We are excited to renew our media partnership with Red to Green for Season 3!
Red to Green is a Podcast dedicated to providing content on sustainable food innovations, founded and hosted by Marina Schmidt. What sets Red to Green apart from other food tech podcasts is that instead of adopting the more common approach of each episode discussing different topics, they chose a storytelling approach. Indeed, Red to Green grouped their conversations by seasons of about 12 to 14 episodes, each season covering one theme at a time. Organizing the podcast this way allows for a deeper and better understanding of the designated topic and to build up the audience’s knowledge towards the following subjects.
Season 1 encompasses different aspects of cultured meat and cellular agriculture, from introducing it to what it is and why it is revolutionary to hearing the perspectives of investors and consumer adoption.
Season 2 moves towards a conversation surrounding plastic alternatives and sustainable food packaging. We hear from experts and innovators in the field differentiating between different types of sustainable packaging, greenwashing, recycling and much more.
Season 3 is all about understanding how to promote alternative proteins and consumer acceptance.
In the same vein as the previous episode, episode 10 also revolves around legislature. Episode 9 explained Amendment 171 that affected the alternative dairy industry in Europe. Episode 10 focuses on the US market and its legislation regarding cell-based meat.
The guest is Scott Weathers, Senior Policy Specialist from the Good Food Institute, also known as GFI. GFI is a leading nonprofit working internationally to accelerate alternative protein innovation. Unlike the preceding episode, this one takes a more positive approach about plant- and cell-based censorship in the US, the role of open access research to grow cellular agriculture, and how to engage farmers in the transition.
Scott and Marina covered broadly the topic of legislation in the US, and Scott provided some current examples of where the United States stands in regards to the cellular agriculture field. In general, from a legislative perspective, the scene set by Scott is quite hopeful.
He affirms that, from a regulatory perspective, Singapore becoming the first country on Earth to regulate cultivated meat is some of the biggest news in a long time. In consequence of that, there is hope that it will lead to other countries considering formalizing a regulatory pathway for cultivated meat.
When it comes to the US, Scott says “I think the US has been a little bit slow to support alternative protein research funding, but that is changing very quickly. A whole, very wide variety of other countries have already funded alternative protein research, or invest in alternative protein companies from Canada to the EU, Spain, Israel, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and the US to date hasn’t offered very much investment in terms of federal funding. But we think that’s very quickly going to change.”
In this very interesting conversation, Scott offers many other great insights into legislation in the United States and a general overview of cell-cultured meat.
You can listen to Episode 9 of Season 3 here or on other platforms available on their website.