Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast

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Larissa Zimberoff, Author of Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat May 25, 2021

Show notes

Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat is available on June 1st. Learn more about the book and pre-order at http://itstechnicallyfood.com/.

Alex Shirazi sits down with Larissa Zimberoff as they discuss startups highlighted in her upcoming book as well as nuances of why and how people eat what they eat! Larissa's Bio, from the book, below.

Larissa Zimberoff doesn’t like to eat on the go but is known to walk miles to sample something delicious. She is an itinerant fruit forager, and will pluck a white loquat, fuyu persimmon, or green apple off any wandering branch. The story she tells friends will be about scaling the fence, and how great that fruit tasted. College years were spent at UCSD, wandering the eucalyptus groves and beaches of San Diego. Eventually, she landed in the Bay Area. Larissa worked in San Francisco’s tech industry for more than a decade, including at Gap Inc, Yahoo!, and Flickr, but found her way out. She moved to New York in 2011, lived on the Lower East Side, and earned an MFA in creative nonfiction from the New School in 2013. She’s written on the promise of fake eggs, the potential of peas, and how artificial intelligence saved a winery. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, and many more. Her passion for technology is matched by an equally precious hope for foods that comes from the natural world. She lives in Northern California, where she’s close to mountain hikes and seaside cycling. This is her first book.

Mike Beveridge of FreshDirect May 20, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by the Black & Veatch NextGen Ag Team. Learn more about Black and Veatch at https://www.bv.com

Mike is a Senior Associate Merchant at FreshDirect, a New-York based online grocer. He joined FreshDirect in 2019 to work in their express, one-hour delivery service, improving the supply chain, buying and merchandising for Meat, Poultry, and Seafood. He took over the Meat and Poultry sourcing and supply chain at FreshDirect in April 2020, right at the start of the COVID pandemic, and spends most of his time on FreshDirect’s four whole-animal programs—Grass Fed Beef, Antibiotic-Free Angus Beef, Pasture-Raised Pork, and Pasture-Raised Lamb.

Mike graduated from Cornell University in the winter of 2016, where he studied Food Industry Management and Environmental Science. Prior to FreshDirect, he worked for Smithfield Foods, where he worked for their Walmart sales team, as well on the Foodservice Marketing team.

Catching up with Didier Toubia of Aleph Farms May 12, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by the Black & Veatch NextGen Ag Team. Learn more about Black and Veatch at www.bv.com

We're excited to welcome Didier Toubia of Aleph Farms back on the show!

Didier Toubia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, a cultivated meat company that is shaping the future of food by growing slaughter-free beef steaks directly from cow cells, preserving natural resources, and avoiding the use of antibiotics. Prior to Aleph Farms, Didier co-founded and led IceCure, which went public in 2010, and served as the CEO of NLT Spine, which was acquired by SeaSpine in 2016. Didier was trained as a Food Engineer and Biologist at Agrusup (Dijon, France) and holds a joint executive MBA from Kellogg (IL, US) and Recanati (Israel).

Sonia Lo of Sensei Ag May 06, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by the Black & Veatch NextGen Ag Team. Learn more about Black and Veatch at www.bv.com

Sonia Lo, Chief Executive Officer, Sensei Ag

Sonia Lo joins the Sensei Ag team with over 32 years of combined agriculture, technology and business experience. Ms. Lo began her career in technology with a UK media conglomerate. She then went on to build her first tech venture as CEO of eZoka Group, a UK-based internet startup that was sold in 2002. Following eZoka, Ms. Lo founded and served as Managing Director of Chalsys LLP, an advisory and direct investment firm which has invested over $120 million in 15 global growth stage companies. From Chalsys, she became the Director of Localization and Global Content for Google, Inc.

Most recently, prior to Sensei Ag, Ms. Lo was CEO of Crop One Holdings, Inc., a vertical farming company that owns FreshBox Farms in Millis, MA and a joint venture with Emirates Flight Catering in Dubai which building one of the world’s largest vertical farms with an anticipated output of three tons per day. Ms. Lo earned her BA in Political Science from Stanford University and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. She also holds Professional Chef and Pastry Qualifications from London and City College and has completed certifications in Green Supply Chain Management and Zero Energy Architecture.

Christie Lagally of Rebellyous Foods with Zack Olson of Black & Veatch Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by the Black & Veatch NextGen Ag Team. Learn more about Black and Veatch at www.bv.com

We are excited to have two fantastic guests on today's episode. Christie Lagally of Rebellyous Foods and Zack Olson of Black & Veatch.

Christie Lagally is the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods, a food production technology company working to make plant-based meat price-competitive with traditional chicken products.

