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Mitchell Scott | CULT Food Science
61 Plays1 month ago
Thanks for listening to Aisle 42, in this episode we chat with Mitchell Scott, CEO of Cult Food Science, to explore the cutting edge of cultivated and lab-grown foods.
We dive into the promise and challenges of cellular agriculture, including cultivated meats, seafood, and innovative uses of mushroom-based proteins.
Mitchell explains the science behind bioreactors, the regulatory and market hurdles, and the growing demand for ethical, sustainable protein alternatives.
Throughout the conversation, Mitchell shares his passion for building a future of food that’s delicious, safe, and environmentally sustainable.
To learn more go to https://www.cultfoodscience.com/ and https://www.thebetterbutchers.com/.
To learn more about how we scale food and beverage companies go to: https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/
Here's a summary of this interview:
Mitchell is excited about the potential of cultivated and lab-grown meat to revolutionize the food system and reduce reliance on factory farming.
Cellular agriculture involves taking animal cells and growing them in bioreactors to create real meat, milk, or even chocolate without harming animals.
Cult Food Science has invested in 19 portfolio companies, giving investors access to early-stage opportunities in cultivated foods.
The regulatory landscape varies globally: Singapore leads with early approvals, while Canada’s process is more complex and slower.
Mitchell’s mushroom-based company, The Better Butchers, launched a mushroom-pea protein blend that’s in high demand.
Cultivated fat is seen as a key piece to improving the taste and texture of plant-based foods—prototypes are already in the works.
Mitchell sees Europe, Israel, and Singapore as major hubs for cultivated protein innovation.
The conversation also touches on the future of cultivated seafood and the significant role of food safety in lab-grown products.
Mitchell believes the best way to shift perceptions is through taste: delicious products that surprise and delight consumers.
Plant-based and cultivated foods are here to stay, driven by consumer demand for more ethical, sustainable protein options.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Cultivated and Lab-Grown Foods
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Aisle 42.
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Hour 42. In this episode, we chat with Mitchell Scott, CEO of Cult Food Science, to explore the cutting edge of cultivated and lab-grown foods. We dive into the promise and challenges of cellular agriculture, including cultivated meats, seafood, and innovative uses of mushroom-based proteins.
00:00:27
Speaker
Mitchell explains the science behind bioreactors, the regulatory and market hurdles, and the growing demand for ethical, sustainable protein alternatives. Throughout the conversation, Mitchell shares his passion for building a future of food that's delicious, safe, and environmentally sustainable.
The Potential and Excitement for Cellular Agriculture
00:00:44
Speaker
Okay, let's get into it with Mitchell from Cult Food Science, because the future of food starts now.
00:00:51
Speaker
Mitchell, we've circled each other for a long time now and finally able to connect and hit record, which is great. I'm glad we're doing this. To kick things off, my first question is this.
00:01:02
Speaker
What's one change in the food system that would excite you the most? Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. It's been a pleasure, you know, circling you over the years. For me, I think one thing I'm really, really excited about is cultivated or lab-grown meat and all the kind of enabling technologies around that in the kind of cellular agriculture ecosphere.
00:01:23
Speaker
I just think they really have a ton of potential to transform our food system globally. to move us away from factory farming and all these destructive practices, but to still deliver products that you know are the exact same on a cellular level, that looks the same, that tastes the same, and you know hopefully very soon be at a price point where it's competitive you know or cheaper than you know conventionally produced animal products.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. That's exactly what I thought you'd say. So you're bang on. But let's so let's stay wide here before we drill
Beyond Meat: Expanding Cellular Agriculture to Dairy and Chocolate
00:01:54
Speaker
down. And we got a nerd out on what is cellular agriculture? What is cultivated meat?
00:02:01
Speaker
Exactly. I think a lot of people feel like it's the dark arts, you know, the voodoo of of the meat and protein world and of the laboratory world. So maybe you can demystify this for us.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, to to massively simplify, you know, 10 years of of science plus, um you know, you can take a a chicken feather or or a piece of DNA for an animal, a cell for milk or whatever.
