain,
or maybe integrated
into the food system,
which I like that people
are starting to talk
about the food
ecosystem and the system
that's what we're a part of.
We are not a separate entity.
The lowering the cost to feed
is the biggest challenge
in this field.
And right now that's a problem
because no one is producing
those ingredients at scale.
But as you start figuring
out the key ingredients
that our animal cells need to
grow I have very little doubt
in my mind that those
things can be scaled up.
[Josh Tetrick] I think the
folks in the audience
that are thinking about
starting their own company
don't just you know, look
at what the folks up here
on the stage you're doing
think about how you could
provide something
to the ecosystem
that could be
even more valuable
than what we're doing up here.
[Niyati Gupta] Right. So,
for example, I would imagine
that if a company were to
start trying to create steak,
there might be another startup
that would emerge that would try
to produce the fat that would
fit into the marbled steak.
[Sarah Sorscher] From
the consumer perspective,
we're facing a brave new world
with technology that
was once the stuff
of science fiction
now becoming a reality.
[Jack Bobo] I think
it's also worth pointing
out that people love
innovation almost as much
as they despise change.
And there's no place
they despise change
more than in the food they eat.
[Kevin Kester]
Consumers have come to expect
satisfaction and a high quality
eating experience
from real beef.
The manufacturers of lab grown
products should be required
to invest in their own market
development efforts and not ride
the coattails of beef's success.
[crowd bantering]
[Jessica Almy]
Consumers are enthusiastic
about these products.
We did a poll with the
company Faunalytics
and we found that
two thirds of Americans
are willing to try
meat grown from cells
without slaughtering
animals and 40%
that they would pay a
premium for these products.
Allowing cellular based proteins
or plant based proteins
to bear the label meat or
beef or the USDA Federal
meat inspection shield or
stamp would be misleading.
[Jessica Almy] Thank you.
We fully recognize that
debate will continue
as to what these products
should be called moving forward.
And although we have
not firmly determined
what the nomenclature
should be,
our producers will
seek a labeling regime
that provides a clear separation
between lab produced products
and conventionally grown meat.
Some terms, like fake, synthetic
or artificial meat, are
intended to not only
cast our products
in a negative light,
but are also simply false
and misleading.
We're making real meat
and seafood,
and that's the whole point.
The term lab grown
has an accuracy problem
as well. As with many familiar
and currently
marketed food products
the early development of our
products happens in food labs,
but the products that we bring
to consumers will be produced
in food production
facilities, not labs.
[Jessica Almy] We really want
to hear from you today.
That's really what this
meeting is about.
Anyone else
would you like to come forward
and make a comment during
this open comment period?
We cell based food producers
do need to use the terms
fish and meat to reiterate
if one is allergic to animal
based seafood, that
person has a high probability
I would say almost
a 100% certainty
that they will be
allergic to the seafood
produced using our technology.
We as cattle producers, we
worked a long time to
build trust between
consumers and stuff like that.
That's why I urge these
companies or individuals
that are doing this
technology to maybe step back
and educate us
so we understand it.
It might help us
be more accepting
to what you want to
accomplish. Thank you.
[Jessica Almy] Thank
you for your comments.
Would anyone else like to
come forward and comment?
[Isha Datar] I suspect
that producing meat
from animal cell culture,
rather than whole animals,
could result in
fewer viral epidemics
fewer threats to food security
and fewer externalized
costs to environment,
public health and
animal welfare.
Currently, 815
million people around the globe
are malnourished, as has been
discussed a few times today.
Hunger has been on the rise
for the last three years,
and this number is expected
to drastically increase as
the world's population grows.
We must rethink the global
food production system.
For us producing bluefin tuna,
cell based bluefin tuna,
there will be no mercury,
no plastic,
we're not using antibiotics
we are not
overfishing, the ocean.
We are not engaging
in animal cruelty.
On the question of safety
innovation in the meat
industry is urgently needed.
Conventional methods rely
on the intensive confinement
of animals in unsanitary
and inhumane facilities.
These unnatural conditions
require extensive use
of antibiotics to
address diseases
that proliferate among the
crowded, stressed animals.
Contributing to the spread
of drug resistant superbugs.
We need real
alternatives to the suffering.
We need real
alternatives to the cruel
and inhumane conditions
forced upon billions of animals
we need alternatives
to artificial insemination,
overcrowding,
genetic manipulation,
long transport and slaughter.
Without a clear, predictable
and timely framework,
this industry cannot succeed.
Any delays in moving
forward would jeopardize the
U.S.'s standing in the world
as the leader in
protein production
and responsible science
based food innovation.
[crowd bantering]
[cameras shuttering]
In addition to providing clarity
in terms of the
regulatory pathway,
are there any other incentives,
either through research,
maybe through ARS
or any other type of ways
that can be implemented
to help ensure that
the American startups
pursuing cellular agriculture
products can move forward
Well, the good thing about the
environment, the economy
and the democratic
process we have here
is our innovators and
entrepreneurs
and our risk takers are
very creative in their efforts.
We want to be ahead of the game.
I think the regulatory framework
needs to be there
to provide guidance
for our entrepreneurs and
innovators to work towards so.
we will be moving post
haste after this meeting
to more clearly define that.
I think this is one of those
unique examples
where we're contemplating
all these things
really early in the process,
really in advance of the
products even being available
and that's going to, I think
help the innovation take root
and provide really clear
guidance to the manufacturers.
I think it should accelerate
the innovation. Thank you.
[Interviewer] Would you
like America to be first?
[Sonny Perdue] Yes.
[Eric Schulze] I've been
like thinking about this
for the last month, obviously
in preparation.
This moment where heavily vested
parties and cultural identities
would intersect
in a formal way.
Hi, you here for Eric?
What little company with
no product on the market
gets two federal agencies
to talk to each other
in the most productive way?
It was incredible.
It is incredible.
Food is regulated by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
and it's about 80% of
the domestic food supply.
and for the remainder it's
largely under the USDA.
[mobile device tapping]
The U.S. food
system splits into,
for meat and poultry, animals
that are alive,
the FDA regulates and
then basically from the
moment of slaughter
forward, the USDA regulates.
[distant city cars honking]
[Cab driver] This good, though?
Yeah. If you want to pull up
right here, that's fine.
[Eric Schulze] We want
to compete on market
with products that are
safe and labeled, and then
that's where we want to
be. And the way to get there
at the last hurdle is
the regulatory system.
And that's why we're putting so
much energy into it right now.
[bongo music playing]
[bongo music continuing]
So we have jurisdiction
for both FDA and USDA.
You've done a fantastic job
leading this effort from
Memphis Meats, so...
I hope you take a moment, pause,
and recognize it's a big
milestone.
[Eric Shulze] Yeah,
I think all these big
moments happen and
then we sort of like wait,
Did it just happen?
We'd have to like pinch
ourselves to make sure it
really happened.
We finally get
to this end point.
So one thing I was thinking,
what is next now for us?
It doesn't
matter how great our tech is,
if we can't sell it
legally, who cares?
I think that the next step is
one we're working
on the pathway.
But it could slow down.
There's a possibility that
pathway negotiations stall.
Or if there's
congressional intervention
which is still lingering.
We know that there's
language in the approach bill.
So there's a chance
that this could still delay.
I want to be
realistic about that.
There was, let's say the
pathway gets slowed.
At least we have a
reasonable time frame
of getting under the market,
we can continue to do
technical development,
continue to lower cost,
continue to increase scale
and be ready for that moment.
What would be
motivating factors for that?
Very successful lobbying
against us.
Okay, so safety
and truthful labeling, right?
Correct. Those are the two
legal requirements for us.
Yeah, this will be FDA.
This will be USDA.
[Eric Shulze] One
of the big unknowns,
of course, is, where
inspections will be split.
Labeling, we know that's going
to be handled by the USDA.
We know that, but
we don't know how.
So this is a bare bones
pathway right now.
USDA comes in here and the bio
system we're talking about.
Where's the biosystems?
This is the bio system
where the animal cells
and the feed are growing.
[Eric Shulze] They
would do it as part of a pre
market safety evaluation.
So they'll evaluate the safety,
they'd inspect it and then
they would check to make
sure that we're following.
our inspections ourselves
so they wouldn't come
on site and check regularly.
Okay.
[Eric Shulze] That's
currently what we're thinking.
I think there's a lot of fear
around the intersection
of food and technology,
and we really want to,
many of us want to go
sort of back to the land,
and we have our own
little backyard gardens
and chicken coops
and do it the way
that you know they did in
Little House on the Prairie .
But that won't work to feed
9 billion - 10 billion people.
And tech will have role.
The question is what role?
And how can you do tech right?
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Hey, David.
- [David] Hey, Uma.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] How are you?
Good to meet you in person.
How are you? Good to see you
after all of this, how nice.
So what's the--?
Yeah, so I think
in the interest of time,
we should probably start heading
over to the R&D facility.
Should we start
walking this way?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
So what we believe in is it
starts with the consumers and
ends with the consumers right,
so they have to get behind it
and we want to get this
right as opposed to being
first to market.
