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New Harvest Absorbs Cellular Agriculture Canada

We will be elevating and carrying on Cellular Agriculture Canada’s legacy through our work in Canada and beyond.

Published November 25, 2022 | Updated November 25, 2022 | Yadira Tejeda-Saldana

“New Harvest has such a legacy in cellular agriculture. I am thrilled that they will be leveraging their track record and momentum, alongside ours, to accelerate our shared mission in Canada.”

– Avery Parkinson, Executive Director of Cellular Agriculture Canada

I’m excited to share that New Harvest Canada Inc. has absorbed Cellular Agriculture Canada (CAC), the leading cell ag non-profit focused on advancing cellular agriculture up north.

Cellular Agriculture Canada was co-founded by myself, Ahmed Khan, Lejjy Gafour, Valentin and Netta Fulga, and Joshua Errett in 2019.

CAC brought together key players in the Canadian cell ag community for the first time, and focused on projects that mobilized students in the Canadian ecosystem and informed policymakers about cellular agriculture.

Of note were two reports mapping out policy and regulatory considerations in a Canadian context:

First Steps Towards a Regulatory Framework for Cultured Food Products in Canada, from Sept 2020 This white paper was written by Netta Fulga and Yadira Tejeda Saldana from CAC. with support and valuable feedback provided by Ahmed Khan, Jalene Anderson-Baron, Erika Bergeron-Drolet, and government officers from the different regulatory agencies who provided information about current regulatory requirements and approaches.

 

Cellular Agriculture & The Canadian Regulatory Framework, from Dec 2021 was an event on March 4, 2021, with regulators and technical experts from the Canadian government. The event featured individual presentations by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Health Canada, and Environmental and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The event concluded with a panel discussion addressing questions set forth in the CAC white paper. This report serves as a guide summarizing the key points from each of the individual presentations during the “Cellular Agriculture and the Canadian Regulatory Framework” event.

Both documents were prepared with the hopes that they would be a useful tool for cellular agriculture companies in Canada and worldwide.

Canada is a critical piece of the cellular agriculture puzzle – especially in the next phases of growth for the field. As companies start to scale, they will begin buying trainfuls of inputs for cellular agriculture processes – primary inputs likely to come from crops produced in the Canadian Prairies, similar to the Canadian yellow peas for plant-based proteins or the oats for oat milk. Given the alignment to Canada’s desire to diversify its economy and advance value-added agriculture, there is no moment like now to advance cell ag in Canada. 

“As one of the breadbaskets of the world, Canada is well-positioned to become a key leader in the cellular agriculture and the future of food field. It’s great to see Cellular Agriculture Canada join cellular agriculture pioneers New Harvest and accelerate the goal of growing the field in Canada.”

– Ahmed Khan, CAC co-Founder

This blogpost outlines what we see as the Canadian opportunity. Watch this space!


About the Authors
Yadira Tejeda-Saldana is New Harvest's Director of Responsible Research & Innovation - Canada