what if we could make ice cream milk and cheese without cows real ice cream sound too good to be
true kinda like a science fiction Star Trek thing with a combo later that synthesizes
food as you push a button well it's actually already happening you odds are you've already
had food made this way it's called Precision fermentation and it has potential to change
the nature of food forever so how does it work is it safe and what are we talking
about the end of world hunger let's find out together
I'm Ricky and this is Two Bit da Vinci
[Music]
this video is sponsored by Masterworks agriculture has been Humanity's main source of food ever since
the Nomad settled down over 10 000 years ago but today it's not cutting it anymore a staggering 828
million people worldwide live in uncertain food conditions where they don't know where the next
meal is coming from now this is due to factors like covid-19 Wars extreme weather floods droughts
and soaring fertilizer prices so we have over 10 percent of the world's population going hungry
the question is why to answer that consider the average person to live a meager diet meaning just
enough to live would require about 111 acres of land per person per year in contrast if you were
in a more affluent High meat diet you'd require four times as much the Earth has around 13 billion
hectares of land of which about 4.7 billion are agricultural land but this agricultural
land is made up of almost 3.2 billion hectares of permanent pastures primarily for livestock
grazing which leaves only about 1.6 billion in for crops so that translates to about half an acre of
crop land per person but in truth only about half of that is usable to produce grain so the
problem is there's just not enough crop land to possibly feed people based on that affluent High
meat diet additionally our main source of animal protein cattle is a horribly inefficient way to
produce protein converting only four percent of the feedstock into meat the rest is just spent
by the cow burped or farted away but thankfully there's a better more efficient and sustainable
way to produce food than traditional Agriculture and it's called cellular farming something most
people would coin as making food in a lab cellular agriculture is a Cutting Edge field that focuses
on producing animal proteins through alternative methods bypassing traditional livestock farming
this approach has two main categories one cell cultivation and two Precision fermentation if
you haven't heard about them before both of these technologies will sound a lot like science fiction
self-cultivation is about growing animal or plant cells in the lab and organizing these cells into
tissue like muscles and fatty tissues as they see fit so in essence it's about growing a beef steak
or chicken breast directly on a petri dish but at an industrial scale instead of raising and growing
the whole organism on the other hand Precision fermentation is a process that uses microorganisms
to produce animal proteins such as milk and egg protein all of it without involving animals or
even animal cells fermentation is nothing new humankind has been using fermentation for over 10
000 years to process food and beverages like when making beer yogurt or sauerkraut or beer
however recent advances about technology have unlocked the potential to use Precision
fermentation or PF to produce essential nutrients and proteins in a more sustainable way than ever
thought possible and it's what we'll be focusing on for the rest of this video and if you've bought
food recently you know just how high the prices have gotten and it's not just food but most other
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thanks to Masterworks and you for supporting the show so how does this work precision fermentation
involves a combination of biotechnologies including microbiology genetic engineering
and computer science to explain how it all works let's use a cal as an example and let's assume we
want to produce a whey protein the process starts by sequencing the cow's genome and identifying the
genes that code for that specific protein then we use genetic engineering to insert that Gene
for that Target protein into the microorganisms genome say a for example using something called
recombinant DNA the gene acts as an instruction manual or blueprint telling the microorganism
how to make the desired protein once the gene is inserted the microorganism is placed in a
bioreactor that provides the necessary nutrients for feedstock temperature and pH conditions for
it to grow and produce the protein through biosynthesis the final product is harvested
purified and formulated into food products common misconception is that Precision fermentation foods
are type of genetically modified organism or GMO product which got a bad rap but this is
not the case at all only the microorganism used to produce the protein is genetically modified
kind of like upgrading a factory to make a new product but the PF products themselves are not
genetically modified at all in fact the protein you get is identical to the original protein in
the original plant or animal the gene came from in our example it's indistinguishable from the
Whey Protein we get from the cow Precision fermentation has exciting applications in
various sectors such as dairy meat egg protein production but also in the beauty and Healthcare
Industries and even in fashion perfect day is a california-based company that uses Precision
fermentation to produce animal-free Dairy proteins formo formerly legendary Foods uh fomo real quick
let's go back to Legendary Foods way better name is doing and basically the same thing in Germany
and those vegan Cowboys is doing their part in the UK the every company formerly Clara Foods is
