WEBVTT - Lab 019: What's Beef? 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:02.880 I don't judge, but the Internet does. The Internet says 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:08.600 the worst people are somebody that's doing CrossFit or someone 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.240 who's mean. I was gonna say, let me get it. Vegans. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:17.599 Yeah, Honestly, I feel like nobody loves talking about themselves 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.280 more than vegans. I don't have nothing against a vegan. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:23.560 Whatever you want to eat, eat that, that's fine with me. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:25.720 But they love talking about being vegan. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.800 A lot of posts out there about being vegan. Yeah. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.000 There are some aggressive vegans though, that are like, really 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.159 mean if you aren't vegan, And those are the ones 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.199 that I'm just like, Okay, well, I'm gonna just keep 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.960 my distance because I don't want no smoke. 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.320 Well, I gotta tell you I had an impossible burger recently, 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.320 and you might have to keep your distance from me. Okay, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:48.800 you're gonna give me some plant blazed smoke. Yeah, you're 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.839 gonna get some. I'm gonna get these wood chips. Okay. Okay. 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.200 I'm t T and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify Studios. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:17.319 This is Dope Laps. I am all on the plant 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.240 based meat alternative kick. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.160 Okay, Yeah, we went and got that impossible whopper and 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.880 then all of a sudden, the Kia is soy everything, 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:27.119 soy life. 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.360 That's not true, Like what do you mean? 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:30.520 Oh? 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:32.760 This is impossible meat? And I'm like, m well, what 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:37.840 are we gonna do for the function? Because everybody no? Okay? Dogs? 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.080 We had. That is so funny because I posted the 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.440 other day that I was at the grocery store and 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.240 I saw some of the Beyond like the Beyond crumbles 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.880 that you can get, and I posted it on Instagram 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.600 and my friend Kate wrote me and said, is that 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.240 what you're making the turkey out of? That? Is that 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:54.880 what you're doing? 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.000 Because we have friends giving at your house, right m h? 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.560 And so yes, if I would have that, I would 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.800 have been alarmed to but we didn't have that, y'all. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.480 We had a lot of really good food. This is 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:07.040 almost becoming a food podcast. 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.600 I know we got to change the category. But you 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.040 know I got even my dad. I got him eating 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:17.919 plant based. Let me tell you that is a meat eater. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.280 He could eat six chicken thighs in one sitting. It's true. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.760 He's very tall and very strong and he's powered by 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.799 chicken thighs. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.480 He's gonna kill you. And so when you think about 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.480 taking someone like that, and I don't know what his 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:40.160 carbon footprint is, okay, Paul Bunyan carbon footprint. But when 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:41.800 you take someone like that and you say, all right, 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.280 I got this person to eat plant based meat alternative something, 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.160 you're doing something different because he's not gonna eat a 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.560 Boca Burger. No shade to Boca Burgers. I like those two, 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.440 but he's not going for it. Okay. I got him 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.359 that burrito bowl at Cadoba. He said, hey, you tell 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.160 me this right here, this is all vegetables. I'm in. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.919 I can do it every day. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.840 Even Oprah, she did a thirty day vegan challenge right right. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.880 See, we're onto something. You have to follow on the 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:17.720 footsteps of the greats. Yes, Oprah Beyonce, impossible, man, you'll 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.839 get a burger. You don't get a burger. You'll get 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.280 a burger. That was t t I thought that was 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.920 an alright, Oprah impression. I thought it was good. But 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.440 affect this Opra impressions. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.920 If I meet Oprah, Hey, Oprah, love to meet you, 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:33.120 and I better help you with that. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:39.200 Yeah, I need my friend there. Okay, So I think 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.040 this episode we need to put meat alternatives under the microscope. 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.400 So let's get into the recitation. I want to know 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.680 has anyone out there tried some version of this from 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.560 I mean, it's in our local fast food establishment, So 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.320 it's that Cadoba that I know about World Burger King, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.160 Burger King. I saw that KFC was trying to come 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.520 up with a plant based chicken. That seems tough, and 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.560 I feel like this is coming out of nowhere. Yeah. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.120 It went from one hundred percent angus beef yeah, to 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.880 pea protein yeah, very quickly. Yeah. Me, I just want 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.640 to know, like, how is this stuff made? What? 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.840 I don't really understand how you can make pea protein 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:24.600 sizzle on the grill? 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.599 Yeah? How is it made? Is it better for you? 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:29.480 Because I know people think like, oh, if I get this, 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.279 this is a healthier option, is it? Is it? And 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.640 then not only is it better, but like what kind 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.600 of technology is this? Are they three D printing these burgers? 