Fermenting Better Meat with Paul Shapiro
04/07/22 • 35 min
The meat industry is known for following dirty and often inhumane processes. But the fact that meat consumption is such an ancient practice doesn’t mean that it can’t be reinvented. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Donna meets Paul Shapiro, author of the bestseller Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner And The World. As the book’s title suggests, Paul is hopeful of rendering the factory farming system totally obsolete. They discuss his decision to become vegan at age 13, the mysteries and virtues of the fungi kingdom and the possibilities of alternative meat experiences in the future.
Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.
JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:
(01:17) - Discovering veganism as a young teenager - “I thought ‘Wow, not only can you abstain from eating animal products, but you can actually thrive as the world's number one athlete and be vegan’.”
(06:30) - The Compassion Over Killing Club - “I decided to shift it from being a high school club at my Washington DC high school to being really like a DC-wide organization. And so I expanded it out and more and more adults started getting involved.”
(09:25) - How animal rights have evolved - “Nobody stopped because they cared about geese. They stopped because metal fountain pens were invented.”
(14:30) - Understanding the benefits of fungi and the many ways to produce meat without killing animals - “Most of the time, when people think about fungi, they are thinking about mushrooms and they're not synonyms. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi.”
(17:28) - A new food pyramid: Why fungi, like animals, needs to be domesticated for human consumption - “This is an effort to optimize both the actual organism and the environment in which it's grown to make sure that we can produce the most efficient and most sustainable type of meat experience on the planet.”
(22:41) - The mission to render the factory farming system obsolete - “We want to create a world in which a factory farm is viewed as much as an archaic relic of an obsolete past as a whaling ship is.”
(27:04) - Conversations inside the meat industry, home based solutions and the future of meat consumption - “If we know that eating animals is a driving factor for pandemic risk, if we know it's the number one cause of deforestation, antibiotic resistance and cruelty and more, why not try to recreate meat without animals?”
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Connect with Paul on Twitter and at his website
Learn more about The Better Meat Co. and follow them on Instagram
Watch Paul’s Ted Talk: Clean meat: The clean energy of food
Read Paul’s book: Clean Meat
Thank you for listening! Follow Before IT Happened on Instagram and Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts!
Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and StudioPod Media with additional editing and sound design by nodalab. The Executive Producer is Katie Sunku Wood and all episodes are written by Jack Buehrer.
The meat industry is known for following dirty and often inhumane processes. But the fact that meat consumption is such an ancient practice doesn’t mean that it can’t be reinvented. In this episode of Before IT Happened, Donna meets Paul Shapiro, author of the bestseller Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner And The World. As the book’s title suggests, Paul is hopeful of rendering the factory farming system totally obsolete. They discuss his decision to become vegan at age 13, the mysteries and virtues of the fungi kingdom and the possibilities of alternative meat experiences in the future.
Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.
JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:
(01:17) - Discovering veganism as a young teenager - “I thought ‘Wow, not only can you abstain from eating animal products, but you can actually thrive as the world's number one athlete and be vegan’.”
(06:30) - The Compassion Over Killing Club - “I decided to shift it from being a high school club at my Washington DC high school to being really like a DC-wide organization. And so I expanded it out and more and more adults started getting involved.”
(09:25) - How animal rights have evolved - “Nobody stopped because they cared about geese. They stopped because metal fountain pens were invented.”
(14:30) - Understanding the benefits of fungi and the many ways to produce meat without killing animals - “Most of the time, when people think about fungi, they are thinking about mushrooms and they're not synonyms. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi.”
(17:28) - A new food pyramid: Why fungi, like animals, needs to be domesticated for human consumption - “This is an effort to optimize both the actual organism and the environment in which it's grown to make sure that we can produce the most efficient and most sustainable type of meat experience on the planet.”
(22:41) - The mission to render the factory farming system obsolete - “We want to create a world in which a factory farm is viewed as much as an archaic relic of an obsolete past as a whaling ship is.”
(27:04) - Conversations inside the meat industry, home based solutions and the future of meat consumption - “If we know that eating animals is a driving factor for pandemic risk, if we know it's the number one cause of deforestation, antibiotic resistance and cruelty and more, why not try to recreate meat without animals?”
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Connect with Paul on Twitter and at his website
Learn more about The Better Meat Co. and follow them on Instagram
Watch Paul’s Ted Talk: Clean meat: The clean energy of food
Read Paul’s book: Clean Meat
Thank you for listening! Follow Before IT Happened on Instagram and Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts!
Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and StudioPod Media with additional editing and sound design by nodalab. The Executive Producer is Katie Sunku Wood and all episodes are written by Jack Buehrer.
