What is the Role of Biotech in an Ethical Food System?

New Food Order

New frontiers in biotechnology and fermentation are being deployed to reduce the environmental impact of our animal-based food system. But do developments in cellular agriculture, fermentation, and biotech foods – for the creation of meat and dairy analogues – take ethics into account?

In this week’s episode, we speak with four leading thinkers in the industry about how we might use biotechnology to engineer foods in a way where everyone wins.

This week’s episode is the first of our Roundtable formats, featuring a diverse panel of voices, including: Isha Datar, executive director of New Harvest, Varun Deshpande, managing director of Good Food Institute India, Didier Toubia, CEO of Aleph Farms, Errol Schweizer, former VP of Grocery for Wholefoods and host of The Check Out podcast.

We discuss:

• How to define biotech and precision fermented foods
• What questions we should be asking about cultivated meats
• How you communicate with transparency the complexities of bio-foods to eaters
• The need for open access scientific research in bio-foods development
• Operating models for these technologies and foods in the global south
• The ethics of IP and corporate control of research and these technologies
• Who is investing in biotech foods - from governments to investors to multinationals

Show Notes:

• New Harvest Cellular Agriculture Definition
• Good Food Institute cultivated & precision fermentation definitions
• US bio-engineered food labeling law
• New Harvest OpenCellAg Repository
• CRISPR
• TALENS
• APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture
• The Carbon Farming Solution, book by Eric Toensmeier
• La Via Campesina
• What Questions Should We Be Asking About Cell-Based Meats? - Errol Forbes article
• What Consumers Should Ask About Precision Fermentation - Errol Forbes article

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Thank you to Foodshot Global & New Hope Network for sponsoring the series.

And a huge thank you to everyone who helped us bring this podcast to life:

Production: Cam Gray, Cofruition

Audio Editing: Tevin Sudi

Original Music: Rodrigo Barbera

Art: Lola Nankin

Project Management: Patrick Carter