00:02:27
Speaker
um You can put it in this giant bioreactor. You can feed it nutrients. And after a few weeks, you can have a piece of meat. It's obviously much more complex than that. But that is kind of the premise of it. So it's gonna look the same, it's gonna taste the same, it's gonna be identical on a cellular level, but you haven't raised and killed an animal to produce that piece of meat or that animal product.
00:02:48
Speaker
And you know it's not just kind of center of plate proteins and meats, you know there's dairy, ah even like honey and chocolate. So about 80% of the world's chocolate supply is under a threat from global warming, deforestation.
00:03:01
Speaker
you know You've probably seen the cocoa prices have been you know skyrocketing lately. It's a very real you know threat that in 10 years, there's no more chocolate that they you know could be produced on earth.
00:03:11
Speaker
So product types like that as well, people are figuring out how to make them in a lab. And I think it absolutely sounds scary at first, but then you think, like how are these products being produced currently? And you look at what's happening.
00:03:22
Speaker
like There's not a lot of hacke happy cows out there, especially in North America. 95% plus of the meat is factory farmed.
Understanding Bioreactors and Production Methods
00:03:29
Speaker
So if you look at the alternative of how meat, cheese, eggs, all these animal products are being made versus, you know, let's make them in a sterile environment and be able to ensure that they're clean, that they're healthy, you know, that these products are are safe.
00:03:41
Speaker
I think it'll take some getting used to, but i think it's very compelling as a long-term solution to feed this kind of growing demand for protein, right? where Our meat demand is going to double in the next 30 years worldwide.
00:03:52
Speaker
And we just can't keep building more factory farms and really scaling this really inefficient and, you know, disgusting practices, to be honest. Okay, so bioreactor, that sounds a lot like my daughter's crafting table in Minecraft. So yeah what what the heck is a bioreactor?
00:04:09
Speaker
So it's essentially like, it's just a big metal tank. It's a fancy way of saying big metal tank. You know, they they use them for brewing beer. You know, it's got various pieces that are a part of that, but that's really just big stainless steel tank with, you know, some technology inside it that's going to help, you know, help help these products, create these products.
00:04:27
Speaker
So when you say it's... it's growing meat? Are we talking about sort of a ah sludge-like substance that then can be processed or kind of formed into something? Or what is it what is it growing?
00:04:40
Speaker
It depends on on what they're what they're trying to grow. I think you know there's a whole bunch of different applications. There's companies working on stakes. So you know over time, you know these these meat particles are going
Market Evolution and Technological Advancements
00:04:51
Speaker
to start attaching to these kind of scaffolds and creating structure and form.
00:04:56
Speaker
But it absolutely does start out as as a bit of a you know ah some sort of you know wetter mix and then gets further gets structured and can get you know processed and turned into something more tangible. It's fascinating.
00:05:08
Speaker
It really is. I think it was, you know, I was hearing things back in the days around, it actually wasn't that long ago you know, where alternative proteins and, you know, there's a lot of technology into insects. And obviously we know about pulse proteins and all these different ways.
00:05:22
Speaker
And means that, you know, sort of the natural world, you know, without laboratory science can produce some of these alternatives. However, I like how you brought up this demand for,
00:05:33
Speaker
animal products. When I think about places like Alberta, maybe politically or some sort of on an industry level, the idea of Canadian, you know, beef being raised in, in Alberta, that, that makes sense to a lot of people that kind of get it. Well, I read a Globe and Mail article and had some photographs of what some of these feedlots look like in Southern Alberta, where they're just concrete pads in the open sun where cows' lives are obviously really, really dire, and it's a very difficult place to manage all of the waste. And it just, that's not sustainable. We can't make parking lots full of cows and poop in order to make hamburgers and steaks. So when I think about some of the technologies you're referring to, I'm like, well, I get it. It does feel a little bit like the dark arts, but it's like, I get it.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's you know a big part of the problem. It's like everyone loves this, site or a lot of people love this idea of a happy cow, it's running in the grass, you know and then it has a great you know end of life and ends up as the the best tasting burger they've ever had or whatever.
