🦗 Re-inventing the Food Chain
Disrupting French cuisine with plant-based diets, insect protein, & lab grown meat
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Introduction: Paul Bocuse & The French Paradox
You Are What You Eat
Don't Chirp Me, Bro!
Clean Meat & The Uncanny Valley
The Farm to Fork Fallacy
Introduction: Paul Bocuse & The French Paradox
When you think of France, you think of food. Whether you're searching for the best wine and cheese tour for your summer trip to the Rhone Valley or sneering at your younger cousin's "obligatory" baguette selfie under the Eiffel tower during her semester abroad, food is a dominant theme when it comes to experiencing French culture. Part of the reason that traditional French cuisine has such an outsized impact in our collective imagination is because it has, in large part, been a major contributor to modern cuisine in the Western world.
French cuisine is so strictly regimented and organized that infographics often look more like org charts or military hierarchies than your typical foodie's handbook. They've gone so far as to implement laws that regulate what you can and cannot call something based on quality and region. The classic example being that only sparkling wine created in the region of Champagne can be called Champagne. This extends beyond wine to cheese, meats, produce (and more!) and is classified as an Appelation d'Origine Controlée (abbreviated AOC — not to be mistaken with freshman congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez). In spite of their indulgent dietary habits, French health outcomes (specifically heart disease) tend to be better than other countries, a medical mystery called the French Paradox that has led to many a diet fad.
French cuisine varies from region to region, each with their respective traditions and delicacies. Yet most would argue that the heart of French cuisine lives in Lyon. It was Paul Bocuse, a Lyonnaise chef who helped usher in and popularize the era of nouvelle cuisine, a slightly less decadent (and calorie-rich) version of traditional French cuisine. The man is a legend with accomplishments abound:
a 55-year streak with a 3-star Michelin restaurant
awarded the Légion d'honneur
cooked for the President
helped design the menu for the first Concorde flight
has the most prestigious cooking award (Bocuse d'Or — “gold Bocuse”) in his namesake
The Paul Bocuse Institute is the leading higher education program for hospitality and gastronomy
I bring up Paul Bocuse for two reasons. One is that he simply had such a profound impact on French cuisine which is a topic we will explore today. But also because he represents what we might consider the "old guard" of French gastronomic culture and I think he serves as a litmus test for evolutions in food science today and whether or not they will be palatable to the broader public.
In this piece, we will take a deeper look at the food we eat, where it comes from and the ethical, ecological and economic consequences of our appetites. I will, of course, remind you of some of the scary statistics you've seen in your latest documentary film binge on factory farming, but the main course today is really on where we go from here and which solutions are best aligned with our goals for sustainability, animal welfare and well, taste. We'll focus on the tech companies ushering in a new era of innovation around what and how we consume.
Bon Appétit!
You Are What You Eat
“In 25 years, no one in America will play football and no one in America will eat red meat.”
— Malcolm Gladwell
Asked about his predictions for the future, Malcolm Gladwell uttered the above quote to a stunned crowd in a Brooklyn theater. This was in 2010. To my European readers, not to worry, he's referring to American Football — the kind where players rarely use their feet but often get concussed. Threatening one of America's most popular sports is one thing, but the thought of a (mostly) meatless nation seemed laughable at the time. What was preposterous just a decade ago is starting to materialize. For football, the underlying logic should have been patently obvious: science has proven that head injuries are bad, therefore young people will stop playing and it will choke off the talent pipeline over time. But for red meat, the insight wasn't as straightforward. America is a nation of BBQ, beef jerky and freedom. How in the hell is that going to change in a couple of decades?
Well, it's happening. And not just in the US. Before we get into the underlying political, economic and ethical drivers for these behavioral shifts, let's review the companies pioneering these efforts in France.
I've broken down the alternative food landscape into two primary categories:
Livestock feed
Food for human consumption
It should be noted that the feed consumed by the cattle that ultimately become your boeuf bourguignon is essentially up-cycled into something that is human-digestible and of higher value nutritionally. Which is to say, you are what your cow eats. But we'll get to this concept later on…
The secondary breakdown is on the spectrum of Supplier (B2B) and Consumer Brand (D2C). Thus far, most fall into one category or the other, with one exception, Algama, who is playing both sides. Most readers will be familiar with plant-based meat alternatives. Old school examples like Tofurky (tofu-based, turkey substitute) or more modern powerhouses like Impossible Foods & Beyond Meat (IPO'd in May 2019).