yet another california-based company that employs Precision fermentation to create animal-free egg
white proteins for various applications such as baking protein supplements and pharmaceuticals
outside the food industry we have companies like geltor a biotech company that uses Precision
fermentation to create customizable collagen and gelatin proteins the company's Flagship product
Huma call 21 is a bioactive human collagen currently being used as their hero ingredient
in their Flagship Korean anti-aging face cream one of the best known companies in this space is
california-based impossible Foods company that produces plant-based meat substitutes they use
Precision fermentation to make heme which is a molecule found in animal blood that gives meat
that characteristic flavor impossible food is known the world over for partnering with Burger
King to produce the impossible Whopper and there's a lot of other collaborations happening but that's
one of the most famous of these companies finally we have bolt threads and materials Innovation
company that leverages Precision fermentation to create sustainable high performance fibers
and fabrics the company makes micro silk an engineered spider web Silk protein that is
produced by fermenting sugar with yeast and spun into fibers with properties similar to Natural
silk how amazing is that what really sold me on this idea being the future of food production is
that all these companies I mentioned work on a business to business model meaning they provide
key ingredients for better quality and potentially cheaper components to companies that then make
end consumer products that means that most of the disruption will occur behind the scenes away from
our eyes as consumers we won't need to change our eating habits at all since we'll be eating
essentially the same things right so this wouldn't be going to the grocery store and seeing regular
cheese and some other cheese and paying twice as much for it this this would just be buying cheese
nothing would change that is the game changing component of the story in the case of insulin for
diabetes patients it used to be extracted from the pancreases of pigs and cows but you need almost 25
000 animals to produce a single pound of pure insulin however a company called Genentech
started producing human insulin from genetically modified yeast way back in 1978. today this type
of precision fermented insulin makes up 99 of the market something similar happened
with the cheese industry which today relies on fermentation-produced chymosin to curdle the
milk when before it used to be made with rennet extracted from the stomach of baby calves and
pigs a similar change is underway for the world's most popular flavor and Aroma vanilla 99.14 of
which today is synthetic vanillin derived from petrochemicals Precision fermented vanillin is
pampering the market as prices fall and consumer awareness dry of the demand for safer products so
if you eat cheese like vanilla ice cream or take insulin odds are you're already using PF derived
products at some level companies like the one I mentioned before are shaping the future of food
and this has some great benefits one of the biggest benefits of precision fermentation is
that it can dramatically reduce the environmental footprint of food production to put it in numbers
it requires 80 percent less energy 90 percent less water 90 to 94 percent less feedstock and
99 less land that means that with our current available crop land and freshwater resources we
could feed a population at least 10 times larger than what we have now with a better quality diet
while significantly lowering carbon footprint Precision fermentation also addresses ethical
concerns of livestock farming by producing animal proteins without involving animals at
all effectively eliminating the need for factory farming and the associated animal well welfare
issues and it even offers several health benefits as well for instance the process allows for the
production of custom designed food products without specific allergens like lactose free
dairy products moreover because of products are created in a controlled environment they are less
likely to be contaminated with pathogens such as E coli and salmonella how about mad cow disease from
cattle additionally Precision fermentation can help address nutritional deficiencies especially
for those following plant-based diets by producing essential amino acids and vitamins typically found
in animal products but not in plants making it easier for people to meet their nutritional needs
by the way this brings up a question that's been nagging me for a while and I'd love your input
on this so sound off in the comments below if we eat a burger that's made of exactly the same
components of ground beef at the molecular level but it doesn't involve a cow living or dead in any
way does that classify as vegan I mean it's meat in every practical way but the only thing that
actually comes from the cow is the information we needed to make the proteins but the organisms
actually making the proteins are either bacteria which Belong To The Kingdom Monera yeast or fungi
which belongs to the kingdom fungi so I don't think even saying vegetarian makes any sense at
all since neither the animal or plant kingdoms are involved here and they're nerding out a little bit
but I digress it's Food For Thought now despite the numerous benefits of precision fermentation
several challenges and obstacles need to be addressed before it can become a mainstream
solution for sustainable food production there are obvious technological challenges that haven't
been resolved yet particularly when it comes to making complex Foods at scale since this is a new