00:06:38
Speaker
But the reality is just that there's so much demand for protein in Canada and globally as well, that you can't replicate that happy cow on a farm and then also i get it at a price point that you know that everyone's going to be able going to be able to pay, right?
00:06:52
Speaker
The government's already subsidizing these industries and yet you still have kind of prices skyrocketing. So yeah, I think we need to to figure out a new way to produce these products um no that we've come to love.
00:07:03
Speaker
And I think you know I think cultivated meat is a a part of that. I think plant-based protein has a role in that. you know I think a lot of the and first products in the kind of cell-ed cultivated meat space are going to be blends. So it's going to be maybe 90% to 95% plant-based protein, and then a little bit of cultivated meat or cultivated fat to just kind of level it up as a as a product, make it that much tastier,
00:07:25
Speaker
juicier, better. think those are going to be some of the first products starting to hit the market. And you already see in places like Singapore, even in the US, there's products almost hitting the market, either as tastings or limited releases.
00:07:36
Speaker
So it's going to come along sooner than we thought. But it's also, you know, it's come a long way. You know, 10 years ago, the first lab-grown meat burger cost about 400,000 Canadian to make that same company is making that same burger now for about 20 bucks.
00:07:49
Speaker
So it's an expensive burger still, but it's, it's really come a long way. um And I think it's going to continue to accelerate, you know, over the coming years. That's, that's really interesting.
00:08:00
Speaker
So the some of the work you're you're the CEO of Cult Food Science. You're identifying and supporting startups that align with what you guys are doing in the cultivated food space.
00:08:11
Speaker
um So what are you building there with that group? Like, why should investors and decision makers within the food value chain be paying attention to what you guys are up to? Yeah, so I've been in the role at Cult Food Science, I guess a year and a half or so now.
00:08:26
Speaker
And, you know, Cult was started about four four years or so ago with this relatively simple idea. And that was that there's this exciting new area of food tech, which we've just been talking about for the past 10 minutes. So ah cultivated or lab grown meat, precision fermentation, all under this kind of area of cell ag, cellular agriculture.
00:08:46
Speaker
You know, over the past five years, private money has... poured into the space. you know The three Bs are all invested, Bezos, Ransom, Billy Boy, Gates. And you've got some of the top you know VCs in the world are all all putting money into this space.
00:09:00
Speaker
And our thought was, let's go and make you know a bunch of early stage bets on this space. So we you know raised three or 4 million, deployed that across 19 different portfolio companies, really looking for the most interesting, exciting companies in CELAG around the world at the time, you know investing alongside some of these big names.
00:09:18
Speaker
And then we thought, let's take this VC fund, instead of just kind of sitting on it and waiting our eight to nine years, let's go public with that vehicle and allow everyday investors exposure to this exciting new space.
00:09:32
Speaker
So that was the initial idea behind Cult. um So you know public on the CSE and That was great and realized that you know we're still we've got these investments, we're supporting our portfolio companies, helping
Navigating Regulatory Challenges
00:09:44
Speaker
them with PR, this, that.
00:09:45
Speaker
But we're we're only majority minority owners. We own you know usually 2% 8% of these companies. So our thought was, how can we make more of an impact? How can we accelerate this transition towards a new business?
00:09:57
Speaker
way of of producing products, of eating. um So we started getting a bit more active in the space. We acquired a pet food brand that we're majority owners of. So we're kind of starting to actively operate that brand, leverage our portfolios portfolio companies' technology as ingredient suppliers, put that into the pet food, and really just try to... people you know I think a big piece of it is education. So educate people on what this space is, why you know they they should pay attention to it, and just kind of start shifting our food system towards one that is more encompassing of these types of ah technologies and solutions.