First to market
you know, it sounds
really exciting to do
but doing the most desirable
product that consumers allow
is what we're trying to do.
- Hey guys. Good morning.
- [Amanda Little] Hi.
- [Casey] Hi. How are you?
- [Amanda] Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
Casey is our vice president
of process development
and has enormous experience
in growing cells in very,
very large quantities.
I've been growing
cells for a long time.
and it never dawned on
me to eat them, ever so,
it's a little bit of a shift,
but it's so exciting
because the things that
we've been learning for
decades all totally apply.
This is the brew?
This is the special broth?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
It's a superfood.
This is a superfood,
a cellular superfood,
and it's a nice lavender...
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Time to
walk over to the next spot.
Let's do that in a little bit.
[David] You know maybe we
should actually do that now.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Let's
just walk over there.
Thank goodness, David.
Keeping our ass on time.
You know I'm really
showing restraint.
I have a lot of other questions.
This lab
is just being set up now
there will be a lot of
automation units in there.
There is some there are liquid
handling robots that means
They're handling the
feed that Casey is working with.
[Amanda Little] Did you
say liquid handling robots?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Take you around
and when we first started,
we were only producing
very small quantities
where, you know, you
can make them evolve now.
Since then, we can pretty much
grow as much as we need for our
tasting and testing purposes,
so we can do several pounds
of meat production
and testing at this point,
but the goal is
to be able to take
and we scale up
to a few thousand pounds.
[meat sizzling]
[Chef] There we go.
Trying to get it
nice and seared.
[meat sizzling]
Let's see
if you want to just quickly--
This feels about as low risk a
food as I have ever eaten.
Even if I just signed
a high risk agreement.
[Amanda laughing]
You're not eating anything
that I am not eating
so you're eating meat
that comes from cells
from a very high
quality animal.
This this is still a
early stage product,
but I think I just want to
make sure you're looking at this
as a very big, historic
thing in this world.
So I'm anxious to see
what you think about it.
See it's really, you know,
see all the fibers in there?
See the browning of the skin?
And as you pull apart, you know
meat's hard to pull apart
because it's got those
features and those proteins
and the elasticity which is...
That is meat.
[Uma laughing]
That is duck meat.
It's delicious!
It's got all the stringiness
of the strands of muscle
which is something you don't get
in plant based meats, of course.
And you don't
get that resistance
with the chew resistance.
I mean, the chew
is, it's very chewy.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yes.
[Amanda Little]
Very, it's very meaty.
Wow, amazing.
We don't take a very long
time to grow meat, right?
So if you have to think about
a cow from conception
all the way to slaughter
at the age of 18 to 24 months,
the whole process is about two
and a half years.
For us to grow beef,
if it takes about four weeks,
at the most six weeks.
So tell me about your inputs.
I mean, this gets to
the bovine growth room
and also the environmental
implications, right?
Yeah, yeah. So in the early
parts of research in this area,
the supply chain includes serum.
And when we think
about scaling this up,
we cannot have a supply chain
that is going to have serum.
That's why we want to separate
out serum from meat production.
or blood from meat production
and have our own feed for it.
So that's the process
we are working out
and we've developed a full end
to end method of growing
cells without any serum at all.
For us to put products on the
market completely animal free.
It's going to take a while.
There are still parts of
our research that depends
on getting that serum in to
understand how the cells grow.
Yeah, I guess what I'm wondering
so for the carbohydrates,
for example,
like are you actually using some
kind of carbohydrate source?
You know, for example,
some grain or I mean,
are there actual sort of
recognizable ingredients
that go into the production?
100%. They're all recognizable.
They are already in the current
feed system.
It's still proprietary of what
kinds of feeds that we are using
because we're trying
to break it down
and saying, okay, what is the
most efficient source
of like carbohydrate feed?
[Amanda Little] So it might be
some crop that we recognize?
- Right. Yeah, yeah. 100%.
- [Amanda] Okay. Okay.
So it's, you know, maybe it
might include some amount
of corn or soy or something?
I just want to address
that this as an important point.
It doesn't mean that we're
going to stop growing corn
just because we stopped
stopped growing cows?
- Right. There are estimates of 40
- 50% of land being used
to grow crops to feed animals.
We'll still need crops like you
said, but it's not even close
to the degree that we
need for keeping, you know,
a very, very large herd
of 70 billion animals
on this planet.
Keep in mind
you're seeing very small
scale production at this point,
and as we start thinking
about scaling this up,
one of the big areas
of innovation
that we'll start seeing
is decreasing the environmental
impact,
decreasing the
environmental footprint.
It also makes me feel
like that is the reason
we are here,
to solve this problem.
- It keeps us going.
- Biomemesis right?
You're listening and
learning from the animal.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] There
is a pretty intense need to
innovate how we produce food.
[atmospheric music playing]
[machine engine chugging]
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Almost everything we are
doing in terms of innovation
is to do more with less
and that's really foundational
to all the conversations
in climate are happening.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I mean,
for instance, our idea is to
be able to grow more food,
more nutrient dense food,
with less resources to get
a pound of meat.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Our
target is to be able to say
we could use almost
ten times less land,
almost ten times less
water and less deforestation.
And all of these have a
direct impact on climate,
the amount of CO2
that is released.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] There
is no methane production
when you're growing cells.
When you culture cells,
the cells are basically,
it's an oxygen and carbon
dioxide exchange
that's happening.
Methane doesn't
come into the picture, so
we don't expect to have
methane in our production
process as we scale up.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[house dog barking]
So I'm going to make some
pancakes for breakfast?
- [Uma] Okay.
- [Mrs. Valeti] Is that good?
Blueberries?
I have some blueberries
and blackberries.
[Mrs. Valeti]
Do you want coffee?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Sure.
Yeah. Do you have the decaf?
[Mrs. Valeti] Sure.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Bananas?
- [Mrs. Valeti] I'll cut them.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
That's coming out nicely, too.
So this is from...
[Mrs. Valeti] So I'm leaving
on Sunday to Minneapolis.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay. Yeah.
[Mrs. Valeti] So you have a
lot of late meetings this week?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
[Mrs. Valeti] Can you
not do that next week, please?
Make sure that the kids
get home at a decent hour
so that you can spend some time
with the kids in the evening?
Yeah. I actually told Jerry to
have me out
every day by 5:30 or 6:00.
So I should
be home pretty early.
When I had moved to
the Bay Area,
of course, my family was still
living in Minnesota and the
kids were going to school there.
[Mrs. Valeti] Thank you
for making breakfast.
Mrunalini had
her pediatric practice there.
And it was not easy.
But ultimately being able
to move the family here
and just being able to
talk to them every day.
Seeing them, I think has
completely changed my life.
Just having the opportunity
for us all to as a family
spend time under one roof
as we are going after
this very big idea
in this world,
I'm just very grateful.
I actually brought some
markup boxes
of our what packaging
could look like.
[Mrs. Valeti] Is it
gonna be like vacuum?
Like you know? That sealed thing
so you can...?
Yeah. So people can see
what they're buying.
And this is the beef.
[Mrs. Valeti] I like it.
I like this "made with love in
California".
When I think about the why
of what we're doing,
it's not a product.
It's much more than that.
It's about the way that we
want the future world to look
and that's what drives and
motivates Uma every day.
He has two hats
going at all times.
It's the what?
Like, what will it look like?
But the why and the how?
The ingredients
it says cell based
are grown from
cells and salt, spices.
[Mrs. Valeti] Yeah. That's
what it says here, chicken,
cell based sea salt, spices
including chipotle pepper.
And same thing here.
Of course. Right. We need
to get labeling approved
and all of the
materials approved.
But this is what
we're thinking.
We've got to be
open to innovation
and open to conversations,
but also keep the focus on
which particular one will we
bring forward at the next step.
Knowing that this is not a race,
it's not going to be a one
and done and that we'll be
doing it in sequence.
So our focus is
entirely on scale.
Like we've got to produce it
at a scale that is meaningful.
[crowd bantering]
This is just about 70,000 square
feet, rentable space here.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So
this is a 70,000 foot print.
And the height is--
[Steve Myrick] It will easily
cost us
tens of millions of dollars
to get this first production
facility up and running.
The goal is not just to make
the meat in this facility,
but also to have it be
a showcase for future facilities
and for partners who can join us
and build out their own
production capacity
in their facilities using
their capital.
So it serves a lot of purposes
beyond just the meat
but it will not come cheap.
It's a really heavy lift
that we're taking on here.
There's a service
elevator that we'll take down
that gives you access
back down to the ground floor.
[Casey] And if I
wanted a fireman's pole?
[laughing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
These are high ceilings.
[Casey] Yeah, so
this is a lot bigger.
Oh nice, this I more than 24
feet it looks like.
Or maybe it's 24.
Yeah, so this is
20,000 square feet here
where you can do the
manufacturing operations.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
So you could have
a flow of basically follow
the process from an area
with your raw materials,
your media preparation
provide all the nutrients
for the cells back into the
bio processing suite, harvest
and then to the food
formulation space.
