Focus on Arts and Ecology

Recently, I wrote an article for Impakter magazine about the many issues plant-based and clean meat will help solve. Given the range and severity of these issues, from antibiotic-resistant superbugs to increased impacts of climate change, I argued:

Governments should back the development of plant-based and clean meat, given that these technologies are the clear solutions to huge and imperative global problems. The US government currently puts $3 billion a year into agricultural research. China puts in even more. Imagine if governments used these resources to form plant-based meat and clean meat research centres at universities like MIT, Stanford and other major universities and research centres around the world.

We face many global threats today, but one powerful and simple solution is staring us right in the face: plant-based and clean meat. It’s time for the governments of the world to get on board and help improve the future for current and future generations.

For these reasons, I was thrilled to learn that the Japanese government has invested in Integriculture, a clean meat company in Japan. This financing round will drive construction of their pilot and first commercial plants. Both plants will feature company’s patented “Culnet System,” a general-purpose large-scale cell culture system.

This investment follows investment by the Israeli government into the clean meat startup Aleph. There has also been a lot of interest from the governments of both Israel and India in helping to ensure that plant-based and clean meat are successful.

At GFI, a significant portion of our policy department is focused on working with the U.S. government, explaining to key decision-makers why they should invest in these promising technologies. A key focus of our international engagement is working with governments around the world to steer their resources into plant-based and clean meat as well.

We hope that this latest investment from the Japanese government will inspire other governments to follow their lead. The sooner they do, the sooner we can address the many problems caused by industrial animal agriculture.