My company makes cultivated meat. I have one big regret

As the CEO of a company growing cultivated beef steaks from cow cells, my ongoing journey is one of discovery, resilience, and adaptation.



My colleagues and I are part of a dynamic business sector comprising over a hundred companies and billions of dollars in investment. We navigate technological hurdles, regulatory complexities, and financial constraints, creating catalysts for further innovation at every step. We share a passion for the technology behind cultivated meat: cellular agriculture, which combines time-honored cell culture techniques (used for millennia to make beer, bread, yogurt, and wine) with animal cells—exactly like the ones you’d find in conventional products like meat and dairy.



And yet, there’s a great disparity between how I experience this journey and how some onlookers perceive it.



In recent years, some people—including many who understand the importance of cellular agriculture—have come to scrutinize cultivated meat. What I see as continuous progress and learning; they see as unwarranted delays or even downright failure. When I celebrate my company or another company earning regulatory approval for a novel food product (a meaningful step on the way to commercialization), other people ask why they can’t already buy that product in bulk at the supermarket.



I’m optimistic about cultivated meat’s prospects of complementing conventional meat, yet at this stage, I have one regret. I look back at the last few years and wish that we—the cultivated meat ecosystem at large—had done more to form realistic expectations.



As people began to appreciate cultivated meat as more science than fiction, their excitement grew very quickly—perhaps even more quickly than the industry had anticipated. When asked how much time cultivated meat needs to reach a significant share of the global animal protein market, we provided estimates that reflected our ambition. In hindsight, these estimates assumed too smooth a road.



On the one hand, when you’re doing something that’s never been done before, you have a north star and forge a path for others to follow. This is the nature of innovation. On the other hand, a lot of what goes into meeting expectations is managing them from the outset, and in this respect, we could have done better.



I want to be clear: Cultivated meat is not a quick fix. Regulatory pathways are not seamless. At-scale production costs are formidable. Reaching significant market share will take time.



In this, cultivated meat is not unique among applications of transformational technology. Its challenges today are reminiscent of those the EV industry faced 15 years ago. These include high costs for technological advancement, supply chain limitations, substantial capital expenditures, regulatory complexities, and an acute need for product differentiation strategies.



Just as cultivated meat faces many of the same challenges as EVs, it can benefit from some of the same solutions. Companies producing cultivated meat understand that in the face of high production costs, high-end products that command premium pricing make it easier to reach profitability faster. This is why many are working hard to bring cultivated foie gras, cultivated bluefin tuna, and other premium options to market. In addition, just as key stakeholders provided the EV ecosystem with support and infrastructure to facilitate a viable scale-up, cultivated meat is receiving support from governments, international bodies, and sovereign wealth funds. These stakeholders see cultivated meat as something that can advance numerous goals associated with strategies for social, economic, environmental, and nutritional sustainability, from net zero carbon to national food sovereignty.



Initially envisioned as whole muscle tissue, cultivated meat is now usually hybrid, combining plant and animal cell components. Similar to how Tesla offers all the functionality of a car along with features that create a unique experience, cultivated meat offers the functionality of other animal protein products and provides diners with something they cannot find in either conventional meat or fully plant-based alternatives. In the same way that EVs carved out a new space for themselves within the automotive industry, cultivated meat is now better positioned to inhabit its own place within the animal protein sector.



Still, skeptics are right to point out that cellular agriculture cannot afford to remain stagnant; it must keep evolving in order to have its intended impact. For example, a lot of cellular agriculture’s technological foundation has origins in the pharmaceutical space, and pharma-based equipment, ingredients, and processes are insufficient for achieving reasonable scale and cost for cultivated meat production.



Cellular agriculture companies are aware of this and have established a dedicated food-grade supply chain and developed new processes tailored specifically for food applications. Companies have also adjusted scale-up roadmaps to adapt to a fluctuating financial landscape. Many are postponing significant capital expenditures, focusing instead on increasing production capabilities in more deliberately. Some are using contract manufacturers to help maintain cash reserves and mitigate risks associated with scaling operations too early. These approaches help optimize production processes at smaller scales before pursuing rapid expansion.



As important as anything else is continuous emphasis that widespread commercialization and high profitability are achievable, yet not within our immediate grasp. By better qualifying our success and managing expectations, we can help people see cultivated meat as we see it: a marathon rather than a sprint.