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The Leading Lab-Grown-Meat Company Just Paused a Major Expansion
In September 2023, Upside Foods announced its plans to open a large cultivated meat plant in Glenview, Illinois. The 187,000-square-foot plant was slated to have an initial capacity of millions of pounds of bioreactor-brewed meat per year, which would make it one of the largest planned factories in the nascent cultivated meat industry. The company nicknamed the facility Rubicon, signifying “a point of no return” for cultivated meat production.
WIRED can reveal that Upside’s plans to build Rubicon have been put on hold, and the company will instead focus on doubling its investment in its established facility in Emeryville, California before it continues work in Glenview. In an email seen by WIRED, Upside CEO Uma Valeti told employees that expanding operations at its Emeryville facility would cost “substantially less” than building the first phase of Rubicon and that the company had been streamlining the way it operates and stopping noncritical work.
The Illinois factory was supposed to be a major step toward the commercialization of cultivated meat, with a potential capacity of more than 30 million pounds per year. As part of its commitment to the project, Upside had said it planned to invest more than $140 million in the Midwest region and create 75 new jobs associated with the factory. In April 2022 Upside closed a $400 million Series C funding round, the largest in the industry to date, which brought the company to a self-claimed valuation of more than $1 billion.
The lack of large amounts of funding leaves companies in a chicken-or-egg situation, says Anthony Chow, cofounder at cellular agriculture investment firm Agronomics, which is not an investor in Upside. Cultivated meat is still much more expensive than conventional meat, so investors want to see proof that startups can bring down costs before they commit to large factories. But it can be hard for startups to prove that they can grow meat at scale without having those large factories in the first place.
80% of Americans Test Positive for Chemical Found in Cheerios, Quaker Oats That May Cause Infertility, Delayed Puberty: Study
Four out of five Americans are being exposed to a little-known chemical found in popular oat-based foods — including Cheerios and Quaker Oats — that is linked to reduced fertility, altered fetal growth, and delayed puberty.
The Environmental Working Group published a study in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology on Thursday that found a staggering 80% of Americans tested positive for a harmful pesticide called chlormequat.
The “highly toxic agricultural chemical” is federally allowed to be used on oats and other grains imported to the U.S., according to the EWG. When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters a plant’s growth, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest, per the EWG.
“Just as troubling, we detected the chemical in 92% of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,” the nonprofit organization said in a report published alongside the group’s findings.
Food Additives Linked to 15% Higher Cancer Risk, Say French Scientists
Certain additives that are used to improve the texture and shelf life of food could increase the risk of cancer by 15%, a new study by French researchers has found.
The new study, by researchers from research institutes Inserm and Inrae was published in the scientific journal PLOS Medicine on February 13, and was the “first observational study of its kind”, said Inserm in a press release. The report suggested that there could be a significant link between consuming foods that contain emulsifiers, and a higher risk of cancer, including of the breast and prostate.
Many common processed products contain emulsifiers and additives, including sweets, patisserie, chocolate bars, and ready meals. These include E471, E407, and E407a. The results showed that there was a 15% higher risk of cancer in people who consumed the most products containing monoglycerides and diglycerides of fatty acids (called E471 on the packaging), compared with people who consumed the least.
The association was even clearer for breast cancer (24%) and prostate cancer (46%). There was a 32% increased risk of breast cancer in women who consumed the most carrageenans (E407 and E407a).
West Virginia Agriculture Bill Stokes Fears About Pesticide-Spewing Logging Facility
A West Virginia bill approved by the House of Delegates on Tuesday that limits counties from regulating agricultural operations is stoking fears that a logging company could resurrect plans to build a toxic-spewing fumigation facility in the picturesque Allegheny Mountains.
Last May, Allegheny Wood Products withdrew an application for a state air permit to build a facility off U.S. Route 48 in the Hardy County community of Baker after residents bombarded state regulators with opposition. At the time, the county commission said the company’s efforts would have faced huge hurdles locally.
The facility would treat logs before they are shipped overseas. Prior to the company backing down, the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality said it tentatively planned to issue the permit that would let the facility emit up to nearly 10 tons (9.07 metric tons) of the pesticide methyl bromide into the atmosphere each year.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, methyl bromide can cause lung disease, convulsions, comas and ultimately death. It is three times heavier than air and can accumulate in poorly ventilated or low-lying areas and remain in the air for days under adverse conditions.
The bill doesn’t specifically address the fumigation facility, but it bans counties from prohibiting the purchase or restricting the use of any federal or state-registered pesticide, herbicide or insecticide.
U.S. Is ’18 Months or so’ Away From Finding Bird Flu Vaccine, Says Agriculture Secretary
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is “18 months or so” away from identifying a vaccine for the current strain of bird flu and is developing a process to distribute it, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday.
USDA has found bird flu in 8 commercial flocks and 14 backyard flocks so far this year, affecting 530,000 poultry, according to agency data.
“We are probably 18 months or so away from being able to identify a vaccine that would be effective for this particular (avian flu) that we’re dealing with now,” Vilsack said at a Congressional hearing.
The World Organization for Animal Health in May said governments should consider bird flu vaccinations for poultry to prevent the spread of the virus from turning into a pandemic.
Restaurant Foods Linked to More ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Blood
Unfortunately, the old saying ‘you are what you eat’ seems to apply to chemicals. In a new study, researchers examined how diet affects the levels of ‘forever chemicals‘ in our bodies. They found that people who ate out more often and consumed more ultra-processed foods and tea had higher blood levels of PFAS (per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances).
PFAS are found in household products such as non-stick cookware, food packaging, and water and stain repellents. PFAS have a very stable chemical structure, making them robust and difficult to dissolve, so they are often called ‘forever chemicals’. They have been linked to many adverse health effects, including an increased risk of liver cancer, high cholesterol, and obesity.
