Meat the Future (2020)

Synopsis

Meat the Future is a timely documentary about “cultivated meat”, a food science that grows real meat from animal cells in a controlled environment, free from disease and infection; a revolution in food production, proposing a sustainable way to feed the world in the future – without the need to breed, raise and slaughter animals. At the forefront of this urgent new frontier is cardiologist Dr. Uma Valeti, the co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats, one of the leading start-ups in the field. From a meatball which cost $18,000 per pound in 2016 to the world’s first “clean” chicken fillet in 2017 for half the cost, the film follows Valeti over three years as production prices continue to plummet and consumers eye the birth of this industry.

Director's Statement

Documentaries are powerful platforms to unveil ideas, inspire empathy and motivate social change. After spending years making consciousness-raising films shot around the globe, and after the successful release of The Ghosts In Our Machine, I was looking to follow a visionary, solution-focused story, and in 2015 came across the emergence of “cellular agriculture”. If growing real meat from animal cells without the need to raise and slaughter animals -with the goal of reducing environmental impacts on the planet’s ecosystem and climate- was indeed underway, I hoped to find an entry-point. After meeting Dr. Uma Valeti, co-founder and CEO of Memphis Meats, I felt certain there was a film. Securing unique access to Uma and his team, and to Bruce Friedrich and his think tank organization The Good Food Institute, provided me and the film team with a personal, up-close vantage point to chronicle the birth of an industry. The future of cell-based meat is unknown, but its revolutionary promise and journey into the world -as documented between 2016 – 2019- is a story that stands the test of time.

– Liz Marshall