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.719 Like I want to know the how because I know 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.560 it's not like we harvested peas. You know, when you 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.279 get a veggie burger, you can see like, oh, there's 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:46.960 a little bit of it, there's a little bit of carrot, 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:48.680 here's a little bit of pee. Yeah, there's a little 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.640 onion and mushroom over here. It's not like that, not 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:53.920 at all. It looks like me this thing and even 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.480 some it has like stuff that looks like blood pink 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.159 to dark brown. What's happening? I don't get it, and 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:01.960 so we want to get to the bottom of it. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.360 Let's take a big bite and jump into the dissection. 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.120 All right, it's time for the dissection. We invited doctor 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.279 Christina Agapacas to help us unpack all of our questions 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.320 behind plant based meat. My name is Christina Agapakis. 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 I am a synthetic biologist and the creative director at 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:21.000 Ginko Bioworks. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.080 Ginkgo Bioworks is a biotech company that was founded in 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.440 two thousand and nine by a bunch of scientists from MIT. 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.839 Earlier this year, the company launched a new venture called 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.200 Motif to find the next big thing in laboratory based food, 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.960 and they did this by developing the key ingredients using 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:41.320 biotechnology and fermentation. But before we dive into the science 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.279 behind all these plant based meat options, we wanted to 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.960 zoom out and get a little bit more familiar with 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.800 the history and the industry of plant based meat. Plant 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.000 based meat is nothing new, but we are in sort 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.560 of a renaissance period where it's becoming way more popular. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.719 I see these plant based paddies everywhere, and chances are 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.240 you can find them in your local supermarket in the 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.240 meat aisle. Back in April, Burger King announced their new 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.760 Impossible Whopper, and McDonald's is actually working on their own 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.880 version of a meatless burger alternative. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.440 The plant based meat industry has grown so much over 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.440 the past I don't know, five to ten years. Yeah, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.279 you know, I remember seeing like morning Star burgers and 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.840 stuff like that in the frozen isle, and every now 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:25.840 and then I get a black bean burger. I even 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.640 try to make my own black bean burger. No good. 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:32.359 But now that this is at Burger King and all 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.880 these other places and in the grocery stores like, have 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.159 we reached a peak? Is the growth going to slow 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.480 down now or are we on the trajectory to just 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:40.960 keep going well. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.799 Analysts expect that the plant based protein or meat alternative 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.719 market is going to grow by twenty eight percent a year, 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.599 from four point six billion dollars in twenty eighteen to 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.280 eighty five billion dollars in twenty thirty, so twenty. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:04.240 Eight percent of growth each year. Between thirty. Yeah, what 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:09.400 I need to buy some stock. Yeah, the next episode 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.080 will be about the stock market. 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.520 It has been really incredible to see the change in 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.320 the way that people kind of talk about vegetarian options 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.520 and vegan options and how much demand there's been. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.440 It's been really really dramatic, and there are a bunch 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.800 of different reasons people are gravitating more towards plant based meat. 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:30.920 Right a few years ago, I feel like people didn't 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.520 eat meat for two main reasons, animal rights or for 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.440 their personal health, like they want to get their cholesterol 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.800 lower or whatever. But doctor Agapakis says there's another reason 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:43.240 why it's become more popular. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.080 Climate ethics and environmental impact that you have is a 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.160 major factor. I think that in many people's decisions, and 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.160 that's been something that I think has changed pretty dramatically 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.280 in the past few years, where where people look at 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.440 the sort of impacts of their everyday things that they 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.239 do and they see meat to the top of the list, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.840 and they see better options for them for things that 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.280 still taste good that they can have access to that 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.520 can can start chipping away at that impact that they 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:12.520 have as an individual. 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.040 So the demand is growing dramatically for different reasons. Let's 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.280 talk about supply. What are these meat substitutes actually made of. 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.120 It's basically like protein that comes from plants, right, and 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.080 so there's lots of ways that that can happen. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.880 That's right. There are many different kinds of plant proteins though. