Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Manchin, in Reversal, Agrees to Quick Action on Climate and Tax Plan(!!!)
A VEGAN FUNGI PROTEIN BIOREACTOR IS ABOARD THE NEW SPACEX MISSION
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![Our Story | VerdeGo Aero Our Story | VerdeGo Aero](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc9493641-b69e-48ec-8059-16f4f10c6e0e_640x298.png)
Sustainable crop health company Enko raised a $70M Series C led by Nufarm (PRN)
Normative, a Stockholm-based carbon accounting platform, raised a ~$31.7M Series B led by Blume Equity (SC)
Hybrid-electric aircraft manufacturer VerdeGo Aero raised a $12M Series A led by Raytheon's venture arm RTX Ventures (PRN)
Drover AI, an AI-based platform improving e-scooter safety, raised a $5.4M Series A led by Vektor Partners (TC)
Root Global, a startup that helps food companies achieve carbon neutrality, raised a $2.6M pre-seed round led by Project A (TC)
Hgen, a sustainable electrolyzer manufacturer for heavy industries, raised a $2M seed round led by Founders Fund (TC)
Bandit (previously Conscious Cultures), a leading maker of plant-based foods, raised a $1.5M seed round led by Prime Movers Lab (PRN)
Green Theory
In Meatro
Would you eat a cut of meat grown in a lab? The plan for in vitro meat production puts some lofty goals on the table. First, create meat for human consumption with incredibly few animal cells. Second, produce this meat with far fewer other resources, and thereby lower cost. Third, disrupt over 10,000 years of humans raising animals for slaughter (though, raising is a generous word for 21st-century factory farming) and free billions of beings from needless suffering. If cell-cultured meat can deliver on these three proposals, it stands to slow down the speed of the climate crisis, and radically alter our relationship with food.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F35557b48-032d-4716-941f-11456391c6cd_812x498.png)
Perhaps you’re wondering if any of the new-age meat alternatives you’ve seen around are grown in a lab. In the US, the federal agencies already divvied up responsibility over each stage and type, but no actual products sit approved for mass production. Other barriers to mass adoption include the today’s need for fetal bovine serum (FBS) to grow cultured cells–far from vegetarian, since it’s exactly what it sounds like, and both expensive and resource intensive. Assuming startups (hard at work to replace FBS, dollar signs looming in their eyes) succeed in developing a plant-based alternative, the primary objection from ethical vegans and vegetarians will be met. Getting the total inputs to an inexpensive-enough level to compete with highly subsidized, traditional meat, proponents of in vitro meat believe the added benefits of low-to-no antibiotic use, tighter control over tissue structures, and no enteric pathogens will combine with low cost to overtake factory farming. Studies remain inconclusive as to whether lab-grown meat will use less water, but it certainly stands to vastly limit land use in meat production, and likely lifecycle emissions, especially for methane.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ba1bebe-f03a-424b-88c0-766ecff42748_1520x896.png)
So let’s imagine no fetal serum involved, lower emissions, and lower cost; people may still reject in vitro meat due to a feeling of unease or unnaturalness. Most ethical arguments against cell-cultured meat unravel when compared to the mutilations and health risks of modern concentrated animal feeding operations. Still, the moral questions surrounding lab-grown cuts dig at the intersections of technology, nature, and what it means to be human: would you consume a lab burger grown from a consenting human cell donor? Putting that inquiry aside, this new field of food science might one day offer a viable alternative for people who refuse to give up animal flesh. Ultimately, we don’t yet know if the intensive resources spent figuring out and scaling test tube meat will prove worthwhile, and win over the meat-hooked public. Driving emissions lower than current animal agricultural practices could still guzzle up a lot of resources—especially compared to the, already available, vegan or vegetarian diets—but if it woos humanity away from today’s cheap meats and mass slaughter, perhaps it’s necessary.
The Closer
Skiing is a beloved way to connect with friends and nature, but it’s often prohibitively expensive. One tip for college-age readers: the Claremont Ski Club can hook it up with a nice $500 discount on the Ikon pass this year.
Science is amazing and all - but how did we ever get to extracting fetal bovine serum... what a concept.
"It is harvested from bovine fetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. FBS is commonly harvested by means of a cardiac puncture without any form of anaesthesia"
Congrats on 60 green bites!