So you can follow a
a U shaped thing here
for the process
all the way around.
It could be really nice.
Our paradigm for production
will continue to evolve.
But this is this seems
like the most accessible,
relevant next step
for translating from R&D.
[Casey] It's a launching pad.
Yes, it's a launching pad.
It's transformative.
Having it all right
here, locally sourced
and being able to put it out
Locally sourced, locally
produced, locally distributed.
How's that?
[Casey] Yeah, amazing.
That's what
you're going to be making right?
[Casey] I'm working on it.
I'm working on it.
I think it has the
potential to also be
that transparent venue
where people can really
understand how
we're making meat.
There
were times where Nick and I
in the first six months
of the company
looked at each other
and said
I don't know if
anyone will believe us.
And if we can actually take this
to a stage where we
can scale it to producing
meaningful amounts of
meat and you know, Nick said
in one of those tough moments,
"we've got to have faith".
I still remember that day
because it was one
of my lowest moments
because it was challenging
to get people to recognize it,
it was impossible
for people to understand
that this needed a chance.
[atmospheric music playing]
[Jane Goodall] The birth of
this game changing industry
is no longer science fiction,
it's reality.
The innovation of cell cultured
meat, poultry, fish and seafood
is accelerating quickly
around the globe
with pioneers
on every continent.
Our shared humanity
depends on this hopeful
and rapid momentum
towards a sustainable
future for us,
the animals
and for our beautiful
planet Earth.
[music playing]
[Chef] A kind of classic
kinda technique to get the
chicken nice and brown
without it getting dry.
[music continuing]
Glow in the abyss
We're just going to
let it rest for a minute
before we slice through it.
Can't fight the future
Can't fight what I see
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] All right,
there is Morgan,
thanks for cooking it for us.
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
All right, cheers.
[all laughing]
Ashes of lovers
[all laughing]
I sing in the reaches
Let's see what I find
[all laughing]
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Delicious.
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Everybody can come and start
taking pieces. Go for it.
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
[music continuing]
[music continuing]
Smoldering building
I feel it in me
Growing in numbers
Growing in peace
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
Because we're
All made of stars
People that fall apart
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
Because we're
All made of stars
People that fall apart
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] We just grew
the part that we wanted to eat.
This is what Winston Churchill
was talking about in 1931.
I actually remember
that exact quote.
"We shall escape the absurdity
of growing a whole chicken
in order to eat the
breast or wing,
by growing these parts
separately
under a suitable medium."
That's exactly what
we all did. All right.
[birds chirping]
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Jane Goodall] This is
a story of planetary hope
inspired by one of the
biggest ideas of the century,
the fate of our planet may
depend on a new food science
that grows real meat
directly from animal cells
without the need to breed,
raise, and slaughter animals.
Let's face it, conventional
animal agriculture
is wreaking havoc,
it occupies nearly
half of the world's land,
produces huge amounts
of greenhouse gases
and there's a potential
breeding ground
for health pandemics
like COVID 19.
With meat consumption
expected to double by 2050,
we urgently need solutions.
Welcome to the next
agricultural revolution.
[gentle music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
This is the first time a
meatball has ever been cooked
with beef cells that did not
require a cow to be slaughtered
[sizzling]
[waves crashing]
[seagulls squawking]
This has been something
that I've been dreaming
about since I was a kid.
Thinking about the impact on
human lives and animal lives
and the ills of food production.
It's been ten years
since I finished training
in cardiology at the Mayo Clinic
and wanted to be able to pursue
an idea of can you grow
meat from animal cells
and I'm extremely fortunate to
have the support I have at home.
My wife and kids are being proud
of what I am doing.
Over the last few years
we spent a lot of time
talking about what if
your dad started this company.
And if we had to move,
how would it look like?
It was extremely hard for us
even to have the conversation
because I'm a very involved dad.
The last year has
been determined
by the amount of
changes in our lives.
So you know, I
founded the company
built an amazing team here.
I quit Cardiology, operating
from my home in Minnesota.
I've never been away from home
more than 20 days a year.
In the last year,
it's been like
250 days or something so.
It just went up in magnitude.
And I can see it
only getting busier
and I can see that you know,
this requires that I'm under
someone to focus, and passion.
We just have to keep trying.
Hi, Jason. Can you hear me well?
[Jason]
Yes, I can.
And how do I sound to you?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
You sound clear.
[Jason]
Okay, great.
So let me make sure I'm
pronouncing your name, right.
Dr. Uma Valeti, Right?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
That's correct.
[Jason] How much
funding did you take on?
Is this venture back
now or give us some idea?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So this was
founded by Nick and myself
and Will from Memphis
and the three of us,
we raised about $3.1 million.
We had a venture capital
group called Indy Bio
that funded us.
[clearing throat]
[Jason] Okay, this will be
an edit, so just a moment.
What type of doctor are you?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
I'm a cardiologist.
[Jason]
Okay, oh great. Let's just,
let's just dive in and do this.
It's my pleasure to
welcome Dr Uma Valeti.
He is CEO of Memphis Meats.
So Uma, lab grown
meat brings to mind
Frankenfood,
playing with nature.
All of this kind of stuff
take us through the process
of how you grow
meat in your labs.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yes,
so let me just preface this
by saying we are not calling
this lab grown meat
because there is
confusion out
there that 'are you
making this
from plant proteins?'
'Are you synthesizing
something?'
What is this?
This is authentic meat.
[Jason]
But when you
say it's authentic meat
I just beg to differ
with you, maybe.
Just correct me if I'm wrong
you are engineering it.
It's not. It's not completely
natural, if you will?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
So we take cells
from whether it's a cow, a pig
or a chicken
then we provide
them with rich nutrients
these cells grow and
become meat tissue.
So that's the process
of making the meat and...
[Jason] Okay, okay.
But I want you to explain
what's happening here.
I mean, are you
basically cloning meat?
Right? Is that
what you're doing?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we
are not cloning anything.
We are growing these cells.
So these cells are growing
and becoming muscle tissue.
Look, we are
pioneers in this area.
We're starting this on
the commercial side,
[Jason] But, it's so funny,
like you have to change
your thinking and
your vocabulary to even
discuss the subject.
It's just such
an odd new concept
This is a real mind blower.
This is a huge shift.
I would like to be an investor
because I have a
feeling this might be
one of the biggest ideas
in the history of the world.
[gentle piano music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we literally
moved into the space
about four and a half weeks ago.
You know it will take another
four to six weeks
to get this place up and running
and that creates a sense of
restlessness in me and
Nick and you know everybody
on our team because, you know we
want to get going like yesterday
[gentle piano music continuing]
I know eventually
the speed at which
we can come to the
market is going to be
a function of funding
and I think it's our goal
to keep printing when we can,
take brief periods of rest
and then start printing again.
So operations update.
Right? This is the key for us.
The focus for April will be
for all of us is to
get up and running.
And I'm thinking we should
look at the farm,
the large equipment
or the small equipment, and
you know what you have in terms
of timelines for those.
There will be lots of,
you know, challenges we have.
Of course, there are challenges.
It's never been done
in the history of the world.
But I think we are
taking the first step
and I think this first
step is going to have lots
and lots of people also
join us in that step
and we feel like we're going
to kick start a revolution.
[footsteps]
[office chatter]
I have always had an interest in
my social justice issues,
environmental justice issues.
Pretty much my whole life all I
wanted to do was be a chef
and I wanted to focus on meat.
About half way through college
and I was like, no
more basketball.
I need a career. I love
science, I always have.
What I get really excited about
is engineering biology.
So my training is in
biomedical engineering.
I was actually
a tissue engineer.
I learned about some of
the animal welfare implications
of animal agriculture, and that
was kind of what did it for me.
I learned a lot
about factory farming
and the conditions
that animals are kept in.
The impact it has
on the environment that I
just had no idea about.
I took an
urban agriculture class
that really opened my eyes to
what we were doing to the planet
just by feeding ourselves
At first, I actually thought
it was
kind of strange because
I had been very ingrained
in the medical applications,
and then I started reading
more about it.
Uma Valeti wanders across my
Facebook feed with a meatball.
My brain exploded
and I was like, 'I have
to talk to these people'.
Yeah, it's like I got
to be a part of this.
Like I have the skills.
Assert yourself
and it will happen.
Basically. Pretty much.
[all laughing]
I thought this could be a really
great way to change the world
and incorporate
my love of science,
but also my desire
to make cool stuff.
That's kind of my story of
way, why and how I got here.
[Matthew Leung]
So these are the samples of live
tissue.
Billions of cells in this
tiny portion right here.
These ones are called punch
biopsies, where a large needle
essentially is inserted in
the animal
and takes out
a small cylinder of tissue.
The taste, texture
and flavor of meat
is a combination
of manufacturers.
It's not just muscle
cells, it's fats.
It's connective tissues.
It's all sorts of things. And
we're taking those small
samples of meat or tissue apart
so we can better understand
the different components and
use that to build our product.