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.200 For example, Gardenburger, which was invented in the early nineteen eighties, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.120 uses soy protein and it's burger patties, and those patties 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.600 came with like those grill marks, so you felt like 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:43.720 it was really grill what is it? But also peas, wheat, nuts, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.600 and rice are popular crops that are used as meat substitutes, 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.640 but a lot of those earlier meat substitutes didn't quite 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:50.240 hit the mark. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.720 You can do a lot with the texture from the 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.880 proteins that you can get from plants, but you can't 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.080 really do everything that meat or dare product does. You 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.560 can't get the full sort of sensory experience. You can't 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.199 get the kind of qualities, whether that's like how it foams, 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.040 how it feels in your mouth, how it cooks, all 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.840 of those things might that have different kinds of ingredients 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:16.480 that come from the meat that are important. 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.320 So while a lot of earlier meat substitutes tasted just 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.080 find there was no way you could ever confuse them 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:28.040 for the real deal. Yeah, especially with those fake sharpie 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:28.720 grow marks. 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:32.720 And so that really brings us to why plant based 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.760 meat alternatives now are becoming so much more popular. So 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.920 let's use two of the most popular plant based meat 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.640 companies as an example, Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat. Both 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.000 companies still use plants and grains for the bulk of 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.160 their protein. Impossible uses soy protein concentrate and Beyond Meat 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:49.280 uses pea protein. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.000 But what makes these so different from Gardenberger is the 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:58.160 specialty ingredients their scientists have developed. These ingredients are used 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:03.120 in much smaller quantities, but are what makes the product look, taste. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:04.320 And smell like real meat. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.480 In other words, these ain't the old school veggie burger patties. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.280 What's an example of one of these specialty ingredients. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.360 For Impossible foods? That was the heme. 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.320 Heme has been referred to as the magic ingredient in 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:17.400 the Impossible Burger. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.440 So heme is the stuff that makes Impossible Burger cook 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.600 from pink to brown, right, just like a real burger. 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.640 So what is heme for real? For real? Heme is 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.920 most commonly recognized as one of the components and hemoglobin, right, 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.679 and that's what makes our blood red, and its primary 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.560 function is to just transport oxygen. So if scientists that 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:42.520 Impossible use heme to give their beef patties that meaty flavor. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.439 And so being able to find a source of that 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.120 protein that's vegan was really important to the team at 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.240 Impossible Foods and is really a key ingredient for them. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.280 So how did the scientists that Impossible use heme without 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:59.719 using animals as the source for hem That seems really 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.280 tricky and confusing for me. 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.160 When we tend to think about heme, people always go 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.880 to the example of hemoglobin and hemoglobin being in blood. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.040 But the thing to remember, hem is also present in 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.360 plants and is present in one of our favorites. 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.560 Soy, we're going to take a quick break, but when 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.480 we get back, we're going to dive into the actual 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.719 process of finding and extracting these proteins that are then 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.480 used to make the magic ingredients in our plant based food. 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:24.240 Stay tuned. 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.080 We're back and we're ready to dive into the actual 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.600 process of engineering these plant based proteins that ultimately become 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:52.160 your impossible whopper. As doctor Agapakis says, it's an incredibly 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:59.480 multidisciplinary process that involves aspects of biology, chemistry, and genetics. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:04.800 My friend, the kia is lighting up. It is a 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.840 wonderful symphony. Right. In order to get a plant based 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.120 burger patty just right, scientists have to go through a 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.320 lot of trial and error looking for the proteins they 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.760 have the best qualities. And before the break, we found 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.079 out that hem was the key ingredient in making impossible 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:19.679 burgers red and juicy. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.080 Just like real meed. You can find heme in soy, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.080 but only in small amounts, and so extracting it from 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.959 the soy would be really really inefficient. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.360 So the scientist Impossible new that they couldn't just pull 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.520 the heme straight from the soy. That would kind of 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.439 cause a lot of problems. So they figured out a 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:41.600 way to make their own hem. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.520 The way that they do that is actually sourcing the 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:50.199 gene for plant hemoglobin. So like the protein that binds 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.920 iron and blood is also used to buy iron in plants, 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.400 and so they took that same gene and then transferred 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.360 into yeast, and now yeast can start making that rotein 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.360 at high quantities and then that can be used as 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:03.439 an ingredient in the food. 