00:10:34
Speaker
And you must find yourself leaning into some of the policy stuff, the regulatory stuff, some of those market challenges. um Dare I say it this way, you're probably on the bleeding edge of those conversations. What's that been like to navigate?
00:10:47
Speaker
It's been interesting. You've seen a big mixture kind of across the board. you know Singapore was very early with a lot of approvals, so a lot of companies set up you know headquarters there. The US is a bit of a mixed bag. you know They've approved at the federal level.
00:11:00
Speaker
You've got a couple states have come out but outright banning cultivated meat. There's legal challenges on on both sides. you know We've done done a bit of policy work, you know wrote a few open letters, et cetera.
00:11:12
Speaker
And you know here in Canada, it's more like there just isn't a ton of activity in the space as of yet. ah You've got a lot of companies funded out of the Silicon Valley, so they're going to focus on the US market first in terms of regulatory.
00:11:24
Speaker
you know The States is building out this regulatory framework for that, whereas in Canada, it just kind of falls under their their novel food ingredient pathway. So you've kind of got two-year process there that a lot of companies aren't, if they're based in the States or Singapore, they're not even going to bother going there Canada yet because they're focused on the US first. It's such a huge market. It's going to take them 10, 20 years to even be able to produce enough product to meet that demand there.
00:11:47
Speaker
So ah it's been interesting kind of trying to figure out you you know where countries land, where different jurisdictions land, and kind of what is required to to move it forward to get it you know these types of products approved for sale.
00:12:00
Speaker
And so often the innovation sort of journey is starts in Europe, goes to the US and then eventually ends up in Canada. And we're all surprised. What's it been like on the cellular agriculture and cultivated meat like in Europe? How are they responding to this technology?
00:12:17
Speaker
So you have like a little bit mixed. Singapore was definitely like the the first place where it was, you know one of the first places. um You've got a lot of stuff in the Netherlands. There's a cultivated meat company that's that's selling pet food now out of the UK.
00:12:31
Speaker
Israel is a bit of a hub as well. So I think you have certain countries in Europe that are are making and advancements and kind of navigating these these regulatory hurdles and trying to bring products to market. And then you also obviously have the US where a lot of the companies get funded out of and, you know, we're started.
00:12:46
Speaker
And let's talk about mushrooms for a second, because you have been making a mushroom product with a brand that a lot of people are sort of really taking notice of over the last, maybe it feels like the last six months.
00:12:59
Speaker
It's certainly getting a lot of traction. And I had one of your, was it your chorizo? do I call it meatball? am I allowed to use meat? Do I have to use air quotes? but it was ah it was a protein-rich mushroom-based ball. It was so good. It was delicious. Yeah.
00:13:15
Speaker
So yeah, so that's a company called The Better Butchers. And we started it, i guess, three years ago. And our initial focus there was cultivated or lab-grown meat. you know We did a bunch of of research, some some partnerships with universities in Canada.
00:13:28
Speaker
We got a year or two into it, and we realized there's still so much work to do. you know We've got two or three plus more years of R&D, a couple years of regulatory. you know We're five or six years away from having a product in the market.
00:13:39
Speaker
What can we do in the meantime to build out sales and distribution, to build a customer base. And we were really interested in what is going on in the kind of mushroom protein world.
00:13:50
Speaker
um So we found an ingredient, it's a blend of oyster mushrooms and pea protein. So kind of like a ah part mycelium type ingredient. So it's got a lot of the benefits of mushrooms in terms of you know high fiber, complete amino acid profile.
00:14:04
Speaker
And then it's got this really clean taste. So it doesn't have that pea protein aftertaste that you have to add a bunch of stuff to to mask or to hide. So yeah, I mean, our our head of product development came up with this incredible product. And we we're like, wow, you know what, this is this is better than what we thought was better than what else is out there, better than what we were finding down in the States on research trips.