My intuition is that France has lagged somewhat on the innovative consumer good front because of their food culture. Meat is yet to be demonized and is in fact a core part of the French diet. The typical French person consumes 108 grams of fat from animal sources per day compared to just 72 grams in the US (2002 Data Set: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Since there is less demand for tasty alternatives, there are naturally fewer companies experimenting with delicious, consumer-facing brands. Two exceptions I discovered were Les Nouveaux Affineurs & Les Nouveaux Fermiers who are making plant-based cheese & meat substitutes, respectively. Turning cashew and soy into cheese commensurate in flavor and mouthfeel to that of a genuine brie requires artisanship, but it appears they are bridging the gap and finding some converts (aka customers).
Culturally, we've come around to the idea of plant-based alternatives. There's no longer the "yuck" factor associated with a veggie burger that inevitably resulted from a lack of innovation in the space. Higher demand, scientific research and incremental investment has made it so the veggie alternative is not only an attractive choice, but for some people a moral imperative. We've proven we can adjust to new norms, but the further we get from our traditional palette, the higher the bar for normalization.
One step further outside of the palatable comfort zone is algae. In some cultures, it's a common ingredient (think seaweed salad in Japan), but for some it still feels a bit foreign. This is where Algama shines. They've blended the biotech, research and consumer branding process in what has become a pipeline for the newest algae-based alt foods. They do research, creating algae-based building blocks for recipes, and then get them to market by partnering with aspiring plant-based brands or by creating their own! I wrote a thread on them a while back so I'll save on word count and link below.
These plant-based alternatives might stretch the imagination of hardcore carnivores, but to me, the real test starts even further down the food chain. We'll begin at the bottom (insect protein) and then work backwards to pre-food chain innovation (i.e. lab grown meat) which presents unique epistemological challenges.
Don't Chirp Me, Bro!
Insect protein has been consumed for ages and is quite common in many parts of the world, namely Southeast Asia. While the French are no strangers to eating atypical foods (snails, frog legs) it takes a fairly sophisticated marketing campaign to sway public opinion on insects. One of the first times I encountered the phenomenon was with cricket flour protein bars made by a university classmate. He would later go on to scale the business and sell for an undisclosed amount (see: Exo). The target audience — health-conscious athletes and weightlifters — is a demographic that makes sense: they tend to be more willing to experiment with alternative nutritional supplements seeking the elusive gains that were previously unattainable. In essence, this wasn't outside the box for your typical gym rat (or should I say, meat head?). But to reach a wider audience, there was some education required. As it turns out, insects pack a punch of protein and nutrients and the ratio of crickets to protein (as well as their water intake, food consumption and emissions) is significantly better than that of cows. Nevertheless, it's been a challenge to convince the Western world to incorporate insect protein into their diet, no matter how abstracted away the creepy crawler is from your plate, as is the case with cricket flour.
Which is why two of the dominant players in the space, Ynsect and Innova Feed have set their sights on creating sustainable, insect-based livestock feed. It wasn't until January 13th, 2021 that Ynsect shared the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announcement that mealworms (one of their primary protein sources) was approved for human consumption. These two companies have raised over €400M combined. Literally as I'm writing this, Agronutris, another sustainable bioconversion company just raised a €100M round, putting the three leaders at a combined total of over half a billion euro in funding.
My guess is that this is just the beginning for insect protein. A convergence of sustainability and land-use concerns combined with improved science, affordability and taste is a powerful force for change. Not to mention the high nutrition ratio. While I'm confident we can come to terms with eating bugs, the next frontier starts to play with our very notion of food.
Feedback is a gift 🎁 What do you think so far?
👍 😐 👎
Clean Meat & The Uncanny Valley
If you thought the marketing campaign for crickets was a tall order, wait until you see how people react to "lab grown meat." Many companies have taken measures to disguise this fact or "rebrand" its origin, opting for cultured or cell-based or clean meat. The lab grown meat products are fascinating for several reasons. First and foremost, is the science (see the video links at the end). But the cultural phenomena that results is even more bizarre. For one, this is a practice that is supported by PeTA, which makes sense. This is ethically more humane than slaughtering animals. But PeTA (and their activists) tend to be grouped together with radical vegans, environmentalists, anti-fur demonstrators etc. In a way, the two groups seem conjoined at the hip, but I can't quite imagine a vegan, marxist living in a commune in Brooklyn switching back to meat just because it didn't come from a slaughtered animal. I suppose that's a bigger sociological debate!
Let's turn to something more pragmatic, which is the problem of convincing people to eat this stuff. The visceral reaction you see in videos when asked if people would consider eating "lab grown meat" aligns quite neatly with a problem we see in AI and robotics: The Uncanny Valley.
"In aesthetics, the uncanny valley is a hypothesized relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The concept suggests that humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble actual human beings provoke uncanny or strangely familiar feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. "Valley" denotes a dip in the human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica's human likeness."
