Welcoming L5 Capital and Making the Bioeconomy Real with Cellular Agriculture
CULT Food Science recently announced that Canadian entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Marc Lustig, has acquired 15% of the company through his family office L5 Capital Inc. This signifies the recognition of the potential of the cellular agriculture ecosystem to spark the larger bioeconomy and that the industry is at a pivotal moment of growth. It also sends a clear message to the larger venture capital and equity market ecosystem that the industry of cellular agriculture now represents an enormous opportunity for both impact and capital growth.
Our food system produces one third of the world’s carbon emissions, with 60% of that coming from meat. With a growing population, rising middle class, and tapering of plant protein adoption, our food needs will only increase over the next decade. There is no question that climate change will negatively impact our ability to produce our nutrition needs globally. Cellular agriculture, also known as biotechnology based manufacturing, is one of the only viable alternatives to traditional agriculture that can introduce layers of resilience into the global food system.
Biotechnology is one of the most abstract subjects for most of us. The question of “when will we see these biotechnology innovations hit the mainstream” is a constant. Even with (relatively) recent announcements, such as CRISPR, these advancements can take decades to be visibly tangible for many of us. They take decades of work to proliferate into our daily lives.
Cellular agriculture as an industry is the one suite of bio innovations that is poised to leave an imprint on our daily lives, our local grocery stores, and our food systems in the near future. It will make the idea of the “bioeconomy” tangible in everyday life by putting the idea directly in front of us and onto our plates.
With some predictions putting the industry near the hundreds of billions by 2030, cellular agriculture is set to be one of the fastest growing industries in the next decade. And given the realities of climate change, the ability for cellular agriculture to reach an estimated 94% reduction in land use, over 50% reduction of water, 97% less carbon/methane emissions for food production the potential for these technologies to create a more resilient system is high.
This is the very potential that has now been recognized by Marc Lustig, who himself has a background in biotechnology. Further, he has deep experience founding companies, previously being the founder of Origin House which had a $1.1B CAD exit to Cresco Labs.
The systems of food production we have utilized for the last 100 years are incapable of carrying us forward into a long term sustainable pathway due to their impact on the climate. We are taking action and building a more decentralized and climate resilient food production model, to bring this future bioeconomy through cellular agriculture to everyday people, not 50 years from now - but today.