00:14:21
Speaker
So we said, okay, let's launch it. And yeah, launched a year ago, kind of at CHFA, chorizo, which you had natural and an Italian. And we are struggling to keep up with demand. So we can't make enough of it right now.
00:14:33
Speaker
So just trying to navigate that. journey of scaling and growing and not growing too fast and you know building um that that brand and that business. Longer term, we'd love to integrate cultivated meat and you part mushroom, part cultivated meat, see that kind of hybrid product as I was speaking to earlier. But for now, we've got this what we think is this next generation of plant-based products that you know super clean ingredient deck, high in protein, and more importantly, you know delicious and satiating.
00:15:02
Speaker
And does the cultivated fat component, is that the same category as the meat you have to wait just as long for that piece of the puzzle to be available? Because that seems like it a wonderful solution to a lot of plant-based products that are typically kind of dry or like you talked about the pea protein is often like, oh, well, I like the spirit of it, but now I need three glasses of water to choke this thing down. And an actual fat would be a lot more enjoyable if that was worked into the product.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, so we've got ah a partnership with a cultivated fat company out of Canada. I think, you know, in some some ways it's easier to create cultivated fat than it is meat or at least a steak, but there's still scaling scaling challenges, product formulation challenges, regulatory challenges.
00:15:48
Speaker
So, you know, maybe I was saying earlier, it was going to take us five years, maybe with this partnership, and we could do cultivated fat. I don't want to put a number on it but maybe it's less, it's like two or three. We're hoping to have prototypes this year um of a blended product.
00:16:00
Speaker
mushroom, if it'll be a meatball or a burger, but a product you know with this cultivated fat, but that's still just a prototype that we then have to refine and
Consumer Demand and Sustainability in Food Service
00:16:10
Speaker
you know either take the regulatory, figure out, scale up all these different pieces.
00:16:13
Speaker
But I think, it absolutely can solve a big piece of that dryness, some of that taste you know concerns as well, and really just kind of boost, make the product that much better so that people are actively going out and choosing it as their preferred protein for whatever, for tacos or for whatever their use cases. i you know They actually like that more than the ground meat that they mix in the pan with the taco seasoning or or whatever they they normally do.
00:16:38
Speaker
I remember it was in 2022, I was at Expo West in Anaheim at the big food trade show. And mushrooms were all the rage. People were making everything out mushrooms. Mushrooms were in a bunch of stuff. And it was a little, it felt early. It felt like, oh, I don't know if this mushroom is helping.
00:16:55
Speaker
And I remember trying for the third time in one day, I tried, you know, ah yet again, another mushroom jerky. And it was just like, i I knew you were going to say mushroom jerky because it was everywhere, right? Everyone was doing mushroom jerky. and And after the third time, I'm like, you know what? My jaw is tired.
00:17:12
Speaker
It's not worth it. It was not wasn't worth it. It was really unpleasant. But yet now there's so many more brands that are introducing higher quality mushrooms or mushroom formulations that are actually add texture, add texture.
00:17:25
Speaker
flavor and actually make the product better. So it's neat to see that evolution that, so now when we see something that's a little unfamiliar or a little weird or a little whatever, we can go, well, okay, it's early. Maybe it will get there.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe it'll get refined. And I think, You know, a lot of companies, and this is just in food in general and not even just startups, bigger companies as well are putting out innovation that, at least to me, going out there as a potential consumer that, you know, loves the plant-based category and loves all these foods and and stuff, isn't really hitting the mark in terms of taste and texture. And like, I'm so excited for it because it looks great. It ticks all these boxes, but then it's just under delivers from a ah product.
00:18:04
Speaker
And sure, you may, you know, packaging looks good. You can get it on shelves. You'll get a bunch of people trying it, but if they're not coming back and buying every you know every week, then it's tough to build a business around that.
