Roughly a third of all emissions that come from the agriculture sector is driven by factory farming and meat production.
This stat alone has driven significant climate investment into the alternative meats sector in the hopes that a technology will eventually be able to reduce the carbon footprint of this sector. Orbillion Bio is one such company that is focused in the lab-grown meats approach to addressing this problem.
Why it's worth monitoring lab-grown meats as a potential solution
- Meat production companies are incentivized to produce as much meat as consumers demand – and given demand continues to rise year over year it’s critical for the large players to being investing into alternative meats or alternative meat production methods. Orbillion Bio happens to provide a claimed faster production process for specific high end meats.
- Targeting high end, low volume, specialty meats as an initial market for a lab-grown meat alternative actually delivers the ability to become a premium supplier to an audience that may be more willing to try an alternative purely on the basis of climate or increased “access”.
What it could take to make an impact
- We are still in the early stages of lab-grown meats whereas there already has been a small, but passionate crowd that has adopted the soy or plant based protein alternatives so far.
- Lab-grown meat options (for it to have a large scale climate impact) will likely require adoption from large animal producers to see a significant drop in carbon emissions from the agriculture sector.
- Consumers will likely require significantly more education than plant based alternative meats – hence Orbillion’s methods of hosting tastings may drive positive experiences being shared early and frequently.
Thoughts and Outlook
We definitely believe that lab-grown meats will be a popular alternative going forward, especially if the cost can drop below current production costs. However, it seems that the market will most likely support a mix of lab-grown, plant based and “organic” offerings going into the future. These alternative meats will likely become the main player as companies begin to tune in taste + texture to make it truly indistinguishable from the “real meat” counterpart.
The decarbonization impact will likely be significant even in a market where we don’t only have lab-grown meat purely because the justification for large meat producers to continue to invest in factory farming becomes minimized. Lab-grown meat in theory will be far more scalable and profitable for these entities, in turn doing right by the climate.
About The Author
Swarnav has over 10 years of experience in the energy & climate tech space, holds 2 patents and is active in the tech, climate and media industries. He specializes in Product/Product Innovation as well as Go-To-Market and Growth Strategy.
By training he’s a Materials Engineer with a background in research from his time at Georgia Tech and University of Illinois (UIUC).
He founded TouchLight a utility backed energy company focused on developing IP for utilities and startups pushing electrification forward. He also serves as the appointed Chairman for the Town of Yorktown’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force, where he helps with drafting legislation and enabling sustainability efforts within the town.
Concurrently, Swarnav founded The Impact to help investors, emerging founders and driven climate enthusiasts discover and identify new climate-tech startups, technologies and opportunities before they hit the traditional media sources.