In the new study, researchers focused on understanding how dietary trends and food choices influence blood levels of ‘forever chemicals’ by looking at a group of adults between the ages of 19 and 24. They focused on a younger cohort because that’s when people tend to move out of their parent’s homes and develop their adult eating habits.
The team’s analysis showed that the more tea, pork, sports drinks, chips, and bottled water people consumed, the higher the levels of PFAS in their blood. The strongest associations were found with tea and pork consumption. Previous studies based on the same U.S. population assessed in this study had already shown that higher meat consumption was associated with higher levels of PFAS. One hypothesis behind this finding could be that animals are exposed to these chemicals in their drinking water and feed.
Do Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) Cause Anxiety?
What came first — the Cheeto or the existential crisis? That’s the question a recent story in The New York Times hoped to answer. Though a definitive answer remains elusive, many scientists, nutritionists, and more believe the proliferation of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) informs many Americans’ diets now more than ever, and that there is a possibility that they contribute to decreased mental and emotional wellbeing.
The average American consumes about 60% of their daily calories from UPFs, and a recent study published by the National Institute of Health revealed that the more UPF participants ate, the more likely they were to report mild depression or even feelings of anxiety. And this was no small sample size — 10,000 consenting adults reported as much to Dr. Hecht, the study’s author. And according to Dr. Hecht, “There was a significant increase in mentally unhealthy days for those eating 60% or more of their calories from UPFs,” and, despite proof of causation, there definitely appeared to be an association present.
More disturbingly, another recent study followed over 10,000 Brazilian adults over a decade and found a correlation between UPF consumption and cognitive decline with a diminished ability to learn, remember, reason, and solve problems.
Meals Made With Fresh, Whole Foods Could Transform Our Healthcare System
Researchers now tell us that 95% of seniors have chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis. They also tell us that eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods can help improve health outcomes and even prevent or reverse illness.
Unfortunately, in our country, the science is light-years ahead of the public policy on this issue. Instead of acknowledging the link between poor nutrition and chronic illness, federal programs like Medicare often incentivize costly treatments and expensive prescription drugs.
But what if things were different? What if our healthcare system recognized the healing power of food and let federal programs like Medicare treat and prevent diet-related diseases through healthy eating?
A new bipartisan bill in Congress that I’ve introduced alongside Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) in the Senate aims to do just that.
Angry Farmer Protests Are Spreading Across Europe — and Getting Results
The European Union prides itself on being a champion for the environment. But that reputation is now being firmly tested after it toned down its climate policies following angry farmer protests that are taking place across the continent.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, now intends to scrap a plan to halve pesticide use. In addition, the institution also decided last week to omit the agricultural sector out of a strict timeline for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% before 2040.
“We need to reduce the use of pesticides, but not to force the farmers [to do it],” he said, adding that the solution is to provide more financial subsidies to the sector to incentivize them to pursue greener practices. There’s been a culmination of factors that have pushed farmers to protest in recent weeks, causing some damage in capitals such as Paris. These include rising costs, higher debt, competition from cheaper markets and falling sale prices.
The farmer protest even stretched across the English Channel to the U.K. at the back end of last week. British farmers, with the country no longer in the EU, made an impromptu tractor demo in the port town of Dover on Friday as they protested against foreign imports of food.
A European Grocery Chain Is Boycotting High Prices. Could It Happen in the U.S.?
In 2022, grocery prices rose more than they had in over four decades, since the “great inflation” of the 1970s. The hair-raising climb has finally stopped, but the pain remains: We’re still paying 25% more for groceries than we did in 2019. A pound of ground beef in December 2019 was $3.86 — in December 2023 it was $5.21. A 16-ounce bag of potato chips went from $4.53 to $6.40. The price of a 12-ounce can of soda rose almost 64%. Consumer prices tend to go only one way — up.
Despite a falling inflation rate and low unemployment, Americans have a dismal outlook on the economy; food prices being stuck stubbornly high is almost certainly a big reason why. A majority of people, according to a recent YouGov survey, now blame inflation on big corporations seeking maximum profits.
In January, a major European grocery chain called Carrefour said it would drop some of Pepsi’s products from over 9,000 store shelves in Poland, Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain, citing “unacceptable price increases,” displaying signs in stores to explain the absence.
Across the pond, apparently, it’s not just consumers that try to boycott food brands — powerful grocery retailers get in on the game too.
PepsiCo, for its part, is insisting that it pulled out of Carrefour, not the other way around, because it couldn’t agree on a new contract. A PepsiCo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that it couldn’t “sustain customer relationships which are no longer profitable.” Neither Carrefour nor PepsiCo responded to a request for comment for this article.
Pesticides: ‘We, Researchers, Condemn the Way Scientific Knowledge Is Being Shelved’
In 2021 and 2022, we presented the conclusions of three scientific knowledge syntheses on the impacts of plant protection products (pesticides) along with alternative solutions. Conducted as part of the Ecophyto plan at the request of the government to inform its decision-making, this research project, coordinated by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) and the French Research Institute for Sea Exploitation, (IFREMER) was unprecedented in terms of its scale, with a hundred or so experts involved and over 11,000 publications analyzed.
Our collective scientific expertise enabled us to demonstrate the extent of pesticides’ impact on public health and the environment while highlighting agroecological alternative solutions capable of tackling environmental challenges while preserving agricultural production.
Our work also identified the socio-economic and institutional obstacles limiting the roll-out of alternative options and the levers available for overcoming them. Our findings have fed into parliamentary work stressing the need to strengthen the Ecophyto plan, as it has failed to reduce pesticide use. However, the government chose to suspend this plan to appease the conflict with part of the farming world.
