Founded | February 2014 [1] |
---|---|
Founder | Yuki Hanyu |
Legal status | Non-profit |
Location | |
Field | Cultured meat |
Website | Official website (in English) Official website (in Japanese) |
The Shojinmeat Project [a] is a citizen science movement, [6] loosely-structured [7] non-profit organization, [8] and art project about cultured meat, a subset of cellular agriculture. Their approach to developing and popularizing cultured meat has been noted as unique from efforts in the field before it, in that it envisions cultured meat as something that can be made at home with a process understood by its consumer, [9] [10] analogous to home brewing. [11] The Shojinmeat Project was created in Japan by Yuki Hanyu (Japanese : 羽生 雄毅), [12] [13] but has become an internationally collaborative effort welcoming a variety of talent. [2] [14]
The shōjin of Shojinmeat's name (Japanese : 精進) [15] [8] is a Japanese Buddhist term, meaning "devotion" to the path to Nirvana. Hanyu is not a Buddhist, but views the resource-intensive methods required for livestock meat such as deforestation as contrary to this path to Nirvana, [16] and named Shojinmeat in tribute to the devotion required to follow that path successfully. [12] The term is also part of shōjin ryōri , meaning "devotion cooking", [17] the diet eaten by monks under the precept of not eating anything able to "run away when chased"; [18] which has excluded nearly all kinds of animal-based meat until, arguably, the invention of cultured meat. [19] [20]
In February 2014, Yuki Hanyu had held a PhD. in Chemistry [13] and worked as a system engineer for Toshiba when he decided to apply his knowledge to some form of futuristic technology, having been interested in science fiction since childhood. Among other choices like space travel and energy, he chose cultured meat because of what he saw as a current global need, [12] and determined a "do-it-yourself" community to be convenient in the effort to bring this newly emergent technology's cost down to a popularly accessible level. [7]
His first partners in this project were obtained at an "informal coworking space in Tokyo" called Lab Café [8] after he had asked for those skilled in cell culture to help him theorize how meat could be grown on Mars. [21] It was here that Ikko Kawashima, future co-founder of IntegriCulture, joined the team. [1]
The Shojinmeat Project has no formal definition of membership, though in 2020, Hanyu reckoned it to have between 20 and 30 active members. Official Slack channels existed in Japanese and English for online collaboration. [21] [22]
The Shojinmeat Project is involved in educating the general public about cultured meat, [10] that is adults as well as children. [16] They have written manuals about the science behind cultured meat [23] as well as how it can be produced by individuals outside the setting of a business or laboratory. [24] They have conveyed such information, also, through public presentations at schools [21] [7] and academic conferences. [1]
Hanyu believes education and DIY is necessary to avoid cellular agriculture falling into corporate monopoly and, by extension, a further point of public controversy. He views the history of genetically modified organisms as a cautionary tale, [16] and in an interview with Hive Life, stated that: [10]
Instead, we’re building an open process where academic and scientific knowledge goes to the people rather than straight to the business to scale and deliver. This means that citizens and game players such as farmers, butchers, and chefs can get involved with hands-on experience, set the direction, decide on what meat should be like, and make society-wide agreements.
Hanyu's love of science fiction media that's served as an impetus [25] and inspiration in this venture [1] is something he believes can also work to the benefit of developing personal interest in others for what Shojinmeat teaches. [10]
Thus, the Shojinmeat Project has spawned a sporadic gallery of artwork conveying visions of a future with cultured meat. The original characters Miyo and Aco feature in these works, [9] showcasing futuristic cultured meat technologies in places such as on Mars [26] and underwater. A VRChat environment of a cultured meat facility on Mars was created for Shojinmeat, [27] and at least one fanzine associated with Shojinmeat has been sold at Comiket. [1]
IntegriCulture Inc., a for-profit entity also founded by Yuki Hanyu, was registered in 2015 initially "as a vehicle to gain access to lab equipment" for Shojinmeat, [1] and it's operations continued to overlap with Shojinmeat's past the 2010s. [21] Shojinmeat's Keita Fukumoto has discussed cultured meat in part of a 20-minute spot on NHK's News at 5 , [28] and Hanyu has given several interviews about the project to outlets covering food, business, and innovation in science. This includes one to New Harvest, [8] with whom Shojinmeat has been featured in events and work, [16] [29] stemming from them, as well as the Good Food Institute, being in contact and collaboration since 2015. [1]
Buddhist cuisine is an Asian cuisine that is followed by monks and many believers from areas historically influenced by Mahayana Buddhism. It is vegetarian or vegan, and it is based on the Dharmic concept of ahimsa (non-violence). Vegetarianism is common in other Dharmic faiths such as Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, as well as East Asian religions like Taoism. While monks, nuns and a minority of believers are vegetarian year-round, many believers follow the Buddhist vegetarian diet for celebrations.
