Business For Good Podcast

Selling Cellular Agriculture the Nonprofit Way: Isha Datar and New Harvest

by Paul Shapiro 

Oct 1, 2019 | Episode 42

If you’re a regular listener of the show, you may recognize the name of this episode’s guest since she’s been mentioned on at least two past episodes. Isha Datar is a cofounder of both Perfect Day and Clara Foods, companies respectively growing real dairy and egg proteins from microbes and which were the subjects of Episodes 21 and 34. 

Yet Isha is perhaps best known not for her work cofounding for-profit start-ups seeking to build a more sustainable food system. Really she’s better-known for her role as the executive director of New Harvest, a nonprofit organization advancing the field of “cellular agriculture”—a term, by the way, that Isha coined. 

Discussed in this episode

Isha’s 2010 academic paper that launched her career in cultured meat: “Possibilities for an in vitro meat production system”

Isha’s 2013 TEDx talk that helped her candidacy to run New Harvest: “Re-Thinking Meat”

Our episode with Perfect Day discussing Isha’s role cofounding the company

Our episode with Clara Foods discussing Isha’s role cofounding the company

Clean Meat, Paul’s book in which Isha is a central character

You’ll hear in this interview what role Isha thinks nonprofits like hers should play in a nascent industry whose start-ups are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital. As well, Isha discusses the fact that many of the people now working at cell ag start-ups have come through New Harvest and its ecosystem.

Also discussed in the episode are controversial topics like what to call meat grown from animal cells, when that meat may hit the market, and whether it will be more of an evolution or a revolution in the meat industry. Really, there’s something in this interview for everyone!

The Generosity Network by Jennifer McCrea

Mission Barns, a startup growing real animal fat without animals

Modern Meadow, a company that fed both Isha and Paul cultured beef in 2014

Jason Matheny, founder of New Harvest