"So, if you listen to the experts, we're to be raising dramatically more animals for food in the future. The only way around that, I think, is through technologies that will render the exploitation of these animals obsolete. I mean, technologies have changed so much about how we live here on Earth today. Instead of whipping horses, we now use bikes and cars. Instead of harpooning whales, we now use electricity. You know, instead of live plucking geese for their quills, we now tap on glass screens to write messages to each other. And all of these technologies at first seemed very foreign." - Paul Shapiro

At Species Unite, we get a lot of email and comments every time we do a news story or a podcast on cultivated meat or new alternative proteins. I think in part because the industry is changing and moving so fast and I think in part because I always assume people know more than they do.

So, we thought it'd be helpful to invite some of the leaders in the space onto a panel to explain where we are, where we're going and what the road to one day having an animal free food system looks like.

This conversation is a live panel that we did a couple of weeks ago with some of the top leaders who are shaping the future of how we eat: Paul Shapiro, the CEO of the The Better Meat Co., and Anne Palermo, the CEO of Aqua Cultured Foods., who both work with fermentation. Isha Datar, the Executive Director of New Harvest, whose work is focused on cultivated meat. Shannon Falconer, the CEO of Because, Animals who is developing cultivated meat for pet food. And Albert Tseng, the CEO of Dao Foods joined us from China, which as a single country consumes 28% of the world's meat. Albert invests in innovators to find solutions for China's food system.

These are a handful of the people who are changing our food system into a much kinder, healthier and planet friendly place, a place without animals, but also one that doesn't require much change on the part of humans who don't want to give up meat. This is the future of food.

Links:

The Better Meat Co

New Harvest

Because, Animals

DAO Foods

Aqua Cultured Foods

Isha Datars TED Talk