Future of Foods Podcast: Sandhya Sriram, Co-Founder, Shiok Meats – vegconomist

Alex Crisp of the Future of Foods podcast here interviews Sandhya Sriram, co-founder of Shiok Meats. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Singapore, Shiok Meats specializes in cell-cultivated shrimp, crab, and lobster, aiming to address the environmental and ethical concerns associated with traditional seafood harvesting.

In March of this year, it was announced that Shiok has merged with UMAMI Bioworks, also of Singapore, to establish a combined entity that will bring cultivated seafood closer to commercial viability.

In the full podcast, they discuss: regulatory approvals for cultivated meat; promotion of meat-free events; political dynamics and meat consumption; challenges for politicians and entrepreneurs; supportive environment in Singapore; business strategy and government support; resistance from traditional farmers; and collaboration between traditional and cultivated meat producers.

This is a link to the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-tka62hupQ

This is a link to the audio interview: RSS link https://rss.com/podcasts/alexcrisp-futureoffood/1463923/

Below is a short clip from the podcast

Alex: Do you think governments generally are doing enough or do you think they could do more to encourage the growth of the industry?

Sandhya: I think they definitely can do more. In fact one of the biggest bottlenecks has been the long processing time for regulatory approvals I think that can be definitely speeded up a little bit with a lot more experts being involved in the review process. I’m not telling them to not do as much review. I’m saying that the review should be better – to make sure the product is extremely safe for human consumption but do it faster. Maybe a lot more eyes and brains will make that happen faster.

I’m just thinking if you’re holding a conference for example and it’s a four-day event why not do it animal-free? I mean it’s not like people can’t survive without eating meat just for three or four days and that sets an example that will change the percentage of meat consumption a little bit over time. When you tell people not to do something they want to do it more right and it is human tendency. It’s just those small changes that can happen and if a large event like COP29 I think this year. If Cop29 goes meat-free that will be one of the biggest statements that you can have right and especially if it’s a climate conference so yeah hoping things change over time.

Alex: It’s a strange situation that we’re in really because we have we have populist governments springing up around the world in the USA and the UK as well so even though in private they kind of legislate to encourage less advertising aimed at children or less advertising of meat, politically they are trying to get the message across that they support meat eating and that they are against any kind of change of people’s habits because they know it’ll look bad on their their voter role

Sandhya: Again for governments and politicians you have to try to keep everybody happy to an extent right or a majority of the population. So you want to seem really practical but at the same time you have to keep in mind you are running for your next term as well and you want the voting population as you mentioned but also strike that balance and it’s hard it’s super hard as an entrepreneur and as a politician.

I draw a lot of parallels between being in the government and being an entrepreneur. Many times it’s sort of this very awkward place to be in where you have a lot of conviction and you want to do a lot of things but you get into the system and you’re like okay I was fine when I was at the back of it and not in the front of it so it’s an interesting balance.

Alex: Did you find it easy and supportive in Singapore with the government?

Sandhya: Oh very much I think Singapore is one of those really supportive open governments. There’s a reason behind it – we don’t have an agricultural population we don’t produce any of our food so there is no lobbying. There are hardly any farmers so it works great in a country of five million people where we produce 10 percent of our food and we import 90 percent but would that work in somewhere like Europe or US?  You know the answer to that is a no. So Singapore is probably one of those two good to be true countries sometimes it’s in its own bubble with all of that so they were extremely supportive with grants and with media with access to investors, access to food companies and their connections.

Because Shiok Meats is essentially a b2b company and so is Umami – where we want to license out our technology to other food companies rather than going b2c so we had that vision and strategy from day one both of us, that’s one of the reasons for a merger and Singapore government is excellent in getting us across that line and leading us into these food companies that were really hard to get into sometimes and making them understand that – ‘hey guys we’re not against you we want you to diversify the way you’re producing seafood here’s a technology that we believe will be better in the long run so why don’t you take a small bite of it – pun intended – and then look at whether you want to grow this in the future.

Alex: I suppose farmers are quite unhappy about this industry – they see it as a threat – certainly in Europe and in France and places like this.

Sandhya: Yeah I’m not surprised by it. I think it was a natural lead into that. Unfortunately, it has come to a point where certain states or countries have legally banned cultivated meat from ever launching in their state or country which I think is unfair but that’s for another day. But yeah this protest by the farmers or sort of being worried and sort of questioning the need and so on is a great conversation starter and it’s a great window and door to open into how can these two sets of people work together. I am very passionate about this non-profit called Respect Farms – they’re based out of the Netherlands and they are trying to do exactly that.

They come from a non-cultivated non-farmer background from a food and technology background and they’re saying how do we put these two people together and create an open conversation about it?  Their vision is to put a bioreactor on a farm. That’s exactly what they want to do – they’re trying to convince a couple of Dutch farmers to set aside if I’m not wrong, five percent of their farming land to try to put a bioreactor inside and see if they can produce meat the traditional way and meat in a bioreactor. That farmer can sell both. That’s their ultimate vision so I’m very supportive of that. I think we need to get that sort of collaboration in place.