US President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order focused on advancing biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation with specific focus on new innovations in the agriculture sector and advancement of alternative proteins.

President Biden has directed relevant heads of government agencies to provide assessments of the diverse fields in biotechnology to explore possible impact on medicine, climate change, and food production within 180 days.

The executive order further seeks to allocate more federal funding towards establishing a US-based sustainable, safe, and secure bioeconomy. Aside from this recent initiative, the US made a formal investment in cultivated meat last year where the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a grant of USD 10 million over five years to Tufts University for the establishment of the National Institute for Cellular Agriculture.

Analyst QuickTake: Cell cultured meat is considered to be the future of meat production as the technology enables the production of meat using a small number of animal cells as opposed to the current conventional resource intensive approach of slaughtering animals. Early this month, Israel, another leading food tech innovator competing closely with the US, also included food tech amongst its top five national R&D priorities . The Netherlands has also supported the industry by earmarking EUR 60 million for the development of the local cell cultured industry and has also passed a legislation approving public cultivated meat samplings . In January this year, China included cultivated meat and other future foods in its five year agricultural plan indicating that cultivated meat is indeed one of China’s national interests. Other countries like Norway have also launched five-year agricultural projects to promote the development of cellular agriculture.