00:18:15
Speaker
um So for us, we're really focused on that product, that experience, and getting customers and you know building velocity, and kind of going deep in our backyard first before and you know troubleshooting any issues before we kind of go too far afield.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. Do you remember that money's mushrooms patty? I grew up came out on those. You put them in the toaster, you buy them at the, yeah, absolutely. They're kind of mushy. and Yeah. I worked at Earl's way back when, when I was a young lad and and they had it on the menu and it was actually one of my favorite burgers. I would smother it in barbecue sauce, cheese, and bacon, just to be clear.
00:18:53
Speaker
But I actually really enjoyed the taste of it. Now I don't remember ever looking at the ingredient deck. Yeah. um Maybe you've looked at that. and That product's not even on the market anymore. But I remember the idea of eating a burger that wasn't beef.
00:19:09
Speaker
And it felt like an outlier. It felt like kind of woo-woo food. But nowadays, when people are standing at their A&W checkout, like you you know at the kiosk or there at really almost any restaurant,
00:19:24
Speaker
the demand for great tasting alternatives is there and it feels like it's growing really quickly. Now, maybe it isn't growing as fast as everyone thought it was going to grow at the grocery store, but when it comes to food service, I see it being very prevalent.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. I think there's definitely a lot of hype like, you know, and Beyond and Impossible were first coming out. And I mean, they did they did grow massively. You know, you you went from ah whatever, like, you know, 2% of the market to significantly more.
00:19:53
Speaker
But I don't think then all of a sudden, all it takes is you know, a bit of a decline. And then, you know, the yeah the big meat lobby jumps all over it and is saying, oh, plant-based is dead. But like what we're seeing is there's still strong demand ah for for good differentiated products in retail, but also in food service.
00:20:11
Speaker
And like growing up, you know, vegetarian and then vegan the past whatever, eight years, it used to be, you know, every, you go into a restaurant and you're having fries or you're having a salad with no dressing.
00:20:22
Speaker
Now, almost every restaurant, even not just the chains like Earl's and Cactus Cup, but almost everyone has a really solid handful of plant-based options that are on their permanent menu just because that that demand there. And I think part of it is definitely a West Coast thing. I think there's you know more of that kind of down the whole West Coast of BC and also you know in the kind of Toronto area as well.
00:20:43
Speaker
But it's really been great to see that shift that's come about, I think as a result of some of those breakthrough products, kind of really just getting more and more people to to have that positive first experience. Like when the Beyond Burger first hit A&W, it's all everyone was talking about, right?
Cultivated Seafood and Industry Challenges
00:20:58
Speaker
And then I'm sure the in the years prior, like I grew up eating not so great veggie burgers and a lot, there was this huge stigma that, you know, plant-based products are bad. So having these kind of breakthrough products that everyone's talking about that kind of are really good in terms of experience and, and you know, the way they're they're presented and delivered, I think opens people up to trying, you know, and maybe not cutting out meat entirely, but putting it into their rotation, do go doing a meatless Monday, just starting to eat more plant-based options in general.
00:21:25
Speaker
And when I think about some of the areas that concern me the most in respect to sustainability and the environment and sort of the longevity of it, the seafood industry really concerns me.
00:21:36
Speaker
Obviously, we've got, you know, a lot of politics around, you know, farming, fish farming here on the West Coast. And, you know, the ocean can only provide us with so much water. When we go back into the laboratory here, what's the future for seafood? Can we cultivate prawns? Can we cultivate fish meat? What can we do from from that perspective?
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think we've got we've got a portfolio company that's the largest at the cul at the largest cultivated seafood producer in the world. So they merged two two companies in the space.
00:22:09
Speaker
I think it's still early. You know, you've had a few plant-based startups in the space that have kind of come and gone. You've got smaller producers. that are doing things locally that are delivering really good kind of plant-based options.
00:22:20
Speaker
um You know, Save to Seafoods out of ah Victoria has some incredible products. I just launched some some new tuna and stuff and spreads. But I think on a larger scale, in some cases, like from a cultivated meat standpoint, it's it's easier to cultivate fish just because of the the type of meat it is. Like you're not, I think the hardest is is definitely a stake with the marbling and the the different layers and all that kind of stuff.
