Den Haag - 03-11-2022
RESPECTfarms presents a vision film on the role a farmer can play in the future cultivated meat market – and explores business models in cellular agriculture.
More and more people are talking about cultivated meat - and funds are being made available for research. At the same time, the growth of agriculture, especially that of animal proteins, is under a magnifying glass. RESPECTfarms is an international organisation that wants to build a bridge between these two themes. They participated in a vision film about the production of cultivated meat on farms. Commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ira van Eelen of RESPECTfarms and filmmaker Ronald van Proosdij sketch a picture of what a farm might look like in the future.
RESPECTfarms shares a new vision film on the integration of conventional and cellular agriculture to show what agriculture can look like in the future: cellular.
RESPECTfarms is convinced that the film helps to make clear what they are talking about when they say that farmers can play a role in cellular agriculture. Co-founder Ira van Eelen: "This is a good example that a picture says more than 1000 words. It will help to have a better conversation about this topic."
The makers
The film was produced by Ronald van Proosdij (Buro Proost) to promote research in this field and for policy makers, researchers, and farmers to gain more insight into alternative production methods within agriculture. The vision film is also a presentation of research results, which have previously been done by Prof. Cor van der Weelen from Wageningen University and Research, Ira van Eelen, and the European Commission. The InVitroMeat Foundation has received public financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture for making the video. Ira van Eelen is co-founder of RESPECTfarms and board member of the InVitroMeat Foundation. Ira is the daughter of Willem van Eelen, a Dutch researcher. He is considered the godfather of cultured meat.
"There is no doubt that cultured meat has a future. Although the Netherlands is one of the frontrunners in this field, Singapore is the first country to market cultured meat. Real meat, without slaughter. At the moment (2022) it is not yet possible to produce or consume cultured meat at scale in the European Union" says Ira van Eelen, co-founder of RESPECTfarms.
Cultivated meat farm, film versus reality
As much real material as possible has been used. The architect in the video is a real architect, employed by Royal Haskoning DHV that has already made designs for several cultivated meat companies. RESPECTfarms is a real organization that explores the possibilities of cellular agriculture for farmers. The farm in the video is run by a real farmer who wants to produce cultured meat on his farm since 2011 and is actively involved in it. The farm in the video is run by a real farmer who wants to produce cultivated meat on his farm since 2011 and is actively involved in it. If the results of the desirable feasibility study are positive, a test farm will be realized.
The video can be viewed here: youtube.com
About RESPECTfarms
RESPECTfarms is an international foundation with activities in the Netherlands and Germany, founded by Ira van Eelen, Ralf Becks, Florentine Zieglowski and Ruud Zanders.
RESPECTfarms' vision develops new business models for conventional agriculture, leveraging the promising technology of cellular agriculture. RESPECTfarms sees itself as a system integrator of these technologies on the farm. The idea of decentralized cultivated meat production on farms stems from the results of the world's first consortium in the field of cellular agriculture, funded by the Dutch government. This research was led by Willem van Eelen, father of Ira van Eelen, a researcher that is considered the godfather of cultivated meat.
RESPECTfarms' vision develops new business models for conventional agriculture, leveraging the promising technology of cellular agriculture. RESPECTfarms sees itself as a system integrator of these technologies on the farm. The idea of decentralized cultured meat production on farms stems from the results of the world's first consortium in the field of cellular agriculture, funded by the Dutch government. This research was led by Willem van Eelen.