Ms. Lagally is a mechanical engineer and holder of multiple patents in manufacturing technology. She spent much of her career in the aerospace industry working on commercial airplanes and spacecraft in testing, design, and manufacturing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Previously, Ms. Lagally served as a Senior Scientist for the Good Food Institute uncovering the technical barriers in the development of plant-based meat and clean meat (i.e. cultured meat). Ms. Lagally holds Bachelor's degrees in Organizational Psychology and Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

She is also an active member of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, a co-founder of the Humane Voters of Washington (a political action committee) and serves as a Washington State Council Member for the Humane Society of the United States.

Zack Olson is part of the Black & Veatch Growth Accelerator which drives smart, rapid, profitable growth; discovers opportunities; and challenges convention. He is a co-managing director of the Growth Accelerator’s NextGen Agriculture business, and currently leads that engineering team. Throughout his career he has been involved in projects that required developing innovative and cost-effective solutions, in close collaboration with the end client, particularly pertaining to energy performance improvements.

Lou Cooperhouse of BlueNalu Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by the Black & Veatch NextGen Ag Team. Learn more about Black and Veatch at https://www.bv.com.

Lou Cooperhouse is recognized as a leading global authority in food business innovation and technology commercialization, with extensive leadership experiences throughout his 35-year career in the food industry.

He is a results-driven professional, and has led cross-functional teams in a wide array of industry settings that include: multinational corporations, foodservice and retail operations, new business startups, mid-sized and family-run companies, university entrepreneurship and innovation centers, and industry trade associations.

Lou also has considerable expertise in food safety and quality assurance systems, and has provide leadership at numerous FDA and USDA-inspected operations throughout his career, and has conducted third-party audits of dozens of food companies throughout the nation as well. \

Lou received a MS in Food Science and BS in Microbiology, both from Rutgers University, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Rutgers Business School.

Steve Matzke of CP Kelco Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Steve Matzke is Senior Manager of Pioneering Innovation for CP Kelco, a global provider of nature-based ingredients, and he is based in San Diego. Steve received a master’s degree in chemical engineering from UC-Berkeley and has spent the majority of his career in process development and the manufacturing of fermentation-derived ingredients. He has intimate knowledge of large-scale fermentation processes and has spent significant time in all three of CP Kelco’s fermentation manufacturing sites in the U.S. and China. His current focus is in the alternative protein space and how CP Kelco can contribute to this evolving foodscape.

CP Kelco has nearly 90 years of experience serving food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers worldwide. The company unlocks nature-powered success and applies innovation and problem solving to develop tailored solutions for its customers. Pectin, gellan gum and citrus fiber are among the nature-based ingredients in CP Kelco’s portfolio. Learn more at https://cpkelco.com.

Santiago Campuzano - New Harvest Fellowship Series Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

This episode is part of the New Harvest Fellowship Series.

Santiago Campuzano, a former Research Fellow, received his MSc from the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Andrew Pelling. While at the Pelling Lab, Santiago’s research demonstrated how celery can be repurposed as animal-free scaffolding capable of recreating alignment of skeletal muscle cells in vitro. Now residing in Vancouver, Santiago currently works as a Bioengineer at STEMCELL Technologies. Santiago is also an active member of the Open Science Network, a local community lab devoted to educating community members and facilitating multidisciplinary collaborations.

Cameron Semper - New Harvest Fellowship Series Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

This episode is part of the New Harvest Fellowship Series. To learn more about New Harvest, visit https://new-harvest.org.

Cameron is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. His research seeks to leverage protein biochemistry for the advancement of cellular agriculture. Cameron’s work involves using microbes to produce growth factors that can then be used to improve the outcomes of fish cell culture. His other research interests include fungal secondary metabolism and structural biology.

ORIGINAL PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI/POSTMEDIA

John Yuen - New Harvest Fellowship Series Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

This episode is part of the New Harvest Fellowship Series. Learn more about New Harvest at https://new-harvest.org.

John is a fourth year PhD Candidate working on cultured meat in the David Kaplan Laboratory, alongside Andrew Stout, Natalie Rubio, Ning Xiang, Michael Saad and Sophie Letche - a growing cell-ag team! John's goal is to develop scalable techniques to overcome the challenge of oxygen and nutrient delivery to cells within larger tissues. For example, it is often quoted that cells can only survive ~200 microns away from a blood vessel or other source of nutrition (e.g the culture media). This means that even a 1 mm thick tissue might encounter cell viability or survival issues within its core/central region. To address this, John is investigating methods to generate macroscale constructs of muscle and fat via perfused 3D tissue culture strategies. The hope is that methods to support cell survival in larger constructs will enable more advanced muscle and fat tissues to be grown in the future, containing the higher order, macroscale structural organization seen in products such as whole muscle cuts of meat. Imagine the large arrays of aligned muscle fibers seen in steak and chicken breast, etc.

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