Can lab-grown meat save the planet? | Newsletter

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Cultivated meat’ is out of the lab headed to your table

The market for cultivated—or “lab-grown,” if you prefer—meat just got a boost from U.S. regulators. With a thumbs-up from the Food and Drug Administration, these meat alternatives are inching ever closer to mainstream. The cultivated meat market could reach $25B by 2030, according to McKinsey. This is due in part to the fact that cultivated meat cuts 96% of carbon emissions from the meat harvesting process compared to traditional methods. Cultivated meat has already hit the shelves in Singapore.

Glass half empty or full on climate progress?

The most recent climate report from the United Nations was released, with mixed messages for industry. Glass half empty: We’re falling far behind goals for cutting emissions. Glass half full: We possess the technology we need to fix it. So what should we do? Options on the table include scaling up existing clean energy sources; slashing methane emissions from oil and food waste; protecting existing natural carbon sinks; and rapidly transitioning to an all-electric future focusing on energy efficiency at every turn. That’s a lot for green tech founders to tackle.

Is your tech company greenwashing?

Since the advent of the modern environmentalist movement, hundreds of tree-planting schemes have sprouted up. These schemes hope to offset the rapidly changing climate by simply growing new forests to replace the old. Many companies now “offset” their carbon footprint by paying tree-planting schemes to plant on their behalf, but research shows that there is “no way” that these schemes can even come close to addressing the climate crisis without equivalent reductions in extractive resource use.

Big bank = big carbon footprint

Environmentalists have begun a grassroots push to get big American banks like Citigroup and Bank of America out of the ever-expanding fossil fuel industry. Protests have taken to the streets across the country, threatening a banking boycott if Wall Street continues to financially support the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. This might have some teeth, given most of these protestors are older Americans, who control 70% of the country’s financial assets.

Dive Deeper

• Cultivated meat is closer to our plate now that Good Meat also gets FDA Blessing, (TechCrunch)
• The UN just handed out an urgent climate to-do list. Here’s what it says. (MIT Tech Review)
• How much does mass tree planting affect climate change? (Quartz)
• Climate activists target nation’s big banks, urging divestment from fossil fuels (NPR)
• Silicon Valley Bank’s Crash is providing valuable lessons all over the world (TechCrunch)

Tweet of the Week

What We’re Reading

• Is there a drop in software engineer job openings, globally? (Pragmatic Engineer)
• Gen Z dating app Snack lets your AI-trained avatar go on dates so you don’t have to (Fast Company)
• Google launches Bard AI Chatbot to Counter ChatGPT (Wall Street Journal)
• North America’s First Hydrogen-Powered Train will Debut this summer (Smithsonian)
• Is Saliva the Next Frontier in Cancer Detection? (Smithsonian)

Companies in the News (and hiring)

• San Francisco-based Coalition, an active digital insurance company designed to prevent risk before it starts, raised a $250M Series F from Allianz X and others, with a $5B valuation. They’re hiring backend and frontend engineers.
• Austin, Texas-based Steadily, a landlord insurance company, raised a $27.8M Series A from Matrix Partners and others, bringing total funding to $31M. They’re hiring engineers, managers, and analysts.
• Boston-based Klaviyo, a customer data and marketing automation platform, a $320M Series D led by Sands Capital and others. They’re hiring engineers and managers.

Startups hiring now

• Trunk: DevEx in a box | 5 open roles
• Featureform: Standardizes how features are defined, managed, and shared | 2 open roles
• Default: All-in-one inbound lead qualification, scheduling, and routing platform | 1 open role