technology there will be regulatory hurdles to overcome as well these new PF derived foods will
have to compete with traditional and plant-based Alternatives and then there's the issue of
consumer acceptance regardless of scientists or me and other YouTubers making videos like this will
you feel safe about these foods and would you give it to your children especially right away in the
early days after all there are a lot of critics pushing back against these types of foods with
their main arguments falling within one of three categories a food safety and health concerns most
critics argue that food produced through cellular agriculture or Precision fermentation May pose
unknown health risk due to their novelty and potential for unseen reactions in the human body
especially over time this is where policy makers and Regulators need to step in to force companies
to perform rigorous safety testing before reaching consumers but this is nothing new traditional food
production methods have also faced safety issues such as contamination and foodborne illnesses so
the risks associated with novel foods are not entirely unique other critics also argue that
creating food through cellular Agriculture and precision fermentation is unnatural and
I get that but at the same time those early Nomads probably thought the same thing when we
first started to settle down and plant crops there are also concerns about the potential
exploitation of intellectual property rights and the monopolization of food Resources by
large corporations this is probably what worries me the most actually and as a serious challenge
to overcome especially seeing how companies like Monsanto wield in flexible property to Sue and
Destroy humble Farmers just because their plants were unwillingly pollinated with GMOs from the
farm next door finally there's an issue of cost despite its benefits Precision fermentation is
still very expensive much more so than traditional farming but this is all about to change we're
looking at a convergence of three key technologies that will eventually bring costs down to parity
with farming and then far below that once that happens it's game over for agricultural businesses
you see as I mentioned earlier Precision fermentation requires sequencing genomes and
storing and analyzing vast amounts of biochemical data some something unimaginably expensive two
decades ago luckily the cost of sequencing an entire genome has dropped exponentially by seven
orders of magnitude since 2005 and data storage and computer power have done the same thing in
the last 40 to 60 years it is possible today to sequence an entire genome for under one thousand
dollars and we can store and analyze all the data using an average personal computer combined with
AI this convergence of Technologies makes it even cheaper to design and develop cellular farming and
will ultimately lead to disruption of the entire food industry Tony Siva a world-renowned thought
leader who predicted the success of solar and EVS long before they were a thing put it best
when he described this New Era of Good production as the second domestication the domestication of
microorganisms and this domestication will be here far sooner than you and I could possibly imagine
CB and his team predict that PF proteins will be five times cheaper than farm grown by 23 30 and 10
times cheaper by 2035 and this will completely Wipe Out the current need for the agricultural
industry the first industry to go away will likely be the dairy industry companies that produce whey
protein and protein bars will not flinch terpace real milk way with PF derived way which will be
better in quality and cost half as much in just a few years and we won't even notice it since
we'll keep on getting the same old whey protein shakes or protein bars this alone will immediately
wipe out around a third of the cattle farming industry's total revenue so by as early as 2030
the number of cows in the U.S could have fallen by half and most cattle farmers bankrupt five more
years and almost all the livestock Industries would go under and this will hit many people
hard and this is the part of the story that I hate to think about because with every new technology
there's always unintended consequences and shifts and it's never Pleasant agriculture employs almost
a billion people around the world and accounts for four percent of the global GDP that's 10 of
the population and 27 of the current Global Workforce that means millions could be left
without a job in less than 15 years which is something to worry about but governments and
Farmers can't take action now to Pivot from their current crops to produce feedstock for
precision fermentation they may even incorporate Precision fermentation to process the feedstock
themselves and produce high-value proteins for more Revenue purchasing the modified yeast from
biotech companies it all comes down to adapting to change and rest assured change is coming we've
come so far in so many ways Computing Powers through the roof we're going to Mars all these
exciting things but in a lot of ways two things have always plagued us and continue to water
shortages and food shortages and this could be a solution but I think there's going to be
quite a bit to convince people that this is safe odds are you probably wouldn't notice and again
ultimately they're identical as you mentioned and without any risk of mad cow disease or salmonella
there's something to be positive about here but I think there's just as much unintended
consequences for example what are we gonna do with all the dairy farmers and cows Ranchers
it's a tricky one I really want to know what you guys think and if you think this story
is good bad medium something between you gotta check out this video next