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The global challenge of feeding a growing population while minimizing environmental impacts necessitates novel food production systems. Plant cellular agriculture offers a sustainable alternative for producing food ingredients; however, its commercial viability is hindered by the high costs and regulatory hurdles associated with conventional reagent-grade culture media. In this study, we developed a novel, cost-effective, and food-grade basal culture medium, FG-N6CI, for rice cellular agriculture. By replacing reagent-grade basal-medium components of the N6CI medium with food-grade alternatives, specifically by substituting chemical reagents with yeast extract, kelp powder, manganese yeast, and a boron supplement, we formulated a food-grade basal nutrient composition while retaining reagent-grade phytohormones. Rice (Oryza sativa L. ‘Taichung 65’) callus cultured on FG-N6CI medium exhibited significantly higher fresh weight (7.1 g) than the conventional N6CI medium (5.8 g) after 35 days (p < 0.05). Gene expression analysis showed no significant differences between the expression of OsHDA710 and OsTIR1, suggesting that FG-N6CI supports normal cellular proliferation and signaling similar to the standard medium. Economically, the cost of FG-N6CI medium was reduced by approximately 72% compared with that of the commercial reagent-grade mixture (219 JPY/L vs. 795 JPY/L). These results demonstrate that FG-N6CI is an economically competitive basal medium for scaling-up plant cellular agriculture.

Cultivated meat could satisfy soaring global protein demand while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the spread of zoonotic diseases such as avian flu. One challenge is that, instead of sharing relevant scientific discoveries, too many companies keep them under lock and key, which imperils the entire sector. Cultivated meat could satisfy soaring global protein demand while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the spread of zoonotic diseases such as avian flu. One challenge is that, instead of sharing relevant scientific discoveries, too many companies keep them under lock and key, which imperils the entire sector.

In the last decade animal agriculture has received significant scrutiny for its many negative environmental consequences. In response to these myriad concerns a wide range of voices have advocated for diets that include less animal products (meat, dairy, eggs), often arguing that animal-based diets are inherently more resource intensive than those based on plants. Prominent in this discourse is a narratives formation developed by a slew of venture capital-backed food technology startups known as alternative protein that I refer to as the bad animal narrative. This narrative argues that livestock are fundamentally bad technology, and the solution to the many environmental problems of animal agriculture is to replace livestock with novel technologies to produce animal product alternatives that will satisfy consumer demand while also solving one of the fundamental environmental challenges of modern agriculture. In this paper I use discourse analysis frameworks from political ecology and science and technology studies to examine a large corpus of publicly available text that includes alternative protein company websites, mission statements, blogs, and connected media pieces, as well as life cycle assessment reports documenting the environmental impacts of alternative protein products as well as conventionally and alternatively produced livestock. This analysis finds that the bad animal narrative places blame on livestock without clearly providing evidence, and it rests on a set of problematic assumptions about the current food system and its possible futures. Analysis of life cycle assessment statistics finds that the industrial system, rather than livestock themselves, is the chief driver of the environmental problems of animal agriculture. The paper concludes with a consideration of the future food system envisioned by the bad animal narrative and its implications for sustainability.

Recombinant collagen is positioned as both an enabler and a product of cellular agriculture, supporting a closed-loop, animal-free collagen ecosystem.Incomplete post-translational modifications (proline/lysine hydroxylation, glycosylation, and crosslinking) emerge as the central bottleneck for functional recombinant collagen.Prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts for recombinant collagen production are compared for post-translational modification capacity, emphasizing how distinct post-translational modification constraints shape recombinant collagen structure and function.Five emerging post-translational modification engineering strategies that alleviate current post-translational modification limitations in recombinant collagen are reviewed, including enzyme coexpression, cotranslational incorporation, genetic modification, genetic code expansion, and photo-crosslinking.Post-translational modification engineering of recombinant collagen is transforming collagen into a programmable biomaterial that underpins self-sustaining, ethical, and scalable cellular agriculture. Collagen is a foundational protein in both native tissues and engineered biomaterials. As cellular agriculture redefines protein production, recombinant collagen (RCOL) is emerging as a viable alternative to animal-derived collagen. RCOL offers molecular control, species-independent scalability, and integration into engineered cell systems. In this context, RCOL supports a closed-loop system: it is both a product of and an enabler for cellular agriculture, powering applications from cultivated meat to regenerative medicine. However, its performance is constrained by post-translational modifications (PTMs), including hydroxylation, glycosylation, and crosslinking, which govern triple-helix stability, fibrillogenesis, and bioactivity. This review discusses emerging strategies (enzyme coexpression, cotranslational incorporation, genetic modification, genetic code expansion, and photo-crosslinking) to bridge the PTM gap and advance RCOL platforms for cellular agriculture. Collagen is a foundational protein in both native tissues and engineered biomaterials. As cellular agriculture redefines protein production, recombinant collagen (RCOL) is emerging as a viable alternative to animal-derived collagen. RCOL offers molecular control, species-independent scalability, and integration into engineered cell systems. In this context, RCOL supports a closed-loop system: it is both a product of and an enabler for cellular agriculture, powering applications from cultivated meat to regenerative medicine. However, its performance is constrained by post-translational modifications (PTMs), including hydroxylation, glycosylation, and crosslinking, which govern triple-helix stability, fibrillogenesis, and bioactivity. This review discusses emerging strategies (enzyme coexpression, cotranslational incorporation, genetic modification, genetic code expansion, and photo-crosslinking) to bridge the PTM gap and advance RCOL platforms for cellular agriculture.