00:22:42
Speaker
Whereas i want to say anything's relatively straightforward, but I think you know within the next few years, we're going to start seeing cultivated fish products hit the market and them being very close to the real thing.
00:22:54
Speaker
And certainly the safety of seafood is always, love eating sushi, but I'm picky on who I buy my sushi from or where I go. And there are places now where you know maybe I used to buy sushi there, but I don't anymore because you have one bad experience and and it goes yeah south. But it kind of feels like maybe to your point earlier around Food safety is actually one of the most interesting outcomes that could be produced out of the lab where there's a lot more control. There's a lot more careful processes.
00:23:27
Speaker
And if the end product can handle distribution and processing and storage better, then it actually is quite the technology, isn't it?
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there there's absolutely the opportunity to, so during the production process, t tweetak tweak things, and it's significantly more sterile. Like, you look at... those feedlocks you're talking about, they know they're they're covered in shit, they're getting pumped full of hormones, and it's not, yeah, not a super sterile environment.
00:23:55
Speaker
So yeah, I think all of these things can be can be done and these products can be designed to tick these boxes, to be more shelf stable. It's really just a matter of scaling, of hitting hitting a price point that makes sense and of educating consumers like, you know, how is it better that it's produced in a lab because it's cleaner, it's more sterile, it's this and that. i think it's going to take a lot of time and, you know, there'll be different adoption curves and some people will be all over it.
00:24:19
Speaker
Some people will, you know, not touch it until, you know, until they see it at the local ANW. Well, let's make that our last question, that how do we influence consumers' perceptions around this stuff? You know, alternative proteins, if it's based on a soybean or a fava bean, like that seems relatively simple in comparison to, you know, something growing in a bioreactor. So how is the industry going to influence consumers?
00:24:45
Speaker
Good question. I think like for us, you know, at the various companies that we're at, the most important thing is just getting product in people's mouths and delivering that positive experience. So you can talk about it all you want.
00:24:58
Speaker
People are either going to listen or they're not, but if you can give them something delicious, and they can be pleasantly surprised in a lot of cases, oh wow, you know, ah was plant-based, it tasted just like this or that, and leave that positive impression with them, then that's going to influence their future decision-making. They're going to be more open to these types of products in the future.
Conclusion: The Future of Sustainable Food Choices
00:25:19
Speaker
So I would say keep putting out great products and getting as many people as possible to try them in different settings and formats and talk about, you know, why these are are better. Talk about the the health benefits, the environmental benefits, you know, um obviously the ethical kind of benefits, the animals without beating someone over the head with it or or being too preachy.
00:25:39
Speaker
I think that's always a the fine line is how do you kind of talk about, you know, why why you're doing what you're doing and without kind of guilt tripping people. Well, I think for those that are ultimately concerned about animal welfare, if that's their one of their primary concerns and why they choose the products that they do choose, I think this can be a really wonderful solution for that consumer. And you won't have to educate them very long. They'll get it really quickly.
00:26:06
Speaker
And those might be some of those early adopters. But I agree with you 100%. It's going to come down to, do people enjoy putting it in their mouth? Yeah. Everything else after that, you know, can come and go, but it's like, do they want it?
00:26:18
Speaker
ah Mitchell, thanks for this conversation. So good. So appreciate everything that you're doing and that your team is investing in so many innovative companies. It's ah it's been great to chat. Perfect. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.
00:26:33
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Aisle 42. Please keep an eye out for their mushroom magic in the grocery store, not to be confused with magic mushrooms. And the next time someone on social rails against cultivated meat, be sure to tag in Mitchell or his team to set the record straight.
00:26:49
Speaker
Okay, that's it for me. I'm Corwin Heber from Ethical Food Group, and I'll see in the future.
00:27:05
Speaker
you