On February 24, 2015 the cultured meat movement lost one of its pioneers, Willem Frederik van Eelen.

Van Eelen (born on July 4th, 1923, in Dutch-controlled Indonesia) contributed an enormous amount of time, energy and ingenuity to this cause, catalyzing interest in the Netherlands and abroad and helping scientists to find the funding necessary to pursue their work. Van Eelen’s personal reasons for taking an interested in cultured meat have been widely publicized: a POW in Japanese camps in Indonesia during WWII, van Eelen was exposed to hunger (by his own report almost dying of malnutrition) and he witnessed his…

The event was a way for people who are involved and interested in cultured animal products to have the chance to taste and hear firsthand about what has been developed thus far, while engaging in discussions about how to tackle practical challenges like what language can be used to describe these kinds of products, how to overcome the misinformation and confusion felt by the general public on how science relates to food, and other topics.

I flew in from Edmonton primarily to attend, knowing the unbearable FOMO I would suffer otherwise. Tickets easily sold out and over 130 people came…

This month, the Jeremy Coller Foundation is matching all gifts up to a total of $100,000. Double your impact and match your gift today!

Originally published at https://www.new-harvest.org on December 15, 2015 by Isha Datar.

Insights From a Community Discussion on FDA Approval of Genetically Engineered AquaAdvantage Salmon

AquaAdvantage is a salmon, developed by AquaBounty Inc., that has been genetically enhanced to grow more quickly in order to reach market size quicker than conventional salmon. On November 19, 2015, AquaBounty announced that it had received approval from the U.S. FDA for production, sale, and human consumption.

Last month, CUESA — the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture held an event in San Francisco to discuss the implications of what this approval may have on wild salmon populations, consumers, and fishermen, as well as Center…

New Harvest has been invited to participate in an incredible opportunity to shape U.S. regulatory policy for biotechnology products.

On June 27, Isha will be a panelist at Future Biotechnology Products and Opportunities to Enhance Capabilities of the Biotechnology Regulatory System — a meeting in San Francisco hosted by the National Academies of Sciences at the request of the EPA, USDA, FDA, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to get perspectives from biotech leaders on regulatory hurdles in the existing framework for federal oversight.

Currently, biotech products are regulated under the 1986 “Coordinated Framework For Biotechnology…

Rebecca Ruth Seidel is the dairy manager and cheesemaker of Wholesome Dairy Farms, a grazing operation in rural Pennsylvania. As a 4th generation dairy farmer, decade-long vegetarian, and former Penn State American Studies graduate student, she’s interested in the intersection of animal ethics, scientific progress, and the American diet. Rebecca shares her perspective on cellular agriculture as a current dairy farmer in her first guest post for the New Harvest blog.

“Cellular agriculture should not be viewed as a threat by the agricultural community. …

It’s been a couple of weeks since New Harvest 2016 — this is Erin’s “NH True Hollywood story” of how it all went down.

We often joked in the office that there was something very wedding-like about it, with all the prep, nerves, and the actual day being a dreamy blur. So this is my attempt to describe what the world’s first cellular agriculture conference was like, from my perspective.

#Realtalk, a few months ago, we had our moments of wondering whether we could even fill 200 seats. But soon enough, we had to increase our ticket sales to make…

New Harvest Communications Director Erin explains some of the processes that fall under cellular agriculture in plain English. A version of this article was originally published in AgFunder in July 2016.

There are a growing number of animal-free protein products hitting the shelves today, and with them are a variety of production methods. Cellular agriculture differs from the recent wave of plant-based products like Beyond Meat’s burgers, Hampton Creek’s line of condiments and baking products, and the varieties of nut-based milks now on the market. …