Author of 'Clean Meat,' Paul Shapiro joins Cheddar to discuss how the cellular agricultural revolution helps lower rates of foodborne illness and greatly improves environmental sustainability. Plus, how his company The Better Meat Co. is bringing healthier food options to the table.

Why The GOP Wants To Stop The Cellular Agricultural Revolution

While many culture wars persist throughout the country, one that people may not hear enough about is the food that we eat. Well, the better Meat company is a company that uses micro protein ingredients in its food. But is it safe to eat? And why is the GOP working to ban it? So joining me now is the CEO of the Better Meat Company and author of Clean Meat, Paul Shapiro. Uh Paul, thanks for joining. Great to be with you Kristen. All right. So I'm sure you believe that this is safe and clean to eat. Why is that? Well, first, let's just look at the reason why we would like to recreate the meat experienced without animals because the planet is not getting any bigger humanity's footprint on the planet is getting a lot bigger, but the planet itself is not getting any bigger. And one of the primary ways Kristen that we leave that footprint is through our food print principally in the amount of meat that we eat. It just takes a lot of land, a lot of water, a lot of greenhouse gas emissions to produce so much meat and we are raising and slaughtering billions and billions of animals in ways that are both inhumane and unsustainable. The good news though is that there are a variety of alternatives to animal based meat that we can enjoy that tastes like animal meat are perfectly safe and are often healthier to consume and use a fraction of the resources that raising animals for food raises. Now, these foods are approved by the FDA uh because they are safe to eat and they're delicious. And you're right, Kristen, not everybody likes it. Some people who are concerned about protecting in incumbent industries like the cattle industry are concerned about the rise of animal free meats. But this is going to be a big part of the future because we simply cannot continue raising and slaughtering billions of animals for food. Paul how does the nutrient consumption compare? Is it one for one? Is it different? I know people want to make sure that if they're doing what's good for the environment, it's also good for their bodies indeed. And so some of the products on the market are going to be even better for you than animal based meat. In other words, if you think about, for example, my proteins like what we make at the better meat co you get all of the protein, all the zinc, all the iron, all the things that you want from meat, but you don't get the things you don't want from meat. For example, you're not going to get the cholesterol or so much saturated fat or excess calories. This is a product that gives us the best of both worlds because you get it in a food unprocessed states. Something that has the texture of meat that we crave yet is still better for the planet and frankly better for us. So I see here that the GOP wants to ban this. Certainly some people have spoken out about this. What's your response to that? Well, imagine, for example, Kristen, if 25 years ago, Blockbuster had lobbied members of state legislatures and the Congress to ban streaming because they were concerned about a future in which people wouldn't be going to video stores anymore. That is similar to what's happening right now with alternative meats, which is that you have some lawmakers who are seeking to protect an incumbent industry. In this case, the cattle industry by banning an innovation that could make meat a lot more sustainable and a lot more efficient. And so in some states, like in Florida, for example, they have now passed legislation that Governor DeSantis has not yet signed. But we will see if he does that would ban the sale of certain kinds of alternative meat. Even though the FDA has already after a rigorous review, determined them safe to consume in other states. You have labeling wars where you see some members of the state legislatures trying to pass laws regulating how these products can be labeled to try to disincentivize consumers from choosing them in some ways. It's very similar to what the dairy industry has done to try to prevent competitors from labeling their products. For example, as oat milk or almond milk because they don't want them to use that word milk. Right. Well, in this case, you have not only some states seeking to ban certain kinds of alternative meats but also other states seeking to regulate what goes on the product packaging. In reality, though, nobody goes out and buys a plant based burger thinking that it is something else. They are labeled with terms that are very clearly meaning that these are products that are different from meat that came from a slaughtered animal. And so there's no consumer confusion associated with these products. The real, the real concern is just protecting cattlemen from competition financially. How does this play out, Paul? Are there financial benefits to using a faux meat products versus real meat? Well, let's think about it just from the economy's perspective, Kristen, the reality is is that Asia has already out competed the United States in certain technologies from semiconductors to solar panels and wind turbines. And more so right now, we're importing huge amounts of those three products. We don't want the same to happen when it comes to clean protein. And right now, Asia is racing to own the future of clean protein production, which means animal free protein production. And so just in the same way that, you know, we use horses for thousands years and now we don't use them anymore because we came up with better ways to transport ourselves or the way that we used whale oil for thousands of years before we came up with better ways to light our homes. We've used animals for thousands of years to get meat out of their bodies. But now we're figuring out great ways that take a fraction of the resources to create similar products that are just as good, if not better. And we don't want to be left behind other parts of the world like Asia that are racing again to make these products and make themselves the meat basket to the world, so to speak. And so right now, there's an effort among some lawmakers in the United States to do the right thing, not to suppress the alternative meat industry, but actually to help accelerate the alternative meat industry so that we can be the ones exporting the future protein to the rest of the world. Interesting. Now, in terms of your own distribution, Paul talk to me about your supply chain, how healthy that is and how inflation is impacting it. Well, inflation impacts everything that we do. Uh high interest rates impacts everything that we do. Um But at the better Miko, we are making a delicious micro protein that we are creating in Sacramento, California. And we sell every single thing, every single gram of it that we can make. We also make other products that are in supermarkets and thousands of stores. Uh For example, we have a partnership with Perdue Farms. The chicken company that makes a product called Perdue Chicken Plus, it's 50% chicken, 50% plant-based. That product is in 7, 7000 supermarkets all across the United States and offers a way that parents can give something to their kids that gives them the vegetable nutrition, the parents want uh inside of that chicken nugget. So whether it's totally animal free products or in some cases like that Perdue product, a hybrid product that combines the best of both worlds, both plant-based and the chicken, you end up getting uh something that's better than the conventional product. And in terms of partnerships, Paul, which ones are crucial to you in establishing whether it's with grocers or restaurants. Um Really we are we at the be Mio are most interested in partnerships with large food companies. We have that partnership that I mentioned with Purdue. We've partnered with other companies like Hormel in the past. And our goal is to be a great partner for ingredient providing in the animal free protein world to a variety of different food companies, whether they be their own brands or food distributors or restaurant chains and more. All right, Paul Shapiro, Ceo of the Better Meat Company, author of the book Clean Meat out now in paperback, Paul. Thank you.