These are very precious
biological samples
which are going to
give us huge insights
into the biology of the animals.
And these are stem cells sources
for future products.
These small tissue samples
will produce extremely
large amounts of meat.
Traditionally in tissue culture,
one of the elements of the food
that you're giving the cells
is fetal bovine serum.
If you start with
fetal calf serum,
essentially, you're
starting with this perfect
rich broth of awesome
stuff that is designed
to make things grow and thrive.
But one of the scientific goals
of the company right now
is to eliminate any animal
derived product from our
process as soon as possible.
We want to separate the
animal from meat making.
To develop a consistent
media with no animal derived
components in which our cells
could thrive at a large scale.
That would definitely be a...
really great moment
for our company.
It would probably be
a while before we announced
that that had happened.
because you want there to be a
lot of internal validation.
[liquid bubbling]
There are all these systems that
animals have been building up
through
millions of years of evolution
and that includes a digestive
system and an immune system.
So in some ways, cellular
agriculture is more simple
because you're just focusing
on this one part of the animal.
Instead of saying, you know,
all I want is the Tenderloin.
But I have to grow the liver,
too but it's also a little
bit more complicated
because you need to
engineer these systems
to protect the cells.
And you know, engineer
sounds like a big word,
but it's just like figuring
out what's the best fence
to keep the cow in
but keep the wolf out?
except kind of in a more a,
more modern environment.
It's what's the best fence
to keep the bacteria
out of our cells
but keep the cells healthy
without using antibiotics
because that's a major concern
with current animal agriculture.
The whole goal here
is to make cells exist
in a bioreactor.
So it's like what you
would grow yeast in if
you were making beer.
So we're going to take cells
and put them in an
artificial environment
so that they can
grow and proliferate.
[lab machinery
whirring in background]
There are known
ways of producing animal muscle
in a laboratory.
The science is established and
lots of people have studied it.
What we're looking
at is chicken,
the sort of structure,
the typical structure
of chicken.
I am still blown away by how
complex the tissue itself is.
All poultry is very similar
and these are very early
in the process, so they
haven't completed anything yet.
But you can see it's starting
to adopt this sort of...
it looks like a Van
Gogh like "Starry Night".
The muscle fibers
are trying to align
and form these
beautiful tendrils.
This is a huge,
huge paradigm shift.
This meat production depends on
the division cycle of the cell
rather than the reproductive
cycle of the animal.
[device beeping]
This was a goal that for
many years I sought out,
but there were no like-minded
individuals or resources
to support this goal.
Uma was very passionate,
and we both took a leap of faith
and decided to start a company.
And use our complimentary
areas of expertise.
You know his business
in administrative expertise
and my scientific expertise
driven by the same
mission, the same motivation.
You know, personally
growing up in a family farm,
I would raise the animals
and they looked up to me for
their care and their protection.
I was their guardian.
And as their guardian,
I sent them to auction...
I sent them to auction,
and I sent them to slaughter.
And this... after doing
this for a couple of years,
I realized this is a problem.
So I wanted to be
part of that solution.
So this is a conventional beef
from a local store
to compare against our product.
[meat sizzling]
We want to make sure
that whatever we're giving
to consumers is the same
as what they're used to.
And when they
get it in their hands
that it will behave
just the same.
And so I am today
looking at cooking loss.
I want to make sure that
the moisture loss is the same.
Fat loss is the same.
It needs to behave like
functionally as
close as possible.
Going up to puncture it.
- I guess that's why--
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] I got 185
on this, so...
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
The meat industry knows
that they can't meet
the demand of the people
And if the demand for meat
is going to double by 2050,
there is just no method
of production
that they have
at their disposal now
that will satisfy that
hunger for meat.
There just isn't.
[fast piano music playing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[fast piano music continuing]
[restaurant customers bantering]
[cameras shuttering]
[Director] Uma would
you just take your hands
and clap them in front
of your face like that?
- Okay, everybody's standing?
- [Cameraman] Yup.
[Director] Okay. Any time, Uma.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So March
14th, 2017. That is today, team.
We are here to do something
that has never happened
in the history of humanity.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Thank you,
guys. Thank you for being here.
[Director] Here we go! Ready?
Let's rock!
Whenever you're ready.
[Announcer] All right, are
we ready for the cook off?
[meat sizzling]
[Director] What's that?
[Chef 1] Right there?
You see that?
[Director] Who touched that?
[Director] Let's just get
the ingredients shouted out
if you would?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] In terms
of technical breakthroughs
that allowed us to do what
we did over the last year
we had a few substantial,
isolated breakthroughs,
so one of the things that was
more relevant to the poultry
is starting to have texture,
because the meatball,
there was a texture,
but not the types of texture
we had with poultry,
where we could have
very clearly fibers
that you could see in there.
Fiberosity starting to have
three-dimensional nature
to the meat that
we're producing.
[all cheers-ing]
[clapping]
[joyful laughing]
[progressive music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] August 23rd,
2017 we announced the closing
of a major round of financing
[progressive music continuing]
We were able to put together
a group of investors
that really care about
what we're doing,
and it includes
impact investors,
but it also includes the
meat industry incumbents.
[progressive music continuing]
[Spokesman] So it's all about
sustainability.
It's about, call it
"clean meat", if you will?
It's not going to replace
the consumption of beef
or chicken or duck overnight
but nonetheless it's a way
to produce meat in a different
alternative
that isn't as
resource intensive.
[Newscaster] Memphis Meats has
raised a total of $22 million
which signals a commitment
to the "clean
meat" movement.
Which other companies
are working on as well,
including Tyson,
which is one of the
largest chicken suppliers
in the United States.
[progressive music continuing]
So here we are in the
epicenter of venture capital.
We have invested
about $4 billion.
Companies like Skype, Hotmail,
Baidu, Tesla, Twitter, Twilio.
[laughing]
There's a long list
we've had, I think
28 companies that
have exited with
over $1 billion valuation
and certainly food
is a huge area,
certainly a big market,
and there's a lot of change
going on with technologies
with respect to the production
and distribution of food.
And then there are also
changing consumer behaviors
and changing consumer taste.
And Memphis was really special
The timing felt right.
So we, you know,
DFJ led the series.
Memphis Meats was
in the enviable position
of having more money
coming at it than
it wanted to take.
So it was an
interesting dance to...
For example consider, do
you want strategic investors?
So investors who themselves
are in the meat industry.
What are the pros
and cons of that?
What would that say about
us? What kind of restrictions
might they put on us
in order to do that?
So, you know, we ultimately
ended up with both Tyson's
and Cargill as investors, and
they've been wonderful partners.
And they've been really
helpful in various ways,
such as understanding some
of the regulatory environment.
[progressive music playing]
[power drill whirring]
Hey.
[office workers bantering]
[progressive music continuing]
[office workers bantering]
I don't think 110 pounds of dry
ice is going to be enough.
Now we just gotta move them.
We currently
occupy about this much space.
- Yeah.
- We're getting this much space
which is 17,500 square feet.
We have these two rooms
that are functional cold rooms.
And then the process development
space over here, where we
define the right conditions to
grow the cells into functional
meat tissues all of that space
is here and then leads right
into the kitchen space.
[progressive music continuing]
[crane motor whirring]
We're going to
build up the process to allow us
to make scalable
large quantities of meat.
We can do this at small
scale now, but to scale that up
is going to be one of the
really, really big challenges.
Yeah, if you just wanna throw it
in that small room...
The scale for food production,
the more we dig into
this and think about it,
it's unfathomable.
It's so large.
And so, I have this
analogy that I say,
if San Francisco is
roughly a million people
and if every person
had one burger a week,
which is like a quarter of
a pound, then in a month
they would each eat a pound,
which is 12 million
pounds a year.
And so to feed everyone
in San Francisco,
one burger a week,
12 million pounds a year,
if we make meat
50 weeks a year,
that's two 240,000
pounds every week,
which is approximately
the size of a blue whale.
And so every week,
week after week after week,
for San Francisco,
it's a blue whale.
[office workers bantering]
Anyone have
a marker, or a Sharpie?
- All right, here.
- We want our present.
- You want your present?
- A housewarming gift.
All right, let me get the gift.
One of the most important
milestones you guys have,
at least one of the
ways we think about it,
is price per pound,
which is kind of a singular
thing that over
time, presumably,
will continue to go down.
So I went home last night
and I made you this little
sign as an office warming gift.
So it's like a little old
grocery store sign and it says
"Memphis Meats, today's price".
[all clapping]
And it's out of glass, because
this is my hobby, I make glass.
So you want to
write in todays' price?
- Go ahead, Nick.
- Do it.
[Nick] Do we need
to consult on this?
- [Man 2] No, Go for it.
- [Woman 5] Go for it!
[Woman 5] See if it matches
what I saw in the deck yesterday
[laughing]
All right, just a
little ways to go
[laughing]
We had a couple of extra 0's
next to it when we started.
[Woman 5] I know, I know,
this is already progress.
