No Animal was Harmed in the Making of this Burger
01/04/2022
Feeding the world, sustainably, has never been more of an urgent issue. With over 13 million people currently facing some of the most severe droughts seen in decades in the Horn of Africa, the very real and pressing problems of the global climate crisis are laid bare. Livestock and agriculture are the mainstays of people’s lives in this region and as they are being decimated, the knock-on effects of this are disastrous. Finding sustainable solutions to these global problems has become a necessary goal for many companies’ sustainability strategies, but for one entrepreneurial food technology company based in Maastricht, changing an unsustainable food production system is their entire mission and goal.
Inspiring science
Mosa Meat is successfully challenging the current approach to traditional farming methods for a sustainable production system. Its co-founder, scientist, and entrepreneur, Mark Post delivered the final session of the MaastrichtMBA educational week on Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility. In 2013, Mark unveiled the world’s first slaughter-free hamburger to a packed press conference in London. The burger was harvested directly from cow cells, rather than raising and slaughtering a whole animal. It was the result of years of research at Maastricht University, and cost €250,000 to make. The motivation was to find a new method to make real meat to feed our fast-growing population in a sustainable, healthy, and animal-friendly way. Following the success of the first hamburger, Mark co-founded Mosa Meat to commercialise cultured meat (also known as clean meat) and bring it to plates everywhere.
Feeding the world, sustainably
Championing sustainability is embedded within the DNA of the company. The problems the world faces in relation to population growth and the ongoing climate crisis mean that business as usual is not an option for companies any longer. Producing meat takes up 80% of all agricultural land and contributes to around a fifth of all human-produced greenhouse gases. And that’s just what’s happening right now. Meat demand will continue to soar as the world’s population reaches 10 billion, and the planet will be stretched beyond its limits. Companies that understand these global challenges and respond to them with sustainable solutions will survive and thrive.
Does this mean that traditional farming methods will become a thing of the past? Post hopes so. “The current way of farming is disastrous for the environment. In all of the analyses, agriculture contributes about 20% of all our greenhouse gas emissions. So that’s a substantial industry affecting greenhouse gas emission.”
The facts are clear and a sustainable solution is long overdue. The data shows us that the effects of intensified farming on biodiversity are substantial. But, the long-term issues around food production and the dichotomy that exists between undernourishing 100 million people, but over nourishing an even bigger population is complex. One of the culprits of the inefficiency and unsustainability of agriculture is keeping livestock. “That’s why we are doing this and I hope that we are going to transform agriculture as we know it into a system that can be of a much smaller scale because we take out a lot of inefficiencies and can still produce food for 10 billion people without that negative impact on the environment.”
Designing technology instead of changing behaviour
One solution for this problem would be that we all become vegetarians. After all, we don’t specifically need animal proteins to thrive and survive. “There are 2 billion people on this planet who are essentially vegetarians typically because they cannot afford to eat meat, but they are fine. So we are omnivores and we can easily sustain ourselves with a plant-based diet.” As a meat-eater himself, Post knows better than most what the negative consequences of livestock farming are, and yet he’s still not a vegetarian. “If we want to choose between designing technology so that people can keep on behaving in the same way, eating meat, eating fish, eating animal proteins, without the negative consequences on the environment, or trying to change behaviour, I think the first one is easier. The technology is, in a sense, a way to avoid making that tough choice between becoming vegetarian or remaining an omnivore but at the same time, avoiding the negative consequences on the environment.” Mosa Meat is developing this technology so that the vast majority of the world’s population doesn’t need to change its behaviour.
The media impact
The company has been receiving unprecedented media attention since the event they hosted in London in 2013. This kind of attention brings with it many positives, but it can also absorb a lot of time which Post accepts is par for the course. The benefits of the public exposure, however, have taken Mosa on a journey which could have been quite different had they not received such attention. “The two special conditions that we have as a startup is that investors lined up to invest in us. We never had to go out looking for investors. And young people are lining up to work for us from all over the world and actually sometimes accepting jobs or payment levels that are below their previous and expected level, just because they love working on this particular subject or for our particular company.” Access to funding and a healthy pool of potential employees inevitably opens doors, but the impact can be felt in others ways.
Being comfortable with uncertainty
As the dynamic of a company evolves, and the workforce changes, this can bring with it new challenges. Post recognises the shift: “If you are in science, this is what you typically do: you work on something that has a lot of uncertainties. And you’ll learn how to cope with that. Currently in the company, two thirds of the employees are scientists, but there are now more business developers and marketing administrators. And they are not always as prepared for living with this level of uncertainty.”
The different backgrounds and experiences within the company requires flexibility from both sides. There is a change in mindset. For Post, a medical doctor by training, this awareness of a shift in mindset is a natural progression, but it is still a learning process. “It’s not something that is completely unusual for me. In engineering environments where that mindset is different you learn how to communicate and appreciate that people just have another way of looking at things than I have. But, I love this because there is continuous self-development.”
Product and operations aligned
Corporate responsibility and sustainability within companies is often limited to the way of operating. Companies do whatever they can do to make sure that operations are as sustainable as possible. However, in Mosa Meat’s case, their whole mission and goal is to change a very unsustainable production system. “Even if we as a company didn’t operate in a sustainable way we would still be the champions of sustainability, because of what we are doing and what we are intending to do. But, we are doing both, of course. It doesn’t make sense to have a very sustainable goal as a product and not operate in a sustainable way.”
Healthy competition
The concept of lab-grown burgers has come a long way in 15 years. There are now 100 companies all over the world that are in the throes of producing lab-grown meat. And this competition is a healthy thing. “I tried to imagine what would have happened if, after seven years, we were still the only ones doing this in the world. It would not look good. Since 2013, and the presentation of that first proof of principle hamburger and the idea, to now, and already a product approved through regulatory approval, then you can be satisfied.” Reflecting on the progress they have made, can be a useful exercise. Transforming systems for the good of the future of the planet takes time. But, as Post admits himself, he’s an impatient person. “I always want things to happen faster, but realistically, this is not bad.” Maybe the idea of having an appliance in your home where you can grow your own meat could become a reality in the future, but for that, we will need to continue to be patient for a little while longer.
MaastrichtMBA – Executive On-Campus
Mark Post performed in the MaastrichtMBA On-Campus programme in the educational week on Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility last February.
MaastrichtMBA is UMIO’s part-time international executive MBA programme; a unique learning journey that enhances knowledge and enriches capabilities through action-oriented learning, encompassing business practice and interactive co-creation with professors and fellow students.
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Mark Post
Chief Scientific Officer at Mosa Meat
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