PROFESSOR Paul Wood AO is an independent expert with decades of public and private sector experience in the biopharmaceutical and tissue engineering technologies now being adapted by startups in a multi-billion dollar global investment race to create commercial “meat” products cultivated from animal cells.
Addressing the Rural Press Club of Queensland in Brisbane yesterday, Professor Wood had a simple response to claims the technology is set to ‘kill off’ the traditional livestock production sector: “Don’t sell the farm”.
Billions of dollars are being poured by investors into an estimated 150 cultivated meat startups around the world, betting they will soon be able to produce lab-grown protein alternatives at a commercially viable scale while also attracting customers in large numbers.
But as someone who knows a lot about the technology involved, Professor Wood doesn’t see that happening.
He told yesterday’s lunch that, based on his in-depth understanding of the processes involved, he was surprised when he began seeing headlines a few years ago predicting that cell-based “meat” would bankrupt conventional beef and dairy cattle farming by 2030.
His immediate thought was “this just can’t be true”.
Or rather, he admitted, another ‘more Australian’ technical-term came to mind: “That sounds like bullsh*t”.
He emphasises that he is not opposed to alternative proteins and supports science that can improve future food security. He chairs an insect protein start-up and has previously sat on the board of Cellular Agriculture Australia.
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