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.679 Okay, I need to break this down a little bit. First, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.199 they find the gene for the plant hemoglobin, where do 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.240 they find that? So in the sixties and seventies, scientists 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.520 used to use a very manual process to break down genomes. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.480 So remember that's all the genetic information in a plant 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.000 or in an organism into these tiny little pieces. And 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.280 then to say which of these pieces has the thing 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:27.160 I'm interested in? 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:28.480 That took forever. 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.200 But now with al Gore's Internet, now I just go 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:32.880 to my computer and type like I want the gene 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:33.640 for insulin, and. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:34.440 Like, whoop, there it is. 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.880 I can actually search those databases now and say like 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.360 I want a hemoglobin gene, Show me all of them, 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.480 and like here's I don't know, a few thousands. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.400 This has really widened the pool of potential genes when 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.000 it comes to sourcing for plant based proteins. 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.840 When it comes to sourcing those genes, it's all of 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.240 biological diversity, right, Like, those proteins can come from any kingdom, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:00.240 any organism, and because of the how much people will 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:04.520 have sequenced and how much sequencing is out there, you 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.400 can source those genes from almost anywhere now and be 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.920 able to access that diversity and learn from it. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.800 So let's say that you've scoured the database and done 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.080 a bunch of tests and you found the gene that 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.880 produced the protein you need to make the perfectly juicy meatball. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:22.400 Then what do you do. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.720 We can take those sequences that are on the computer, 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.120 the digital sequence of the DNA code, and synthesize it 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.480 into actual chemical DNA that now the yeast can read 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.640 and start producing. That yeast now is a factory that 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.120 copies itself, and in a tank that looks like a 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.480 brewery like tank sort of facility, you can have trillions 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.640 of each of these cells, each making their own and 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.360 so like that's where you can actually get to that 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:49.240 level of tons. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.560 This process is called recombinant microbial technology, and it's the 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.240 ability to take genes from one source and put them 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.040 in another organism or plant. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.360 You change the sort of apply chain, right, So now 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.359 instead of having to grow a ton of crops to 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.800 squeeze out the tiny bit of hemoglobe, and you make 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.000 something that makes tons of sugar, you put that into 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.000 the organism that's transforming that sugar into that protein. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.000 This is really clever. Like, I don't think we appreciate 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.680 what scientists are doing here enough. And I'm not just 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.760 saying this because biologists do it. Break it down for 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.440 the people. Zee, If you have a gene that you 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.600 know encodes for a protein, and that protein is only 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.880 made in small amounts, you have to take so much 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.360 of that source material to get enough protein to be useful. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:36.840 You know, many soy plants, we would need to get 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.280 enough hem to make blood for burger king supply of burgers, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.440 a lot of plants. So instead you take that gene 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.840 and you say, I'm going to use something that can 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.920 grow really quickly, turn over really fast, won't really damage 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.680 the environment, and use that to produce the protein I want. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.920 So that's the yeast. They use yeas, So you can 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.040 use microorganisms which are really small. You just got to 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.480 feed them some sugar, you know, a little bit of salt, 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.200 some amino acids, add some water. They're happy. And then 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.240 you like how I make cinnamon rolls. Oh well, I 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.280 would like to add that you are using yeasts in 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.880 your cinnamon rolls, and that's what helps it to puff up. Yes, 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.680 because they're releasing gases. That's what makes your dough rise. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.160 Don't even get me going. So imagine you have huge 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.800 vats of these bacteria or yeasts however they're doing it, 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.320 producing this protein, and then you have a way that 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.000 you can select only the protein and none of the 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.200 other stuff is left behind. And so you just have 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.520 pure protein and a bunch of it, a bunch of it. 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.640 You can make those burgers bleed and sizzle on that grill. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.400 Baby a meat taste. Yeah, just like that. 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.600 And what really surprised me is when doctor Agapak has 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:52.360 told us about this recombinant microbial technology process and the 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.520 fact that it's been around for a while. 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:55.880 She gave us an example. 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.840 One of the most sort of important and kind of 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.240 classic examples of this is how we used to get insulin. