As the cultivated meat industry gains momentum, innovative approaches to its production are emerging. In this exclusive interview with Florentine Zieglowski, co-founder of the Netherlands' RESPECTfarms, we delve into the firm's groundbreaking solution aimed at bridging the gap between traditional farmers and cell-based meat production.

RESPECTfarms' fully automated plug-and-play system enables farmers to transition to, or integrate, cellular agriculture into their operations. This conversation sheds light on the potential symbiotic relationship between conventional and cultivated meat farming, promising a more sustainable and resilient future for the food industry.

Can you tell us about RESPECTfarms and its vision and mission?

We believe that conventional farmers can create value and earn money with cellular agriculture. RESPECTfarms aims at making cultivated meat production accessible to farmers by providing a fully automated 'plug-n-play' system. In this way, farmers can transition to or add cellular agriculture to their business model as food producers.

What are the main challenges you anticipate in this transition, and how does RESPECTfarms plan to address them?

Next to the technological and regulatory challenges that any cultivated meat company faces, it is a challenge to make food producers and farmers aware of their own opportunities that come with cellular agriculture technologies. Cultivated meat is currently primarily seen as a way for big corporations to create big production facilities. In this way, the conversion of cell-based and plant-based materials into meat would not happen on farms anymore but in the meat processing industry.

It is important to stress and communicate the opportunities and benefits cultivated meat production has directly on farms and that we will be able to transition towards a more sustainable and resilient food system faster if we incorporate the combination of cellular agriculture and farming practices.

How does RESPECTfarms act as a system integrator between farmers and biotech firms, and what unique value does this integration bring?

We integrate different systems and technologies and combine them to make cultivated meat accessible. If you think about a bioreactor or a cell line, a farmer cannot do anything with it. But if you provide them with the right production system, they can produce the food. RESPECTfarms supports farmers to transition to cultivated meat, with the right technology, access to regulatory approval, or support in operations.

What technological infrastructure and training will farmers need to adopt to effectively produce cultivated meat?

Our end goal is to design a system where farmers do not need to get years of scientific study knowledge to operate a bioprocess. The technological infrastructure needed will come from us and our partners.

What social impacts do you anticipate from the transition to cultivated meat, particularly in rural and farming communities?

With a more sustainable and animal-friendly protein production, we aim for greater independence of farmers in the supply chain. We also expect a greater focus on animal welfare once more land becomes available through this more efficient method of meat production, and we anticipate the opportunity to strengthen rural development and the connection between farmers and consumers.

We have been executing quantitative and qualitative research for the past year to evaluate the social impact of cultivated meat farming. The results of this, as well as our feasibility report on transitioning traditional meat farms to cultivated meat farms, will be published in the upcoming weeks!

What is the expected timeline for farmers to begin producing cultivated meat on a significant scale?

We expect significant production and the involvement of more farmers from 2030 onwards, once we have implemented our scale-out approach and optimised our system on our first demonstration farm. Our demonstration farm will be used for research and development, production and also experience and education, a place for our partners in the public and private sectors, alongside farming organisations, to come together.

How do you foresee the economic impact of this transition on traditional farmers? Will it be financially viable for them to switch to cultivated meat production?

Currently, farmers lose money on every euro invested and are heavily dependent on subsidies. We will only offer a production system to farmers if it is viable. Only then can we call it sustainable meat production and a better system than before. And only then it makes sense.

What strategies are in place to educate consumers and the market about the benefits and safety of cultivated meat?

We plan to open the world´s first pilot farm in 2025. Workshops, presentations and events will happen here for farmers, consumers, politicians and other stakeholders to come together, to see a transparent production process, and to get informed about the technology. All of this will happen in collaboration with non-profit organisations, farmers unions and universities to help disseminate and communicate all information needed.

What are your long-term goals for RESPECTfarms, and how do you see the cultivated meat industry evolving over the next decade?

Our goal is to transform 1000 farms by 2038, saving around 840 tonnes of CO2, 3 tonnes of nitrogen, 10 tonnes of methane and 3 million litres of water per farm per year.

We see a future where livestock farming, regenerative agriculture and other forms of agriculture create synergies with cellular farming. It will be a future where we will have bigger production facilities that serve a certain customer group on the one hand, and farms that can serve a different customer group on the other hand, comparable to what we see in the brewery industry today.

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