Introduction and Sources of Innovation

“The Rise of Clean Meat”

1. What are the potential advantages of developing clean meat? What were the challenges
of developing it and bringing it to market?

The demand for and supply of meat increases as the population grows. Because of
this, developing clean meat can avoid having a meat crisis, as it solves the problem of
producing meat for the market without the need for more animals to be bred or slaughtered.
People can also have a healthier body since it has fewer calories and is a plant-based
alternative to animals. It also uses less energy and water and emits far fewer greenhouse gases
than regular meat. One of the challenges in developing clean meat is that the environmental
impact of lab-grown meat may be greater than that of livestock in the long run due to the
nature of the gases emitted as well as the energy cost of the infrastructure required for cell
culture, from which clean meat is made.

2. What kinds of organizations were involved in developing clean meat? What were the
different resources that each kind of organization brought to the innovation?

The clean meat movement began with Jason Matheny's non-profit organization, New
Harvest, which studies how to produce meat without using animals. With the help of Willem
van Eelen, a Dutch scientist who invented the cultured meat production method, Matheny was
able to secure investors in the development of meat culturing methods. Dr. Mark Post, a
leading scientist supported by the Dutch government's clean meat investment, was successful
in growing mouse muscles of various poultry. He knew from the start that the idea of
Matheny would work. He proves and manufactures cultured beef burgers that taste like real
meat. Then a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Uma Valeti, got involved in clean meat since she
believed that producing cultured meat could reduce people's consumption of fat-containing
foods where real meat can be obtained. After much trial and error, she finally produced a
cultured meatball with the proper texture, taste, and health benefits over conventional meat.

3. Do you think people will be willing to eat clean meat? Can you think of other products
or services that faced similar adoption challenges?

Yes, some people will be willing to eat clean meat because it is more sustainable and
healthier than real meat. It is more environmentally friendly because it consumes 96 percent
less greenhouse gas emissions, 45 percent less energy, 99 percent less land, and 96 percent
less water. Producing canned goods faced similar adoption challenges to clean meat. Canned
goods preserve food for a longer period than fresh ones and use less energy, but they are also
prone to deadly bacteria and contain too many preservatives that can be bad for our health.