Maybe three zeros next to it.
Like I said, if we keep on
at the same rate,
we'll be there in no time.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay,
so February 16th, 2018.
The last harvest of
meat at Memphis Meats
was $1,700 a pound
- That was beef.
- Beef. Yes, yes.
[champagne bottle popping]
[team cheering]
Day one in the new building is
always extra exciting.
[team cheering & clapping]
[champagne bottle popping]
I'm filled with gratitude.
I've always said I'm
here because of my family
Then it started up with
Nick and I joining here.
Now, this is our
extended family,
and I want to really
thank you very much.
I raise a glass for
better meat, better world.
Cheers.
[all "Cheers!"]
[ambient music playing]
[Dr. Parvataneni] I haven't
been here since 2012.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah,
we've been in this business
for a very long time.
[Dr. Parvataneni] I mean this
company's so diverse.
You were still practicing
as a cardiologist then.
[laughing]
[Dr. Parvataneni] That
seems like eons ago.
[mobile phone ringing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Hello?
[speaking Hindi]
[speaking Hindi]
[Dr. Parvataneni] Uma's talked
about this idea of growing meat
for as long as I've known
him which is almost 25 years.
He's talked about this
in some form or another.
It's among the values that
we talk about as a family.
[speaking Hindi]
- [Dr. Parvataneni] Mm, thanks.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
[partygoers bantering]
[all speaking Hindi]
[Dr. Parvataneni] He spent
a lot of time thinking about it
and one thing you
know is that when
you have a desire like that,
it doesn't go away
with ignoring it.
It only grows, especially
when you know it's meant to be
[camera shuttering]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
The only process that we
are changing is one step.
Instead of these cells
growing in an animal,
we are growing them
outside the animal.
Meat is still the same
meat, and we're harvesting it.
[mobile device beeping]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] The
idea was to go to the U.S.
wanting to do cardiology
and cardiac surgery at Mayo,
and I had a number
of interviews at Mayo
Clinic but my visa got
rejected multiple times.
So, back then when
your visa was rejected,
you could try, I think
three times in total.
And I believe I got
rejected three times.
[Dr. Parvateneni] Any
reason why they give you?
Why they rejected you?
No, I mean, it was hard to know.
I think I went well prepared.
[Dr. Parvateneni] Okay.
But it was
all over in a few seconds
and there was
really no explanation.
So it was at that
time I thought
the world was turned upside
down and it was a shade of shock
because I pretty much thought
this is where I would train.
But then you go into solutions
more than they decided
that I would go to Jamaica
and work there for a while
and reapply to go to
the U.S. to train again.
So that started my
journey to leave India.
But...
If I didn't get
those rejections,
I wouldn't have gone to Jamaica.
And if I didn't go there, I
wouldn't have met my wife
[Dr. Parvateneni] Oh, can
you tell me the moment when
it took that big leap of faith?
You know, your journey
from cardiology to business?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] As
I started working in
cardiology at the Mayo Clinic
That's when stem cell research
was really being worked on
to grow heart muscle
and I started to think about
how could we translate
the benefits of stem cells
into treating
disease and later on
in my practice, I was injecting
stem cells into patients' hearts
do regrow heart muscle, and
that's where the idea came from.
I started thinking about
if I practice cardiology
for another 30 years
I would probably save
two or three thousand lives,
But there is very little
in the form of any idea
that even comes close
to the level of impact
of what this could be impact
on billions of human lives
and trillions of animal lives.
And it felt like it
was not even close to
the choice of me
continuing cardiology.
Although it was
enormously satisfying.
I felt good about
leaving cardiology
and starting
something that had
a transformative impact.
[ambient music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I would
say coming to India
it feels like connecting
back with the roots
of where the idea came from.
[ambient music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
When I was twelve years
old, there was a party
for one of my friends
in this neighborhood.
There was a birthday party.
There was a lot of people.
He was like dancing,
and there was a lot of food
and I just happened to
walk to the back of the home
where they were making the food
where I saw the animals,
chickens, being slaughtered.
It was an experience
where I saw intense
and, you know, true happiness
in the front of the home
where they were celebrating
my friend's birthday.
And then I walked back. And
then there was this moment
where that happiness
is being supported
by ending life, and that
was very hard for me and...
It was just this feeling in
me that how, as humans,
we were incredibly
capable of having
a lot of joy, fun, generosity.
And on the other
side, there was
this dark reality of
you know, ending life.
There was a birthday
on one side and there was a
death day on the other side.
and it was happening
at the same time.
Obviously, as a kid, I thought,
Why don't we all stop eating
meat?
And that is a solution
that is on the table always.
[Indian music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] What I
thought I would do today
is talk to you about
the stages in my life.
I want to talk about the four
kilometer circle I grew up in.
But some of the things that
happened in my life,
the experiences
and the stories that shaped
who I am, I'm going to talk
about my progression
from being a kid
walking the streets here to
what brings me back here today.
[Students bantering]
[speaking Hindi]
[Indian music continuing]
[audience applauding]
[speaking Hindi]
[Presenter 2] What I want is,
out of 1,200 students,
if two people get ignited
and if two people reach
the level of Shaker
where he is that wonderful.
That is our wish.
[audience applauding]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
Can you hear me okay?
Thank you very
much for having me.
I feel like I'm
still a 16-year-old
seeing all of you in this room.
So I want to talk to you guys.
Vijayawada has
autonomous schools.
So we had to run
our own cafeterias.
Then we would go to
the market shopping
for, you know, a thousand kids
and I saw a large scale
slaughter.
So when you see
large scale slaughter like that
that's automated on
machines like in a few seconds,
you know, hundreds
of lives are taken.
It was hard for me to understand
how we could allow
some things like that
which at that point
is when I said, okay,
I am going to stop eating meat.
But I love the taste of meat.
It's not something
that you want
to give up easily,
but it was one of
those things I said,
Well, let's just stop
and I used to dream
at that point, about,
meat growing on trees,
but that was pretty unusual
to dream about meat trees.
50 years from now
people will look back and
say, My gosh, you had to raise
billions of animals, kill
them to get meat to the table.
Why could you not
just grown it directly?
So the implications are massive.
I know. I've spoken for
about 30 - 40 minutes.
I want to kind of bring us back
in the full circle
back to this colony.
I grew up in front of
this building my entire life
before I left Vijayawada
I was in a four kilometer
radius in this colony
with a number of people
that I finally remember as
people that I depended on
it's the relationships around
me that made me pull through.
My family, my friends,
my teachers, my neighbors.
Thank you again for having me.
I'm happy
to take some questions.
[audience applauding]
- Hey.
- Hey.
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Oh, Auntie Alanaru. Oh,
I'm so happy to see you.
Thank you.
[speaking Hindi]
Yeah, so nice to see you.
Thanks for coming.
[speaking Hindi]
What? Do you want
me to write on this, mom?
[helicopter blades whirring]
[bongo music playing]
[police sirens sounding]
[bongo music continuing]
[Jessica Almy]
The U.S. Cattleman's
Association filed a petition
with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture
asking for the
USDA to change its policy book
to define meat and beef in
ways that make it impossible
for clean meat to use
those terms on their labels.
[bongo music continuing]
Usually, when consumers
pick up a package of beef
in the grocery store,
they expect it to be
from the flesh of
an animal harvested
in the traditional manner.
[bongo music continuing]
If you have these other products
floating around on shelves
and potentially being co-mingled
with our products we see
not only food safety concerns
but obviously consumer's
rights issues, because,
everybody deserves to know
where their food comes from.
it should be more along
the lines of alternative
protein or, you know, specifying
that it's coming from a
muscular tissue sample.
now is a make or break
moment for clean meat.
Is it going to be FDA
or is it going to be USDA
and whichever agency it is
is it going to be a reasonable
process for coming to market?
[bongo music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So we started
talking to the Meat Institute.
[bongo music continuing]
And on August 23rd, 2018 we
wrote a letter to the president.
[bongo music continuing]
The letter was a culmination
of lots of discussions.
It took a lot of back
and forth conversations.
[slow music playing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
We, you know, we wouldn't
have even dreamed of this
a year ago or two years ago.
I think the moment
felt very surreal.
And I also saw...
enormous amounts of,
you know, conflict within me.
I can't imagine I am signing
a letter with the largest meat
trade association in the world.
Felt like the right thing
to do and this is signing my
name behind it and saying
we are going to
truly bring everybody
under this tent in saying
this is a solution that the
world is looking forward to.
[Researcher] Using
markets and food technology
to solve problems? That's
not a left or a right issue.
There should be governments,
there should be massive
foundations,
there should be billion
dollar philanthropists.
We need Manhattan projects.
We need moon landings.
We need absolute commitment
to making this happen
as quickly as possible.
[typing intently]
[computer mouse clicking]
It is just true
that the vast majority of people
are not going to incorporate
ethical considerations
into their dietary choices
So let's take ethics off the
table and let's just create
products that people want to
buy because they are delicious
they are reasonably priced
and they are everywhere.
