Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Cultured meat needs a race to mission not a race to market

The burgeoning field of cultured meat is racing to achieve the minimal standards required for market access. We argue that the focus must shift to a higher, mission-based standard based on transparency and collective processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Thinking About the Future of Food Safety – A Foresight Report (FAO, 2022).

  2. IPCC Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Shukla, P.R. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2022).

  3. Philpott, T. Is lab meat about to hit your dinner plate? Mother Jones (2 August 2021); https://go.nature.com/3zYopy3

  4. Mohorčich, J. & Reese, J. Appetite 143, 104408 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Mohorčich, J. What Can Biofuel Commercialization Teach Us About Scale, Failure, and Success in Biotechnology? (Sentience Institute, 2019).

  6. Messmer, T. et al. Nat. Food 3, 74–85 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hopkins, P. D. & Dacey, A. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 21, 579–596 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ong, K. J. et al. Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 20, 5421–5448 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fraeye, I. et al. Front Nutr. 7, 35 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Sinke, P. & Odegard, I. LCA of Cultivated Meat - Future Projections for Different Scenarios (CE Delft, 2021).

  11. Steinwinder, T. et al. Process Design of Wastewater Treatment for the NREL Cellulosic Ethanol Model (NREL, 2011).

  12. Santo, R. E. et al. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 4, 134 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Humbird, D. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 118, 3239–3250 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Risner, D. et al. Foods 10, 3 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Stephens, N. et al. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 78, 155–166 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Chiles, R. M. et al. Agric. Hum. Values 38, 943–961 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Mazzucato, M. Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (Harper, 2021).

Download references

Acknowledgements

D. Holmes, Y.T.-S., B.D. and I.D. would like to thank New Harvest’s donors for allowing us to focus on the long road to mission-driven impact. J.D. would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for support for his research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

D. Holmes, Y.T.-S. and B.D. conceived and designed the paper; D. Holmes, D. Humbird and J.D. wrote the body; and Y.T.-S., B.D. and I.D. substantially edited the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dwayne Holmes.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

D. Holmes, Y.T.-S., B.D. and I.D. report that they are full-time employees of New Harvest, a donor-funded, 501(c)(3) research institute working to maximize the positive impact of cellular agriculture. D. Holmes was employed previously by Mosa Meat BV, from 2019 to 2021. D. Humbird and J.D. declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Food thanks Christopher Bryant and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Holmes, D., Humbird, D., Dutkiewicz, J. et al. Cultured meat needs a race to mission not a race to market. Nat Food 3, 785–787 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00586-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00586-9

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research