Direct Talk

Global consumption of meat

has doubled over the past 30 years

and is expected to increase with
the growth of the world's population.

To meet this demand, animals are
usually raised in industrial facilities,

which, critics point out,
causes health and environmental issues

and is not sustainable.

Entrepreneur Uma Valeti

has set out to solve this problem.

He is the CEO and founder of UPSIDE Foods,

which grows meat cultivated from animal cells

without raising and killing animals.

The company made history
with approvals from the FDA and the USDA

to sell cultivated chicken filets
in the United States.

The product differs from plant-based meat
alternatives, in that it actually is meat.

We have an opportunity now

to be able to have

delicious food that comes to the table,

and to make

how it comes to the table better,
right, more humane.

We want our favorite foods
to be a force for good.

We ask Uma Valeti about this
alternative method of producing meat,

and how it could shift
the paradigm of meat production.

Slaughter-Free Meat for a Sustainable Future

Conventional meat production has increased

tremendously in the last 100 years

because of the demand for it.

And because there is so much demand and the
demand continues to grow for delicious meat

that is affordable,

how we produce it

is putting us at crossroads
of some really difficult impacts:

the environmental impact of growing

70 billion animals,

and the greenhouse gas emissions

that come out from growing this many animals
which is about the largest in the world,

about 15% of the greenhouse gas emissions in
the world come from raising animals for food.

The amount of water
we have to use to grow animals.

A third of all, the freshwater in the world
right now is used to grow

food for animals, and feed animals.

The third one is, when we think about

the risks of raising this
many animals in small spaces,

we have risks of pandemics,

risks of diseases coming from
animals to humans, like

the avian flu, the swine flu.

And the last thing is the ethical impact

of saying,

we are going to have to raise and kill

70 plus billion animals every year,

to feed ourselves.

And many times,

or 99% of the times these animals
are raised in conditions that are intensely

cruel.

And

I think that bothers all of us at some level,

but we're asking more and more questions now.

Do we really need to do that?

Across the bay from
San Francisco, California,

in the City of Emeryville,

Uma Valeti built
UPSIDE Foods' production plant.

It's called EPIC,

Engineering, Production,
and Innovation Center.

It was designed to produce up to 180 tons
of cultivated meat per year at full capacity.

Here, cells taken from animals
are placed in the optimal nutrients

in vessels called cultivators.

Inside, the cells quickly
multiply to form meat.

Cultivated meat is real meat,

grown directly from animal cells.

It's not vegan, it's not vegetarian.

It has the deliciousness that we expect from

meat from an animal that is raised and killed.

Because the building blocks
of cultivated meat are the same,

they are the animal cells that
we use to make cultivated meat.

The only purpose of the animal cells
that we are trying to grow is to become food,

and they become delicious food
in two to three weeks,

whereas for an animal,
you have to wait for it to grow,

you know, mature,
and it grows hair, skin, fur, and

we're not doing any of that.

All we're doing is taking the cells
and making them into high quality food

and decreasing the chance that

meat could get contaminated
because we do not kill animals.

We don't have the risk of contamination

at the same level as conventional meat does.

This is a cultivated chicken filet,
weighing around 30 grams.

It has the same texture and plumpness
as a piece of meat cut from a chicken.

The cells grow and create the texture
and the fibers by themselves,

because as they grow,
the chicken cells attach to each other,

and keep attaching and attaching,
and start making fibers

and they keep secreting proteins
that keep this all together.

And what we do is once we harvest it,

we basically shape it into
the type of chicken we'd like to eat,

whether it's chicken breast
or chicken tender, or chicken thigh.

We can just shape it in that manner.

Valeti likens the idea
of making meat from cells

to "cultivating" crops;

therefore, he calls his product
"cultivated meat"

while others, including skeptics, call it
"cultured meat" or "lab-grown meat,"

terms which he considers misleading.

OK, so this is the chicken,
with a lot of golden brown,

and as we start pulling off,
the fibers start coming off,

just like they would in chicken.

And when it's in the mouth, you can just
imagine they just melt and fall apart.

It's got fat in there.

The taste is just like,

or, Valeti thinks, even better than,
commercially-grown chicken.

I used to think as a kid that
it would be fun if meat grows on trees.

But to me, it's like hopes are growing,

and we are making change
one small step at a time.

Growing up in India, Uma Valeti dreamed of
becoming a cardiologist from a young age.

His father was a veterinarian.

Young Valeti loved eating meat
but when he was 12 years old,

he went to a friend's birthday party
and witnessed how meat came to the table.

In front of the house, we were celebrating
the birthday, and there was a lot of food.

And when I walked to the back of the house,

and in the back of the house,
that is where they were killing the animals

to feed the people in the front.

So, there was intense joy
in the front of the house,

celebrating a birthday,
and there was this intense

suffering in the back of the house
with a death day.