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Common seafood is often grilled, but it is also sometimes served raw as sashimi or as sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as tempura. Apart from rice, a staple includes noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes, such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga.
Seitan is a food made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. It is also known as miànjīn, fu, milgogi, wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten.
Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat among other names, is a form of cellular agriculture wherein meat is produced by culturing animal cells in vitro. Cultured meat is produced using tissue engineering techniques pioneered in regenerative medicine. Jason Matheny popularized the concept in the early 2000s after he co-authored a paper on cultured meat production and created New Harvest, the world's first non-profit organization dedicated to in-vitro meat research. Cultured meat has the potential to mitigate the environmental impact of meat production and address issues regarding animal welfare, food security and human health.
Yakiniku, meaning "grilled meat", is a Japanese term that, in its broadest sense, refers to grilled meat cuisine.
Do-it-yourself biology is a biotechnological social movement in which individuals, communities, and small organizations study biology and life science using the same methods as traditional research institutions. DIY biology is primarily undertaken by individuals with limited research training from academia or corporations, who then mentor and oversee other DIY biologists with little or no formal training. This may be done as a hobby, as a not-for-profit endeavor for community learning and open-science innovation, or for profit, to start a business.
New Harvest is a donor-funded research institute dedicated to the field of cellular agriculture, focusing on advances in scientific research efforts surrounding cultured animal products. Its research aims to resolve growing environmental and ethical concerns associated with industrial livestock production.
Kaiseki (懐石) or kaiseki-ryōri is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals and is analogous to Western haute cuisine.
Upside Foods is a food technology company headquartered in Berkeley, California, aiming to grow sustainable cultured meat. The company was founded in 2015 by Uma Valeti (CEO), Nicholas Genovese (CSO), and Will Clem. Valeti was a cardiologist and a professor at the University of Minnesota.
This page is a timeline of major events in the history of cellular agriculture. Cellular agriculture refers to the development of agricultural products - especially animal products - from cell cultures rather than the bodies of living organisms. This includes in vitro or cultured meat, as well as cultured dairy, eggs, leather, gelatin, and silk. In recent years a number of cellular animal agriculture companies and non-profits have emerged due to technological advances and increasing concern over the animal welfare and rights, environmental, and public health problems associated with conventional animal agriculture.
SuperMeat is an Israeli startup company working to develop a "meal-ready" chicken cultured meat product created through the use of cell culture.
Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agricultural products from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology to create and design new methods of producing proteins, fats, and tissues that would otherwise come from traditional agriculture. Most of the industry is focused on animal products such as meat, milk, and eggs, produced in cell culture rather than raising and slaughtering farmed livestock which is associated with substantial global problems of detrimental environmental impacts, animal welfare, food security and human health. Cellular agriculture is a field of the biobased economy. The most well known cellular agriculture concept is cultured meat.
Mosa Meat is a Dutch food technology company, headquartered in Maastricht, Netherlands, creating production methods for cultured meat. It was founded in May 2016.
From Fauna, formerly known as the Cellular Agriculture Society, is an international 501(c)(3) organization that has been involved in research, funding, advancement of, and most recently education in, cellular agriculture. It is based in San Francisco, and was founded by Kris Spiros in the early 2010s.
Finless Foods, or Finless for short, is an American biotechnology company aimed at cultured fish, particularly bluefin tuna.
Aleph Farms is a cellular agriculture company active in the food technology space. It was co-founded in 2017 by the Israeli food-tech incubator "The Kitchen Hub" of Strauss Group Ltd., and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.
BioTech Foods is a Spanish biotechnology company dedicated to the development of cultured meat from the cultivation of muscle cells previously extracted from animals. It is a subsidiary of Brazilian company JBS S.A.
Vow is an Australian company that grows cultured meat for commercial distribution, and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Believer Meats, from 2018 to 2022 known as Future Meat Technologies, or Future Meat for short, is a biotechnology firm which produces cultured meat from chicken cells and is working on cultured lamb kebabs and beef burgers. Based in Israel, its main office is located in Jerusalem, while its primary production facility is operating in Rehovot. Future Meat Technologies mainly seeks to supply hardware and cell lines to manufacturers of cultured meat rather than directly selling food products to consumers. In November 2022, Future Meat Technologies rebranded to Believer Meats.
Meatable is a Dutch biotechnology company aimed at cultured meat, particularly pork.
Assuming that the biopsy will be taken with a needle, the discomfort for the animal will likely not be greater than the taking of a blood sample, whilst in case of an incision biopsy, the level of discomfort will likely be greater, although still not substantial.
I STARTED THIS whole thing because of science fiction," says Dr Yuki Hanyu, co-founder of non-profit cultured-meat collective Shojinmeat. "Cell-based meat happens everywhere in manga and anime sci-fi.