Photo credit: University of Fraser Valley
At first blush, cellular agriculture is about reducing our dependence on animals for food. While that remains true, here at New Harvest we have a broader vision for what cellular agriculture can do for the world.
As articulated in our new mission, we want to ensure that cellular agriculture actually delivers on its promises to reduce the impact of protein production on our environment and public health, alleviate food insecurity, and improve our global food system—in addition to ending our dependence on rearing livestock for food. This requires that we understand cultured meat from a cultural, socioeconomic and environmental perspective.
In order to do this, we are collaborating with Dr. Lenore Newman and Dr. Robert Newell at the University of Fraser Valley Food and Agriculture Institute (FAI), who just received a grant from the Future Skills Centre to research the social and economic dimensions of cellular agriculture in a Canadian context.
They will use the British Columbia Fraser Valley region for a case study, exploring the potential of cellular agriculture to enhance food security, economic development, and sustainability in Canada. The researchers will use a community-based approach to engage local government, stakeholders, and community members, and will investigate the viability of creating local cellular agriculture industries in urban, suburban, and rural areas in Canada.
You can read more about this project here.
Experimenting is what we do best and we hope this first endeavor to pursue collaborative opportunities in the social sciences will help us get closer to actualizing the cellular agriculture ecosystem we envision!