There are many theories as to why we have a response like the Uncanny Valley including:
mate selection (should I do sex with this thing?)
mortality salience (is this thing going to kill me?)
and pathogen avoidance (will this thing make me sick?)
of which the latter is most relevant for a lab-grown hamburger. It comes down to the question: what is meat? Organically speaking, a lab-grown burger patty is more of a burger than a plant-based replacement. But human nature isn't as convinced. To emerge from the Uncanny Valley we need to get the perfect replica of taste, look & feel. But I assume the easiest path forward is to mask the fact that it was "man-made" and people will eventually dig right in.
There is another pertinent point that we need to address: cost. That tiny little burger pictured above, it cost $325K to architect! As with all new technologies, there are heavy up-front R&D costs and then down the line economies of scale. Some call it the "green premium" in the case of alternative products designed with environmental impact in mind. Obviously, no one is going to pull up to McDonalds and take out a briefcase full of cash to get their double quarter pounder. Just a year after that first lab grown burger was served, they were able to reduce the cost to $10 per unit. Price parity is an important variable, but as you can see, the curve below projects cell-based meat to cross this threshold around 2032. That doesn't mean people will only consume it once it's at parity with the regular stuff. In fact, people willingly pay a premium for all kinds of things, including greener, healthier dining options. That said, the price factor plays a role in company strategy, and happens to be a competitive advantage for Gourmey, a French startup working to bring the very first lab-grown foie gras to market!
In my opinion, Gourmey is the perfect intersection of all the topics we've covered today. And it's uniquely French. Food is a complex subject. When we talk about food we are talking about culture, environmental impact, personal taste, animal rights, macro-economic policy, health etc. Gourmey has positioned itself to tackle a multitude of problems associated with food production and simultaneously get to "price parity" faster than say a burger. Why? Foie gras is already expensive and quite famously a food of the bourgeoisie. Which means the dotted line in the graph above is moved upward, shifting the intersection left, closer to the present. While foie gras may be delicious and culturally significant, it's also one of the most inhumane harvesting processes. If you weren't aware, foie gras is fatty goose or duck liver. But the way they make it is through force feeding the waterfowl by sticking a tube down their throat until they are essentially immobile. If you're curious, you can see the gritty details elsewhere, I'll spare my queasy readers. Gourmey is essentially developing their foie gras replacement using duck egg cells. If they can get past the uncanny valley, they are well situated to go to market by minimizing price disparity. Plus, they've got the added value of eliminating animal cruelty.
Food science and nutrition is advancing daily. Diet fads and health trends shift regularly. But drivers like climate change and animal welfare have become fixed in the cultural zeitgeist and will be critical factors for getting these products to market. I'm excited to witness the incredible advancements in science and to experience human civilization step back from the brink as we consider our future.
The Farm to Fork Fallacy
I've adopted my personal mantra from Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food whose thesis can be summarized with this quote:
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
— Michael Pollan
Food is core to our survival as a species. As a child, you were likely taught about the food chain (and how we sit on top of it), the various food groups, and the value of a balanced diet. For millennia, we've harnessed the power of nature and invented tools and technology to transform food from a daily concern as we wander the planet into the foundation of civil society and economic growth. Over centuries, we've built an industry around food production with unprecedented efficiency, yet we've coupled it with unprecedented waste.
On a global scale, food production contributes to about 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, but it's not all methane cow burps. There are questions of land use, water conservation, ethical working conditions, shipping and transportation, and animal cruelty. All worth looking into. But based on my findings, the biggest crime is food waste (a topic for a future article). ⅓ of all food in the United States is thrown out (most of which isn't meat by the way). And it's the economic powerhouses, not the developing nations that are responsible for the majority of emissions. There are lots of factors at play here. And it's worth examining them closely to figure out how we can find solutions at the individual and macro-level. Most people I know want to reduce their carbon footprint. It's a noble cause that I think everyone should consider, even if passively. Diet is just one component at play here. I encourage all readers to do your homework, vote according to your findings, make personal choices with outsized impact and contribute constructively to the dialogue.
Here are some cool resources I came across during my research if you feel the desire to go deeper:
Inside the Quest to Make Lab Grown Meat —Wired [via YouTube]
Eating Less Meat Won't Save the Planet, Here's Why — What I've Learned [via Youtube]
Oatly, The New Coke — via Almanac
Alternative Proteins, The Race is On — McKinsey Report
The Future of Meat, Explained — Vox + Netflix [Season 2, Episode 8]
How to Make Lab Grown Meat — Every Cell a Universe [YouTube]
2 Chainz Tries a $130 Lab Grown Chicken Nugget | MOST EXPENSIVEST