Previous Episode
Driving the Nostalgia of Motorcycles into the EV Era with Paul d’Orléans
The EV revolution is speeding up. If it’s on wheels, chances are someone has figured out how to take it electric. But what has been the path that has brought us here? In this episode, Donna talks with Paul D’Orleans, founder of The Vintagest and possibly the world's foremost authority on the EV revolution happening on two wheels. We spoke about his passion for buying and repairing rare and vintage motorcycles models from around the world and the moment when he decided to share his expertise with the world through his blog The Vintagent. Paul also shared his views on what will push the EV revolution forward. Join us and discover why Paul’s knowledge of motorcycles' past is just as exciting as the future!
Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.
JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:
(01:52) - Paul D’Orleans on his first motorbike and growing up in Stockton, California - “I cultivated a kind of street smarts or at least street awareness from an early age, but, you know, I was kid, so I mostly I had fun.”
(06:21) - Paul’s first business as a freelance painter in San Francisco and the vintage motorcycle scene in the 80s - “This was no ordinary unemployed hooligan club. These were people who all had college educations that loved carrying around on old British motorcycles.”
(12:25) All the way to the Soviet border: Paul’s motorcycle road trip to Europe in 1988 - “I was encouraged to take a trip in 1987 out to the Eastern Bloc to buy old motorcycles because there were quite a few ex-military and other machines and they were dirt cheap.”
(15:33) - The growing momentum for motorcycles in pop culture and the creation of The Vintagent - “I just started posting photos with one or two sentences at first. And then as I learned how to play that instrument, it became much more elaborate.”
(23:02) - Why it’s important to understand the history of electric vehicles and the present transitional phase - “In early January 2009, I was able to be the first press anywhere to break the story of the world's first electric superbike. Who knew that 10 years later, I would have that bike in one of my Peterson exhibits.”
(29:08) - What will really push the EV revolution forward - “If you want mass adoption, you need legislation. That's what happened in China. They banned small internal combustion motors from the center of their big cities. Boom! They got 4 million EVs on the road.”
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Follow Paul on Instagram, Facebook
Read The Vintagent
Read Paul’s book The Current
Learn more about the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles
See the latest street fashions on The Sartorialist
Thank you for listening! Follow Before IT Happened on Instagram and Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts!
Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and StudioPod Media with additional editing and sound design by nodalab. The Executive Producer is Katie Sunku Wood and all episodes are written by Jack Buehrer.
Next Episode
Solving the Cheese Problem with Change Foods' David Bucca
Food is an emotional and cultural experience. There is no easy way to replace the traditional ingredients that come from animals, but it may no longer be necessary to think about ‘replacing’ them. In this episode, David Bucca, Founder and CEO of Change Foods, joins the show to talk about the company’s game-changing approach to making dairy-free cheese. David also shares the pivotal moment when he decided to leave his aerospace career behind to start this entrepreneurial adventure. Join us in this delicious conversation and be part of this gooey, stretchy and melty revolution!
Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.
JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:
(01:32) - From aerospace engineer and pilot to cheese revolutionary - “I've always been very diverse in lots of different interests and wanting to pursue different paths. So it was actually going to be either music or aerospace engineering.”
(04:31) - David’s primary role as an engineer working for Boeing and Airbus - “I spent a year in Hamburg and worked for Airbus, but that was more in flight dynamics. So I was working in a simulator, which was pretty fun because I managed to fly around a little bit and crashed a few times.”
(06:38) - The big bang moment: David’s switch to engineering cheese - “The skillset from aerospace is perfectly suitable to the challenges that we're facing in food technology.”
(14:29) - Why Change Foods is focusing on dairy - “I love the fact that it was still a cell-based technology and that it can recreate bio identical compounds. However, it was also a technology that's been already used for 30 to 40 years in many other food applications.”
(18:43) - Understanding microbes’ role in the cheese production process - “I loved that idea of actually not necessarily stopping beautiful traditions, but rather working with them and just revolutionizing them in a different way.”
(22:53) - From Australia to Silicon Valley - “There's some fantastic innovations and tech that comes out of Australia, but they are typically commercialized in other more substantial markets that you can leverage the resources of.”
(27:57) - Products that Change Foods is currently developing - “The revolutionary thing is that we haven't actually eaten it yet. We have smelled it and played around with it, but until it's produced in a food grade facility, that's when we'll actually be able to eat it.”
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Connect with David on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram
Learn more about Change Foods
Read Bloomberg’s Cow-Free Cheese Startup’s ‘Holy Grail’ Quest Wins Big Backers
Read Green Queen’s Animal-Free Dairy Startup Change Foods Closes Record $12 Million Seed Extension To Disrupt Cheese
Listen to Before IT Happened’s: Taking On the $100 Billion Pet Food Industry with Because Animals'
Listen to Before IT Happened’s: Sprouting our way to Better Health and Sustainability with Doug Evans
Thank you for listening! Follow Before IT Happened on Instagram and Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts!
Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and
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