Cell-based meat companies join forces

Jay OwenSustainability News, Latest Headlines

“Ethical Markets follows the research of Helena Bottemiller Evich, who  covers the rapidly-evolving global foods system with this breaking news that cell-based meat, fish and other producers have formed a new trade association, the Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation (AMPS).

We follow all these same trends  in our Green Transition Scoreboard ® reports: “Capturing CO2 While Improving Human Nutrition & Health (2018)and “Transitioning to  Science -Based Investing :2019-2020”  (free downloads from www.ethicalmarkets.com )

Also, more discussion of these food issues on Sep 5 webinar, “Sixty Minutes With Hazel Henderson On Science-Based Investing” co-sponsored by Arizona State U.Lightworks Security & Sustainability Forum and the American Sustainable Business Council, (ASBC) with 250,000 small business members.

Hazel Henderson, Editor “

Cell-based meat companies join forces

By Helena Bottemiller Evich

08/29/2019 02:21 PM EDT

This Town is getting a new kind of meat group.

Five companies working on growing meat, poultry and seafood products from animal cells have formed a coalition — the Alliance for Meat, Poultry & Seafood Innovation, or AMPS Innovation, for short — to represent the industry’s interests in Washington and beyond.

The sector is so new the start-ups in the group don’t yet have anything on the market. There’s a big question about which regulations and regulatory bodies will apply to them.

And there’s an ongoing debate about what to call this new class of products, which uses technology that bypasses the need to slaughter animals. The companies are able to take animal cells and multiply them in a high-tech factory setting to form chicken nuggets, burgers and even spicy tuna rolls. So far, the preferred term is cell-based or cultured meat.

The coalition formally starting Thursday consists of well-financed food tech start-ups, including Memphis Meats, JUST, and Fork & Goode, which are all developing cell-based meat products. The group also includes BlueNalu and Finless Foods, which are developing cell-based seafood products.

“We’re seeing consumer interest, we’re seeing broad media interest, policy-maker interest; it all has happened pretty quickly,” said Andrew Noyes, a spokesperson for JUST, a San Francisco-based company that also makes a plant-based egg replacement and other similar products.

Noyes said some of the start-ups had been meeting for more than a year as they industry tries to speak with one voice on policy and consumer issues.

“We all see the importance of being out there early,” he said, adding: “This type of product is coming to market probably sooner than many of us had expected.”

The companies are already contending with questions over how regulators will divide oversight responsibilities to ensure that cell-based meat and poultry products are safe to eat. The Agriculture Department and FDA have been working together on the new regulatory plan for several months after largely resolving a public turf war over which arm of the government would oversee cell-based meats.

USDA and FDA plan to share jurisdiction. FDA, which already has jurisdiction over most seafood, will have oversight over cell-based fish and shellfish products.

AMPS Innovation is technically not a trade association and will not have its own staff, but it’s likely to be seen as a precursor to a more formal group. The coalition is being coordinated by Washington communications and lobbying firm Glover Park Group, which also represents Memphis Meats on Capitol Hill and before federal agencies, according to lobbying disclosures.

Other companies in the alliance have also hired their own representation in Washington. BlueNalu, for example, registered with Drinker Biddle & Reath in July, though the company reported no activity in the second quarter, per disclosures.

The alliance plans to be on Capitol Hill later this year to raise awareness about the industry. It will also work with FDA and USDA as they work to finalize their plans for regulatory oversight, something that the agencies had once hinted could be finished as early as this year.

Another role for the alliance will be to help determine what to call this new class of products. Right now, the group is using cell-based/cultured and it seems clear these companies are rejecting terms like “clean meat,” which have enraged the meat industry. Several states are actively trying to ban food companies from using certain common terms like “meat” or “burger” if their products do not come from animals.

Mike Selden, CEO of Finless Foods, said the alliance is trying to be inclusive as it grapples with nomenclature.

“We don’t want it to be inherently demeaning toward our own products or to conventionally raised meat, poultry and seafood products,” he said.

Still, it’s a safe bet that AMPS Innovation won’t be welcomed with open arms into “the barnyard” — the nickname for major livestock groups like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Council — as many meat producers see cell-based products as an affront to traditional meat and poultry products.

The new coalition is likely to bring some new voices to Washington, where the food industry lobby has been splintering as the sector tries to navigate a new era of rapidly changing consumer demands.

Last year, Danone North America, Mars Inc., Nestlé USA, and Unilever United States banded together to form their own upstart group, the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance, after leaving the Grocery Manufacturers Association over policy disagreements. That alliance is also coordinated by Glover Park Group.

The Plant Based Foods Association, which launched in 2016, has since attracted some major companies to its ranks, including the Kellogg Company, Campbell Soup Company, Blue Diamond Growers, Impossible Foods, which has recently launched its plant-based burgers in Burger King nationwide, and Beyond Meat, which is in a new partnership with KFC to make vegetarian fried “chicken.”