So that's, you know, the
brainstorm and the focus GFI.
One of the things that GFI does
is thinks about
consumer acceptance issues
and we just had so many people
who would hear cultured meat
and they would
just sort of recoil.
And obviously lab grown
meat is even worse.
In-vitro meat is even worse.
And so we surveyed everybody
in sort of the community
of clean meet at the
beginning of 2016.
We said, what do you think?
You know what should we call it?
And the results came back
and clean meat was about,
led to about 20% greater
consumer acceptance
than cultured meat.
[typing intently]
We can eliminate
industrial animal agriculture
in the next 20 - 30 years.
The best way to do that, it's
markets, it's food technology,
it's creating products that
people actually want to buy
that they can afford
and that they can find.
[marketgoers chattering]
[suspenseful music playing]
Hello! Hello.
[microphone feedback]
Hello, everyone.
[Crowd] Hello.
Welcome to the first
annual Good Food Conference.
[audience applauding]
[suspenseful music continuing]
[Man] Hey, hey Uma. How
are you? Good to see you.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] The last time
we met you were moving faster.
What do you call this?
Our hometown.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Our hometown.
- [Man] Yes.
So we started to think about
making a hamburger
from stem cells
or making meat from
stem cells in 2004.
Funded by the Dutch government
we could start those
technologies, develop
those technologies.
Unveiling of that
first hamburger was in
August 2013 in London.
We got the money for
that from Sergei Brynn
who put something
like $1.5 million in it.
We made three
hamburgers for that money.
What I knew is this is
a big societal problem,
and this is a potential solution
for that societal problem.
What we had experienced,
of course, in the project was
yes, there was media attention
for it, but there was not
a whole lot of
public interest for it.
Actually the trigger for the
whole thing was the story
of William Van Eelen
at that time already 86
and who basically was so
enthusiastic about this project
and really wanted us to do this.
[Ira Van Eelen]
Pan it to me too.
[Photographer] Will do.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I'm
really honored to meet you
and you know your dad's work
has inspired me while I
was in training in cardiology.
I was about fourteen when he
started working on this.
And that's 40 years ago now.
and where there was
a handful of people
that you could talk to and
to be here now was about
450 people in a
sold out conference.
And everybody knowing
what clean meat is, is for me
like, a very weird situation.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] In many ways,
your dad's kind of stimulated an
entire generation of thinking.
[Ira Van Eelen] Yes, he did.
You don't have to be
a scientist.
You have to have
conviction on your vision.
And I think he's kind
of sewing the seeds
for all of us to kind of
stand on his shoulders.
He wrote
the patent and he got funded.
And then, of course, Mark took
over the torch which was good.
I am the daughter
of William Van Eelen.
He's considered the great
grandfather of clean meat.
In 2010 I organized
the first ever
clean meat, or at that time
was called Pure Meat Conference
in Nemo Technical Museum
in Amsterdam. And there we got
the first footage of very
small slivers of pig meat
that Mark Post had made.
And that was the first ever
pictures of actual clean meat,
and they went into the media
and that is actually
how the investors of
Sergey Brin found Mark Post.
So this is a story
full of domino tiles.
[Reporter] Tell me you are kind
of the rock star here.
You have been described
to me as a rock star.
You and Mark Post,
people are so interested
in Memphis Meats,
you've got all these investors
Why is there so much
interest in your company?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Well, I'm flattered to
hear what you're saying
about me and Mark,
but ultimately this is something
that caught the imagination of,
I say, every country,
every continent.
[Reporter] Cell based
Sounds a little scary
and clean meat implies that
implies the conventional
meat is dirty.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Right.
So the background for this,
in the context of it
is then we started
talking about this industry
and starting the company,
Memphis Meats was the
first company in the space.
We started talking
to a number of people
and people uniformly got
excited and they started calling
the product clean meat.
Clean duck, clean chicken,
clean beef.
Because it mainly communicated
the benefits of a cleaner
production environment
as well as the benefits
we thought we could have
at scale in terms of energy
savings.
But as we started talking
more and more about this
it became particularly clear
that there are people that
felt like while they want this
innovation to come to market,
using a prefects like
clean was not inclusive.
Our nomenclature.
Why cell based or why
clean or why cultured?
Or you know what are the...?
Rather than saying what it is,
because what it is, is meat.
Isn't there a quick way
to just say how it's made?
When a consumer is buying it,
we want them to know it's
coming from animal cells.
versus, a meat alternative.
Why are we so fixated on having
a word in front of meat?
It's almost like gluten free,
like you want it to be
like factory farm free.
[Lou] Consumers
want transparency.
They want you to be honest
with what you're doing.
So that's why I
support cellular.
And we want to be transparent.
I don't want people mixing up
with stuff with regular--
[Lou] No, but on the other hand,
what we're not communicating
is... we're communicating back
to being too
technically driven.
We're communicating
the process.
What if the adjective is
more about a global solution?
[Erin Brodwin] Yeah, I'm bullish
on factory farm free. #FFF.
[Lou] FFF.
But there's a lot of meat out
there factory farm free.
So you shouldn't
define it by what it's not.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] How's it going?
[Josh Tetrick] Good. Going.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Really good?
Really, busy?
The alternate would be bad.
So how about you?
Are you travelling or?
[Josh Tetrick] Uh yeah, just
got back from Zurich.
When we thought about
the next thing we were
in 4,000 Walmarts,
we were in 3,300 public schools,
We were making tens of millions
of dollars in sales so we easily
could have done meat with plants
that was there for us to take,
but I couldn't imagine a world
where McDonald's would replace
all of their hamburgers
with the plant based burger
and we decided to go
headlong into cultured meat.
[Announcer] All right, guys,
we're going to get ready here in
just a second.
This is a jam packed panel.
I'm so excited for it.
[Josh Tetrick] More people are
eating meat today than yesterday
and more people unfortunately
will eat meat tomorrow,
than today.
We think it's
going to be critical
ultimately, to get the
price of meat below the cost
of conventional meat.
Proof of
concept has been demonstrated
to the public, but now
we're about proof of scale.
You know, what is this
factory of the future?
It is a food factory. It
has a lot of the similarities
to any other food factory
following
some the same principles.
And I really see this industry
as being a parallel supply
chain,
or maybe integrated
into the food system,
which I like that people
are starting to talk
about the food
ecosystem and the system
that's what we're a part of.
We are not a separate entity.
The lowering the cost to feed
is the biggest challenge
in this field.
And right now that's a problem
because no one is producing
those ingredients at scale.
But as you start figuring
out the key ingredients
that our animal cells need to
grow I have very little doubt
in my mind that those
things can be scaled up.
[Josh Tetrick] I think the
folks in the audience
that are thinking about
starting their own company
don't just you know, look
at what the folks up here
on the stage you're doing
think about how you could
provide something
to the ecosystem
that could be
even more valuable
than what we're doing up here.
[Niyati Gupta] Right. So,
for example, I would imagine
that if a company were to
start trying to create steak,
there might be another startup
that would emerge that would try
to produce the fat that would
fit into the marbled steak.
[Sarah Sorscher] From
the consumer perspective,
we're facing a brave new world
with technology that
was once the stuff
of science fiction
now becoming a reality.
[Jack Bobo] I think
it's also worth pointing
out that people love
innovation almost as much
as they despise change.
And there's no place
they despise change
more than in the food they eat.
[Kevin Kester]
Consumers have come to expect
satisfaction and a high quality
eating experience
from real beef.
The manufacturers of lab grown
products should be required
to invest in their own market
development efforts and not ride
the coattails of beef's success.
[crowd bantering]
[Jessica Almy]
Consumers are enthusiastic
about these products.
We did a poll with the
company Faunalytics
and we found that
two thirds of Americans
are willing to try
meat grown from cells
without slaughtering
animals and 40%
that they would pay a
premium for these products.
Allowing cellular based proteins
or plant based proteins
to bear the label meat or
beef or the USDA Federal
meat inspection shield or
stamp would be misleading.
[Jessica Almy] Thank you.
We fully recognize that
debate will continue
as to what these products
should be called moving forward.
And although we have
not firmly determined
what the nomenclature
should be,
our producers will
seek a labeling regime
that provides a clear separation
between lab produced products
and conventionally grown meat.
Some terms, like fake, synthetic
or artificial meat, are
intended to not only
cast our products
in a negative light,
but are also simply false
and misleading.
We're making real meat
and seafood,
and that's the whole point.
The term lab grown
has an accuracy problem
as well. As with many familiar
and currently
marketed food products
the early development of our
products happens in food labs,
but the products that we bring
to consumers will be produced
in food production
facilities, not labs.
[Jessica Almy] We really want
to hear from you today.
That's really what this
meeting is about.
Anyone else
would you like to come forward
and make a comment during
this open comment period?
We cell based food producers
do need to use the terms
fish and meat to reiterate
if one is allergic to animal
based seafood, that
person has a high probability
I would say almost
a 100% certainty
that they will be
allergic to the seafood
produced using our technology.