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.320 So in insulin for diabetics used to come from the 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.320 pancreases of pigs. And like one of the earliest applications 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.920 of exactly that recombinant technology, the ability to take genes 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.160 and move them around and start thinking about them as 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.160 these different kinds of machines that can be moved into 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.960 sort of microbial factories. Is the gene for human insulin 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.879 being moved into bacteria. So now instead of pigs and 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.440 killing pigs to get insulin, you can get human insulin 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.280 directly from a bacteria that's growing in a tank. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.119 Some people were allergic to insulin from pigs, and I 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.720 would imagine that someone who for religious reasons or dietary 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:48.800 reasons does not want pork anything to enter their body. 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.280 This was probably an issue, and this was a long 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.320 time ago. Did they started doing that synthetic human insulin 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.840 basically insulin produced by bacteria, that was first done in 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.520 nineteen seventy eight's born. 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.560 Okay, so let's get back to heme. This whole process 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.720 we've gone through is just to get one of the 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.000 ingredients for the plant based meat, right, but the majority 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.639 of the patty is still made up of plant proteins 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.040 from peas or soy. 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.760 They're still using plant based protein. They're still using pea 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.600 protein and soy, but they have these features that are 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.200 what we call the especially proteins like heme, which aren't 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.199 present in large amounts. This technology allows you to scale 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:30.840 up how much hem and how much of the rare 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.480 you know, the rare jewels. It's like a power up. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.600 It basically allows you to collect way more, you know, 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:37.399 I don't know if use a place Saga Gena says, well, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.040 let you collect way more rings, and so now you're like, 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.439 I have everything I need to make the ultimate patty. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.120 This is a really great way to kind of tackle 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.119 the supplying demand issue right that we have with animals, 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.280 that we have with food in general. There's a demand 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.879 for food, but the cost to the environment to keep 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:58.880 that supply up is really high. 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.879 Often it is significantly lower impact because the efficiency is different. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.000 So like when you are you know, you take sugar 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.080 and you'd give it to the yeast, the conversion efficiency 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.760 of that yeast into the hem and the volumes that 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.600 you're talking about are much smaller. And similarly, like the 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:20.000 conversion of sunlight to p protein is a lot more 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:24.040 efficient than the conversion of sunlight via grass to cows 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:25.160 to meat protein. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.639 We do have to consider the environment and there are 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.040 a couple of ways that this type of technology has 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.800 an impact. You do have to feed these organisms, so 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.680 it's not like, oh, this doesn't cost us anything. These 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:41.119 organisms don't just like yeast and microbes. Microbes don't just 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.000 produce stuff without any input. There always has to be 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.320 some type of input. I think the convenient or a 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.760 nice thing is that the input is so much lower here. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.920 Do we need to build that, do we need special lines? 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.080 And you know, is there some stuff that's related to 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.040 the industrial nature of this, Yes, but I think the 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.600 industrial footprint and there's a couple of studies that have 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.440 shown this that the industrial footprint is lower than it 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:10.280 is for beef, pork, chicken, chicken. And I think the 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.879 other thing that we should consider is the source of 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.919 these materials a lot easier to harvest team from yeast 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:24.840 making hem than it is hem from big blood and yeah, right, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.719 And I think that we have to acknowledge that, just 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:33.680 like doctor Agapacas said about the insulin, you know, there's 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.840 that added benefit. And so by using this recombinant technology 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.119 to let the microbes create what we need, we then 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.480 don't have to have such an impact on the environment. 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.359 Can you imagine growing all that soy, cutting it all down, 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.600 you know, but only only using such a small part 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.320 of it. Yeah, it was a huge waste. And so 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.800 the scientists have found a way, They've found a cheat code, 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.199 a shortcut to getting us it's the same product, but 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:05.240 with less waste. And I think that is something that 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.760 should not be overlooked, and I actually think this is something, 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:09.359 This is where we're going to head in the future. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.879 Because now what we're talking about is just using this 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.760 technology to make one small component of a larger product. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:18.639 But some people are starting to ask, well, if I 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:20.640 can use the lab to make this one thing, can 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:24.320 I make animal protein in the lab? Can I make 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.560 animal tissue? Can I make Yeah? And so now we're 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.840