Eric Schulze helped Upside Foods score the first U.S. regulatory approval for its cultivated chicken, and he’s just getting started.
Last November, Schulze helped the startup, which has raised more than $600 million, become the first startup to get its lab-grown chicken to pass muster with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA. The regulatory approval is not only a coup for Upside and Schulze but also a huge win for the entire upstart industry, working to produce meat outside of an animal, which McKinsey estimates will be a $25 billion global business by 2030.
Schulze acknowledges that he now eats less meat since starting at Upside in 2016, but it’s still a reverence given his Texas upbringing. “I enjoy meat no matter where it comes from,” he admits openly. But he’s aware of what he’s doing. “I want to unburden myself of my own guilt” of eating it, he says. It’s what keeps him motivated. He wants to “accelerate the safety of eating [meat].” Safety is Schulze’s jam. So don’t be surprised to learn that before joining the Silicon Valley-funded startup, he worked for the FDA.
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