And so that became one of
those moments where I came directly

facing the paradox of meat.

And the paradox is basically we love meat.

We love the product.

But

we don't like the process.

I didn't know what to do with it.

I kept eating meat, till I was 17,

and I went to medical school,
and I went to a large slaughterhouse

because I was running the cafeteria
for the medical students.

There I saw

industrialized slaughter
or killing of animals and I saw

60 chickens being killed in one minute and

it kept going and going
and going, every minute.

There was like, more or more
I saw that I'm like...

That was very hard moment for me.

So that's when I stopped eating meat,
although I love the taste of it.

Following his dream,

he moved to the United States and
became a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic.

There he used stem cells
to regenerate patients' heart muscles,

restoring the structure
and function of their hearts.

That's where this idea came from saying,

can we take cells from an animal

and grow it into meat.

And if we can do that,
wouldn't that be amazing, because

then we can grow as much meat as we want,
that is great and delicious and safe.

Without having a lot of downsides
of how meat comes to the table.

Once that thought came into my head,
it was impossible to get it out.

I kept thinking about it every day saying

that should be done in the world,
that should be done in the world.

And I kept talking to everyone.

But when I failed to convince people

to start working in the space
in the real way,

to see if it actually can be done,

I kept becoming increasingly
disappointed and frustrated.

And that's when my wife and kids said,
"You've been talking about this for 10 years

and asking others to do it.

And why are you not doing it?"

And that was a wake-up call for me.

In 2015, Valeti moved to San Francisco,

the epicenter of the venture capital world,

to try his idea
at a biotechnology accelerator,

which gave him the initial funding.

In February 2016, he hosted the first
public tasting of cultivated beef meatballs,

followed a year later
by cultivated chicken and duck.

Although his success in growing
cultivated meat drew a lot of interest,

in order to sell it in the United States,

he would need to obtain approvals
from the FDA and the USDA,

which, up till then,
had never regulated cultivated meat.

There were many moments where

we were told that
we will never get FDA, USDA approval,

or if we did, it was going to take 25 years.

I never

believed in that

because when you are the person
and the team in the arena,

you are seeing it, you're there.

You're seeing what's possible,
why it's possible.

And look, this kind of work
is not for everybody.

It is not for the weak of heart.
It's not for people who want certainty.

It is for people who can live
with enormous ambiguity,

and still not lose sight
of where we're trying to go.

And I think

personally, I would always
want to build on hope than fear.

So, I think that's what kept us going.

In 2023, after finally obtaining
the regulatory approvals

to sell a cultivated chicken filet product,

Valeti partnered with a
Michelin-starred chef in San Francisco

to serve cultivated chicken
as part of a once-a-month tasting menu.

The event sold out every time.

We have to bring choice to people
and meet the growing demand

in a way that we lower
the environmental impact

and lower the health impact
and lower the ethical impact.

And I think, when we show a path for that

and we allow that choice
to exist in the world,

I think magical things will happen.

And when it starts becoming big and scaled,

I think it creates enormous
economic opportunity for people.

It also offers jobs
that are higher wage jobs,

jobs that are safer, that could be
closer to the community we live in.

So, there is a lot of
benefits also to society.

Now, all of this is potential
that has to be realized

with just intense amount of hard work,

lots of hurdles ahead of us.

But it is the work we signed up for,
and it is the work that,

you know, a lot of people are excited about.

Valeti is now turning his attention
to his next product,

ground-textured cultivated chicken,

which can be produced more
cost effectively and on a larger scale.

To get these products on retailers' shelves,

he needs to receive regulatory approvals,

reduce costs and deepen the public's
understanding of cultivated meat.

The future of food, I believe, is
delicious and hopeful and will become kinder,

not just to humans,
but also to life around us.

I think that's going to be
an increasingly important rallying

cry and desire for kids

and the future generations.

And I think that's going to be
the kinder future that I see.

My dreams probably are very
similar to dreams of most people.

I want to be able to live in a world
that is happy, joyous, safe, and just for

you know, everyone,

and to do my part in solving a problem
that's not been solved.

I'd like to be able to

make

significant gains towards
protecting life and also preserving choice.

That's what drives me.

So yeah, that's what I've signed up for, and
that's the problem I'd like to see solved,

and that's my dream,
to say all of us collectively as humanity

will sign up for protecting life,
and also preserving choice.

We asked Uma Valeti to write down some words

that have inspired him to pursue his dreams.

So, I wrote
"Protect life and preserve choice."

I think there is no greater purpose
in life than protecting life.

And that drove me to become a cardiologist
when I was growing up, that was my dream.

And in starting this idea
and pioneering cultivated meat,

it aligns with what we're trying to do.

It just feels like
it's the purpose of my life.