We as cattle producers, we
worked a long time to
build trust between
consumers and stuff like that.
That's why I urge these
companies or individuals
that are doing this
technology to maybe step back
and educate us
so we understand it.
It might help us
be more accepting
to what you want to
accomplish. Thank you.
[Jessica Almy] Thank
you for your comments.
Would anyone else like to
come forward and comment?
[Isha Datar] I suspect
that producing meat
from animal cell culture,
rather than whole animals,
could result in
fewer viral epidemics
fewer threats to food security
and fewer externalized
costs to environment,
public health and
animal welfare.
Currently, 815
million people around the globe
are malnourished, as has been
discussed a few times today.
Hunger has been on the rise
for the last three years,
and this number is expected
to drastically increase as
the world's population grows.
We must rethink the global
food production system.
For us producing bluefin tuna,
cell based bluefin tuna,
there will be no mercury,
no plastic,
we're not using antibiotics
we are not
overfishing, the ocean.
We are not engaging
in animal cruelty.
On the question of safety
innovation in the meat
industry is urgently needed.
Conventional methods rely
on the intensive confinement
of animals in unsanitary
and inhumane facilities.
These unnatural conditions
require extensive use
of antibiotics to
address diseases
that proliferate among the
crowded, stressed animals.
Contributing to the spread
of drug resistant superbugs.
We need real
alternatives to the suffering.
We need real
alternatives to the cruel
and inhumane conditions
forced upon billions of animals
we need alternatives
to artificial insemination,
overcrowding,
genetic manipulation,
long transport and slaughter.
Without a clear, predictable
and timely framework,
this industry cannot succeed.
Any delays in moving
forward would jeopardize the
U.S.'s standing in the world
as the leader in
protein production
and responsible science
based food innovation.
[crowd bantering]
[cameras shuttering]
In addition to providing clarity
in terms of the
regulatory pathway,
are there any other incentives,
either through research,
maybe through ARS
or any other type of ways
that can be implemented
to help ensure that
the American startups
pursuing cellular agriculture
products can move forward
Well, the good thing about the
environment, the economy
and the democratic
process we have here
is our innovators and
entrepreneurs
and our risk takers are
very creative in their efforts.
We want to be ahead of the game.
I think the regulatory framework
needs to be there
to provide guidance
for our entrepreneurs and
innovators to work towards so.
we will be moving post
haste after this meeting
to more clearly define that.
I think this is one of those
unique examples
where we're contemplating
all these things
really early in the process,
really in advance of the
products even being available
and that's going to, I think
help the innovation take root
and provide really clear
guidance to the manufacturers.
I think it should accelerate
the innovation. Thank you.
[Interviewer] Would you
like America to be first?
[Sonny Perdue] Yes.
[Eric Schulze] I've been
like thinking about this
for the last month, obviously
in preparation.
This moment where heavily vested
parties and cultural identities
would intersect
in a formal way.
Hi, you here for Eric?
What little company with
no product on the market
gets two federal agencies
to talk to each other
in the most productive way?
It was incredible.
It is incredible.
Food is regulated by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
and it's about 80% of
the domestic food supply.
and for the remainder it's
largely under the USDA.
[mobile device tapping]
The U.S. food
system splits into,
for meat and poultry, animals
that are alive,
the FDA regulates and
then basically from the
moment of slaughter
forward, the USDA regulates.
[distant city cars honking]
[Cab driver] This good, though?
Yeah. If you want to pull up
right here, that's fine.
[Eric Schulze] We want
to compete on market
with products that are
safe and labeled, and then
that's where we want to
be. And the way to get there
at the last hurdle is
the regulatory system.
And that's why we're putting so
much energy into it right now.
[bongo music playing]
[bongo music continuing]
So we have jurisdiction
for both FDA and USDA.
You've done a fantastic job
leading this effort from
Memphis Meats, so...
I hope you take a moment, pause,
and recognize it's a big
milestone.
[Eric Shulze] Yeah,
I think all these big
moments happen and
then we sort of like wait,
Did it just happen?
We'd have to like pinch
ourselves to make sure it
really happened.
We finally get
to this end point.
So one thing I was thinking,
what is next now for us?
It doesn't
matter how great our tech is,
if we can't sell it
legally, who cares?
I think that the next step is
one we're working
on the pathway.
But it could slow down.
There's a possibility that
pathway negotiations stall.
Or if there's
congressional intervention
which is still lingering.
We know that there's
language in the approach bill.
So there's a chance
that this could still delay.
I want to be
realistic about that.
There was, let's say the
pathway gets slowed.
At least we have a
reasonable time frame
of getting under the market,
we can continue to do
technical development,
continue to lower cost,
continue to increase scale
and be ready for that moment.
What would be
motivating factors for that?
Very successful lobbying
against us.
Okay, so safety
and truthful labeling, right?
Correct. Those are the two
legal requirements for us.
Yeah, this will be FDA.
This will be USDA.
[Eric Shulze] One
of the big unknowns,
of course, is, where
inspections will be split.
Labeling, we know that's going
to be handled by the USDA.
We know that, but
we don't know how.
So this is a bare bones
pathway right now.
USDA comes in here and the bio
system we're talking about.
Where's the biosystems?
This is the bio system
where the animal cells
and the feed are growing.
[Eric Shulze] They
would do it as part of a pre
market safety evaluation.
So they'll evaluate the safety,
they'd inspect it and then
they would check to make
sure that we're following.
our inspections ourselves
so they wouldn't come
on site and check regularly.
Okay.
[Eric Shulze] That's
currently what we're thinking.
I think there's a lot of fear
around the intersection
of food and technology,
and we really want to,
many of us want to go
sort of back to the land,
and we have our own
little backyard gardens
and chicken coops
and do it the way
that you know they did in
Little House on the Prairie .
But that won't work to feed
9 billion - 10 billion people.
And tech will have role.
The question is what role?
And how can you do tech right?
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Hey, David.
- [David] Hey, Uma.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] How are you?
Good to meet you in person.
How are you? Good to see you
after all of this, how nice.
So what's the--?
Yeah, so I think
in the interest of time,
we should probably start heading
over to the R&D facility.
Should we start
walking this way?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
So what we believe in is it
starts with the consumers and
ends with the consumers right,
so they have to get behind it
and we want to get this
right as opposed to being
first to market.
First to market
you know, it sounds
really exciting to do
but doing the most desirable
product that consumers allow
is what we're trying to do.
- Hey guys. Good morning.
- [Amanda Little] Hi.
- [Casey] Hi. How are you?
- [Amanda] Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
Casey is our vice president
of process development
and has enormous experience
in growing cells in very,
very large quantities.
I've been growing
cells for a long time.
and it never dawned on
me to eat them, ever so,
it's a little bit of a shift,
but it's so exciting
because the things that
we've been learning for
decades all totally apply.
This is the brew?
This is the special broth?
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
It's a superfood.
This is a superfood,
a cellular superfood,
and it's a nice lavender...
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Time to
walk over to the next spot.
Let's do that in a little bit.
[David] You know maybe we
should actually do that now.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Let's
just walk over there.
Thank goodness, David.
Keeping our ass on time.
You know I'm really
showing restraint.
I have a lot of other questions.
This lab
is just being set up now
there will be a lot of
automation units in there.
There is some there are liquid
handling robots that means
They're handling the
feed that Casey is working with.
[Amanda Little] Did you
say liquid handling robots?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Take you around
and when we first started,
we were only producing
very small quantities
where, you know, you
can make them evolve now.
Since then, we can pretty much
grow as much as we need for our
tasting and testing purposes,
so we can do several pounds
of meat production
and testing at this point,
but the goal is
to be able to take
and we scale up
to a few thousand pounds.
[meat sizzling]
[Chef] There we go.
Trying to get it
nice and seared.
[meat sizzling]
Let's see
if you want to just quickly--
This feels about as low risk a
food as I have ever eaten.
Even if I just signed
a high risk agreement.
[Amanda laughing]
You're not eating anything
that I am not eating
so you're eating meat
that comes from cells
from a very high
quality animal.
This this is still a
early stage product,
but I think I just want to
make sure you're looking at this
as a very big, historic
thing in this world.
So I'm anxious to see
what you think about it.
See it's really, you know,
see all the fibers in there?
See the browning of the skin?
And as you pull apart, you know
meat's hard to pull apart
because it's got those
features and those proteins
and the elasticity which is...
That is meat.
[Uma laughing]
That is duck meat.
It's delicious!
It's got all the stringiness
of the strands of muscle
which is something you don't get
in plant based meats, of course.
And you don't
get that resistance
with the chew resistance.
I mean, the chew
is, it's very chewy.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yes.
[Amanda Little]
Very, it's very meaty.
Wow, amazing.
We don't take a very long
time to grow meat, right?
So if you have to think about
a cow from conception
all the way to slaughter
at the age of 18 to 24 months,
the whole process is about two
and a half years.
For us to grow beef,
if it takes about four weeks,
at the most six weeks.
So tell me about your inputs.
