Understanding Cellular Agriculture - On Tech Ethics

Discusses cellular agriculture, including current applications, benefits, technological progress and challenges, and ethical issues. 

Our guest today is Natalie Rubio, the executive director of the Cellular Agriculture Commercialization Laboratory at Tufts University, who is working to convert early-stage innovations to impactful technologies to reduce costs, increase scale, and improve the quality of cellular agriculture products. Previously, Natalie worked at New Harvest, Perfect Day Foods, and Ark Biotech. 
 

Additional resources: 

• Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture: https://cellularagriculture.tufts.edu/ 
• New Harvest: https://new-harvest.org/ 
• Good Food Institute: https://gfi.org/ 
• CITI Program’s “Technology, Ethics, and Regulations” course: https://about.citiprogram.org/course/technology-ethics-and-regulations/ 

Chapters

• 3:18 Definition of Cellular Agriculture
• 6:19 Global Issues Addressed by Cellular Agriculture
• 11:12 Technologies in Cellular Agriculture
• 12:03 Precision Fermentation Explained
• 14:34 Cell Cultivation Process
• 19:03 Challenges in Scaling Cultured Products
• 23:55 Ethical Considerations in Cultured Products
• 24:00 The Use of Animal Products in Cultured Meat
• 25:18 Consumer Perception and Communication
• 27:10 Advancing Cellular Agriculture
• 29:21 Resources for Learning and Getting Involved
• 33:06 Ethical Considerations in Transitioning Industries