Speaker 1: Well, in recent weeks here on Bloomberg Business a week,
Speaker 1: we've talked about plant based food I mean we're talking
Speaker 1: about like impossible foods, and beyond meat and the like,
Speaker 1: we've talked about fungi based foods as well. But what
Speaker 1: about meat that's grown directly from animal cells, so chicken
Speaker 1: and beef that tastes like chicken and beef, but it's
Speaker 1: not actually from animals that have been killed. There's a
Speaker 1: company working on that. It's called Upside Foods. Amy Chen
Speaker 1: is joining us. She's chief operating officer of the company.
Speaker 1: She joins us after this afternoon from San Francisco. Earlier
Speaker 1: this year, the company did raise a huge, seriously funding
Speaker 1: round four hundred million bucks soft bank Tyson Foods, Bill
Speaker 1: Gates Whole Foods among the organizations and people that invested
Speaker 1: in it. Amy, it's good to have you with us.
Speaker 1: How are you. I'm doing great, Thanks so much, and
Speaker 1: happy Monday from California. Yeah, happy happy Monday. Right back
Speaker 1: at you. Okay, how do you guys do this? So
Speaker 1: it's exactly as you described actually, so we take really animals,
Speaker 1: take themselves. From those animals, we essentially select the ones
Speaker 1: that are going to taste the best and grow the
Speaker 1: best UM, and then we feed them something that we
Speaker 1: call self feed or media UM. It's essentially the same
Speaker 1: kind of nutrients that they would normally get inside of
Speaker 1: an animal's body. We just do it in a what
Speaker 1: we call a cultivator, which is like a stainless steel
Speaker 1: tank that you might see in a brewery or in
Speaker 1: a yogurt factory. We allow them to grow, continue feeding
Speaker 1: them UM, and then ultimately are able to harvest meat
Speaker 1: that is as close to the real thing as you
Speaker 1: can possibly get because it's grown from real animal self amy.
Speaker 1: The timing of this segment is perfect because Tim and
Speaker 1: I have been sent in here since too. We're both starving,
Speaker 1: so so we're acent on board with whatever you're you're
Speaker 1: growing there. But I'm curious, you know, when will we
Speaker 1: be able to see this on the market. I understand
Speaker 1: it has to get regulatory approval first, right, That's exactly right, UM,
Speaker 1: and so we are currently pending regulatory approval UM. But
Speaker 1: as soon as it happens, we will be excited to
Speaker 1: start being able to share it more broadly with consumers. UM.
Speaker 1: And on the point of being hungry, I'll share that
Speaker 1: because it's noontime here. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: really convinced me about the potential and the promise of
Speaker 1: cultivated meat was actually the taste of it um growing
Speaker 1: up in the food world, taste of king and Queen
Speaker 1: um and everything in between um sort of table stakes.
Speaker 1: And so when I first had my bite of cultivated meat,
Speaker 1: I can tell you that's the moment when I really believe.
Speaker 1: And when you think about plant based and a lot
Speaker 1: of these other things that require people to make changes
Speaker 1: in their habits. I'm from Texas, UM and I love
Speaker 1: my meat um, and so I have always just wanted
Speaker 1: to be able to think about a way to change
Speaker 1: the world without requiring people to really change their habits.
Speaker 1: And I think does this in a really compelling way. So, Amy, what, okay,
Speaker 1: if you were to be able to buy this in
Speaker 1: this store when you looked at the ingredients, but on
Speaker 1: the box, what would it say? And and also are
Speaker 1: their antibiotics? Are their their chemicals in it? Etcetera. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that's amazing is that it doesn't
Speaker 1: have antibiotics or hormones or some of the things that
Speaker 1: you think about with respect to conventional meat UM. And
Speaker 1: so We're still working on exactly what the label would say,
Speaker 1: but it was really say chickens grown from animal bells
Speaker 1: are cultivated from high quality animal cells. And there's a
Speaker 1: whole range of products that you can imagine, everything from
Speaker 1: a chicken breast or a chicken filet through to a
Speaker 1: sausage or a hot dog. Different products of conventional meat
Speaker 1: would have different labels and so you'd see that same
Speaker 1: kind of thing reflected here. But ultimately the promise is
Speaker 1: that the real cells can be the meat that we
Speaker 1: all love, you know, Amy, I'm wondering if there's the
Speaker 1: potential down the roads even sort of improve on Mother nature,
Speaker 1: you know, and make a steak with less cholesterol, or
Speaker 1: chicken that I don't know comes pre flavored with buffalo
Speaker 1: sauce or something like that. But you're you're just playing
Speaker 1: with God there, alright. But I'm curious, is there, Yes,
Speaker 1: there is there the potential to actually enhance foods and
Speaker 1: make them even healthier and more nutritious than than what
Speaker 1: we're used to. Long term, absolutely, um, I think that's
Speaker 1: something on our roadmap in the horizon. I think in
Speaker 1: the near term we're focused on delivering amazing, delicious meat Um,
Speaker 1: that is safe enough equality and that fits into people's
Speaker 1: diets and into their habits in a way that makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. But absolutely longer term, I mean
Speaker 1: exactly what you say. You could have a steak with
Speaker 1: the atritional profile of salmons, UM or anything else that
Speaker 1: you could imagine in terms of allergies or other issues
Speaker 1: that are currently part of the conventional meat system. Well. Amy,
Speaker 1: speaking of the conventional meat system, a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are vegetarians they don't they don't eat meat, you know,
Speaker 1: for a few reasons, and among those reasons include treatment
Speaker 1: of animals or they're just against killing animals for food. UM,
Speaker 1: what is this type of thing vegetarian friendly? You know,
Speaker 1: it's a great question. UM. I would say absolutely, but
Speaker 1: it probably depends on what kind of vegetarians are UM.
Speaker 1: We have a company that is a mix of passionate
Speaker 1: meat eaters UM and carnivores and folks that are passionate
Speaker 1: vegans and vegetarians. And what we've generally found is that
Speaker 1: people who are vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons or
Speaker 1: environmental reasons, UM will embrace cultivated meat. Folks who are
Speaker 1: maybe vegetarian or vegan for religious reasons or other ones
Speaker 1: may want to take a second look. I was going
Speaker 1: to say, the the environmental footprint of cultivated meat sounds
Speaker 1: like it must be way less than the farm grown version.
Speaker 1: Is that is that safe? Is that a selling point
Speaker 1: of this product? Absolutely? I think one of the pieces
Speaker 1: when you think about what's happening in the future is
Speaker 1: people predict that demand for meat is going to almost
Speaker 1: double by UM. And when you think about the amount
Speaker 1: of land and water, it's about a third that's currently
Speaker 1: used for agriculture, you know, one fifth, one six of
Speaker 1: all greenhouse gasses UM. The world simply cannot sustain the
Speaker 1: kind of demand increases that we're expecting on meat UM.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that's really exciting about
Speaker 1: cultivated meat is because it happens in a controlled environment
Speaker 1: similar to a manufacturing plant UM, it had the potential
Speaker 1: to have a substantially lower footprint UM. There have been
Speaker 1: third party academic studies that have suggested it could be
Speaker 1: as much as a nine reduction relative to be For example, wait, Amy,
Speaker 1: before we let you go, we only have like fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1: How does it taste? Absolutely? Delay, It tastes just like chicken.
Speaker 1: Right there, we go just like a joke, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's true the world of time. Amy Chen is the
Speaker 1: CEO of Upside of Foods. They're working on lab grown meat.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we'll be able to buy it in the stores
Speaker 1: sometime soon.