I mean, this gets to
the bovine growth room
and also the environmental
implications, right?
Yeah, yeah. So in the early
parts of research in this area,
the supply chain includes serum.
And when we think
about scaling this up,
we cannot have a supply chain
that is going to have serum.
That's why we want to separate
out serum from meat production.
or blood from meat production
and have our own feed for it.
So that's the process
we are working out
and we've developed a full end
to end method of growing
cells without any serum at all.
For us to put products on the
market completely animal free.
It's going to take a while.
There are still parts of
our research that depends
on getting that serum in to
understand how the cells grow.
Yeah, I guess what I'm wondering
so for the carbohydrates,
for example,
like are you actually using some
kind of carbohydrate source?
You know, for example,
some grain or I mean,
are there actual sort of
recognizable ingredients
that go into the production?
100%. They're all recognizable.
They are already in the current
feed system.
It's still proprietary of what
kinds of feeds that we are using
because we're trying
to break it down
and saying, okay, what is the
most efficient source
of like carbohydrate feed?
[Amanda Little] So it might be
some crop that we recognize?
- Right. Yeah, yeah. 100%.
- [Amanda] Okay. Okay.
So it's, you know, maybe it
might include some amount
of corn or soy or something?
I just want to address
that this as an important point.
It doesn't mean that we're
going to stop growing corn
just because we stopped
stopped growing cows?
- Right. There are estimates of 40
- 50% of land being used
to grow crops to feed animals.
We'll still need crops like you
said, but it's not even close
to the degree that we
need for keeping, you know,
a very, very large herd
of 70 billion animals
on this planet.
Keep in mind
you're seeing very small
scale production at this point,
and as we start thinking
about scaling this up,
one of the big areas
of innovation
that we'll start seeing
is decreasing the environmental
impact,
decreasing the
environmental footprint.
It also makes me feel
like that is the reason
we are here,
to solve this problem.
- It keeps us going.
- Biomemesis right?
You're listening and
learning from the animal.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] There
is a pretty intense need to
innovate how we produce food.
[atmospheric music playing]
[machine engine chugging]
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Almost everything we are
doing in terms of innovation
is to do more with less
and that's really foundational
to all the conversations
in climate are happening.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] I mean,
for instance, our idea is to
be able to grow more food,
more nutrient dense food,
with less resources to get
a pound of meat.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Our
target is to be able to say
we could use almost
ten times less land,
almost ten times less
water and less deforestation.
And all of these have a
direct impact on climate,
the amount of CO2
that is released.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti] There
is no methane production
when you're growing cells.
When you culture cells,
the cells are basically,
it's an oxygen and carbon
dioxide exchange
that's happening.
Methane doesn't
come into the picture, so
we don't expect to have
methane in our production
process as we scale up.
[atmospheric music continuing]
[house dog barking]
So I'm going to make some
pancakes for breakfast?
- [Uma] Okay.
- [Mrs. Valeti] Is that good?
Blueberries?
I have some blueberries
and blackberries.
[Mrs. Valeti]
Do you want coffee?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Sure.
Yeah. Do you have the decaf?
[Mrs. Valeti] Sure.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Bananas?
- [Mrs. Valeti] I'll cut them.
- [Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
That's coming out nicely, too.
So this is from...
[Mrs. Valeti] So I'm leaving
on Sunday to Minneapolis.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay. Yeah.
[Mrs. Valeti] So you have a
lot of late meetings this week?
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Yeah.
[Mrs. Valeti] Can you
not do that next week, please?
Make sure that the kids
get home at a decent hour
so that you can spend some time
with the kids in the evening?
Yeah. I actually told Jerry to
have me out
every day by 5:30 or 6:00.
So I should
be home pretty early.
When I had moved to
the Bay Area,
of course, my family was still
living in Minnesota and the
kids were going to school there.
[Mrs. Valeti] Thank you
for making breakfast.
Mrunalini had
her pediatric practice there.
And it was not easy.
But ultimately being able
to move the family here
and just being able to
talk to them every day.
Seeing them, I think has
completely changed my life.
Just having the opportunity
for us all to as a family
spend time under one roof
as we are going after
this very big idea
in this world,
I'm just very grateful.
I actually brought some
markup boxes
of our what packaging
could look like.
[Mrs. Valeti] Is it
gonna be like vacuum?
Like you know? That sealed thing
so you can...?
Yeah. So people can see
what they're buying.
And this is the beef.
[Mrs. Valeti] I like it.
I like this "made with love in
California".
When I think about the why
of what we're doing,
it's not a product.
It's much more than that.
It's about the way that we
want the future world to look
and that's what drives and
motivates Uma every day.
He has two hats
going at all times.
It's the what?
Like, what will it look like?
But the why and the how?
The ingredients
it says cell based
are grown from
cells and salt, spices.
[Mrs. Valeti] Yeah. That's
what it says here, chicken,
cell based sea salt, spices
including chipotle pepper.
And same thing here.
Of course. Right. We need
to get labeling approved
and all of the
materials approved.
But this is what
we're thinking.
We've got to be
open to innovation
and open to conversations,
but also keep the focus on
which particular one will we
bring forward at the next step.
Knowing that this is not a race,
it's not going to be a one
and done and that we'll be
doing it in sequence.
So our focus is
entirely on scale.
Like we've got to produce it
at a scale that is meaningful.
[crowd bantering]
This is just about 70,000 square
feet, rentable space here.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] So
this is a 70,000 foot print.
And the height is--
[Steve Myrick] It will easily
cost us
tens of millions of dollars
to get this first production
facility up and running.
The goal is not just to make
the meat in this facility,
but also to have it be
a showcase for future facilities
and for partners who can join us
and build out their own
production capacity
in their facilities using
their capital.
So it serves a lot of purposes
beyond just the meat
but it will not come cheap.
It's a really heavy lift
that we're taking on here.
There's a service
elevator that we'll take down
that gives you access
back down to the ground floor.
[Casey] And if I
wanted a fireman's pole?
[laughing]
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
These are high ceilings.
[Casey] Yeah, so
this is a lot bigger.
Oh nice, this I more than 24
feet it looks like.
Or maybe it's 24.
Yeah, so this is
20,000 square feet here
where you can do the
manufacturing operations.
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Okay.
So you could have
a flow of basically follow
the process from an area
with your raw materials,
your media preparation
provide all the nutrients
for the cells back into the
bio processing suite, harvest
and then to the food
formulation space.
So you can follow a
a U shaped thing here
for the process
all the way around.
It could be really nice.
Our paradigm for production
will continue to evolve.
But this is this seems
like the most accessible,
relevant next step
for translating from R&D.
[Casey] It's a launching pad.
Yes, it's a launching pad.
It's transformative.
Having it all right
here, locally sourced
and being able to put it out
Locally sourced, locally
produced, locally distributed.
How's that?
[Casey] Yeah, amazing.
That's what
you're going to be making right?
[Casey] I'm working on it.
I'm working on it.
I think it has the
potential to also be
that transparent venue
where people can really
understand how
we're making meat.
There
were times where Nick and I
in the first six months
of the company
looked at each other
and said
I don't know if
anyone will believe us.
And if we can actually take this
to a stage where we
can scale it to producing
meaningful amounts of
meat and you know, Nick said
in one of those tough moments,
"we've got to have faith".
I still remember that day
because it was one
of my lowest moments
because it was challenging
to get people to recognize it,
it was impossible
for people to understand
that this needed a chance.
[atmospheric music playing]
[Jane Goodall] The birth of
this game changing industry
is no longer science fiction,
it's reality.
The innovation of cell cultured
meat, poultry, fish and seafood
is accelerating quickly
around the globe
with pioneers
on every continent.
Our shared humanity
depends on this hopeful
and rapid momentum
towards a sustainable
future for us,
the animals
and for our beautiful
planet Earth.
[music playing]
[Chef] A kind of classic
kinda technique to get the
chicken nice and brown
without it getting dry.
[music continuing]
Glow in the abyss
We're just going to
let it rest for a minute
before we slice through it.
Can't fight the future
Can't fight what I see
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] All right,
there is Morgan,
thanks for cooking it for us.
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
All right, cheers.
[all laughing]
Ashes of lovers
[all laughing]
I sing in the reaches
Let's see what I find
[all laughing]
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] Delicious.
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
[Dr. Uma Valeti]
Everybody can come and start
taking pieces. Go for it.
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
[music continuing]
[music continuing]
Smoldering building
I feel it in me
Growing in numbers
Growing in peace
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
People that fall apart
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
Because we're
All made of stars
People that fall apart
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
Because we're
All made of stars
People that fall apart
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
Because we're
All made of stars
No-one can stop us now
Because we're
All made of stars
People that come together
[Dr. Uma Valeti] We just grew
the part that we wanted to eat.
This is what Winston Churchill
was talking about in 1931.
I actually remember
that exact quote.
"We shall escape the absurdity
of growing a whole chicken
in order to eat the
breast or wing,
by growing these parts
separately
under a suitable medium."
That's exactly what
we all did. All right.