The ‘predatory replacement’ model in agriculture is untenable. We propose a symbiotic framework valorizing farmer-supplied agricultural waste side-streams to fuel bioengineered plant callus for decentralized high-value metabolite biosynthesis. Anchored in open-source governance and codesign, this approach shifts from displacement to innovation, reintegrating farmers to enhance sovereignty and resilience. The ‘predatory replacement’ model in agriculture is untenable. We propose a symbiotic framework valorizing farmer-supplied agricultural waste side-streams to fuel bioengineered plant callus for decentralized high-value metabolite biosynthesis. Anchored in open-source governance and codesign, this approach shifts from displacement to innovation, reintegrating farmers to enhance sovereignty and resilience.

Cellular agriculture has emerged as a strong strategy for producing non-animal high-quality protein-rich food.Cellular agriculture is rooted in muscle tissue engineering efforts for medical applications.There are fundamental differences in the outcomes and scales of medical and food applications of muscle tissue engineering that render them disconnected.Some conventional tissue engineering practices cannot be readily extended to cellular agriculture. Cellular agriculture is an emerging field rooted in engineering meat-mimicking cell-laden structures using tissue engineering practices that have been developed for biomedical applications, including regenerative medicine. Research and industrial efforts are focused on reducing the cost and improving the throughput of cultivated meat (CM) production using these conventional practices. Due to key differences in the goals of muscle tissue engineering for biomedical versus food applications, conventional strategies may not be economically and technologically viable or socially acceptable. In this review, these two fields are critically compared, and the limitations of biomedical tissue engineering practices in achieving the important requirements of food production are discussed. Additionally, the possible solutions and the most promising biomanufacturing strategies for cellular agriculture are highlighted.

Cultured meats (CMs) are produced by in vitro culture of animal cells. Since the first CM burger patty was created in 2013, many companies have been founded to commercialize CM products. We discuss the meat focus and geographical spread of CM companies, the funding landscape, and challenges for commercialization.

Cellular agriculture is an emerging scientific discipline that leverages the existing principles behind stem cell biology, tissue engineering, and animal sciences to create agricultural products from cells in vitro. Cultivated meat, also known as clean meat or cultured meat, is a prominent subfield of cellular agriculture that possesses promising potential to alleviate the negative externalities associated with conventional meat production by producing meat in vitro instead of from slaughter. A core consideration when producing cultivated meat is cell sourcing. Specifically, developing livestock cell sources that possess the necessary proliferative capacity and differentiation potential for cultivated meat production is a key technical component that must be optimized to enable scale-up for commercial production of cultivated meat. There are several possible approaches to develop cell sources for cultivated meat production, each possessing certain advantages and disadvantages. This review will discuss the current cell sources used for cultivated meat production and remaining challenges that need to be overcome to achieve scale-up of cultivated meat for commercial production. We will also discuss cell-focused considerations in other components of the cultivated meat production workflow, namely, culture medium composition, bioreactor expansion, and biomaterial tissue scaffolding.

Meat analogue research and development focuses on the production of sustainable products that recreate conventional meat in its physical sensations (texture, appearance, taste, etc.) and nutritional aspects. Minced products, like burger patties and nuggets, muscle-type products, like chicken or steak-like cuts, and emulsion products, like Frankfurter and Mortadella type sausages, are the major categories of meat analogues. In this review, we discuss key ingredients for the production of these novel products, with special focus on protein sources, and underline the importance of ingredient functionality. Our observation is that structuring processes are optimized based on ingredients that were not originally designed for meat analogues applications. Therefore, mixing and blending different plant materials to obtain superior functionality is for now the common practice. We observed though that an alternative approach towards the use of ingredients such as flours, is gaining more interest. The emphasis, in this case, is on functionality towards use in meat analogues, rather than classical functionality such as purity and solubility. Another trend is the exploration of novel protein sources such as seaweed, algae and proteins produced via fermentation (cellular agriculture).

The emergence of the “4th Industrial Revolution,” i.e. the convergence of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, advanced materials, and bioengineering technologies, could accelerate socioeconomic insecurities and anxieties or provide beneficial alternatives to the status quo. In the post-Covid-19 era, the entities that are best positioned to capitalize on these innovations are large firms, which use digital platforms and big data to orchestrate vast ecosystems of users and extract market share across industry sectors. Nonetheless, these technologies also have the potential to democratize ownership, broaden political-economic participation, and reduce environmental harms. We articulate the potential sociotechnical pathways in this high-stakes crossroads by analyzing cellular agriculture, an exemplary 4th Industrial Revolution technology that synergizes computer science, biopharma, tissue engineering, and food science to grow cultured meat, dairy, and egg products from cultured cells and/or genetically modified yeast. Our exploration of this space involved multi-sited ethnographic research in both (a) the cellular agriculture community and (b) alternative economic organizations devoted to open source licensing, member-owned cooperatives, social financing, and platform business models. Upon discussing how these latter approaches could potentially facilitate alternative sociotechnical pathways in cellular agriculture, we reflect upon the broader implications of this work with respect to the 4th Industrial Revolution and the enduring need for public policy reform.