By the end of 2023, the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality provided information on developers, producers and sellers of cultured meat and meat substitutes who have received government support. In the form of finances, subsidies or other contributions in knowledge or support over the period from 1 January 2016 to 26 July 2023. This is a request based on the Open Government Act (Woo). It concerns 52 companies. Whether they received financial support, grants or other contributions in knowledge or support is not told. Support was provided directly from the state (including projects co-financed through RVO), from the Seed Capital scheme or meat substitutes MIA and Vamil. Which companies this concerns is shown in Annex 3 via this link to see.
A lot of money is being poured into biotechnology by the government. In 2019, pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is putting $67 million into research with CRISPR-Cas, a revolutionary technique that allows scientists to cut and paste very precisely into our DNA.
In the report Trend analysis biotechnology 2023 (March 2023) states that scientific and technological developments in biotechnology are very fast. Yet it appears that companies that have received a lot of government support for the (biotechnological) protein alternatives are not doing well. This is according to the news report by frituurwereld.nl. They stated in 2023 that producers of meat substitutes are struggling. "Danish-British producer Meatless Farm, based in Amsterdam and Almere, almost went bankrupt at the end of June. A takeover narrowly saved the brand. US plant-based pioneer Beyond Meat is also struggling. Both are companies that grew tremendously in a short time and attracted the attention of investors. Both Meatless Farm, started three years ago, and Beyond Meat managed to raise many tens of millions of euros from investors for expansion in recent years. Their problems are not isolated: more broadly, it is visible that sales growth of meat substitutes such as plant-based burgers is stalling. There is even a decline in sales."
Looks like consumers are not enthusiastic (yet). Nevertheless, the Dutch government is investing some €60-85 million in Cellular Agriculture Netherlands to further develop genetically modified products of animal origin. The downside of CRISPR (cellular agriculture technique) is that there are also dangers to this method. For instance, during previous experiments, other genes were unintentionally switched off and genes ended up in wrong places in the DNA. There are also fears that this technique could end up in the wrong hands.
In the trend analysis, under support for society, we read: "Several surveys have been conducted on divergent views of citizens on biotechnology and its applications." It then refers to an old survey from 2019. "Knowledge about societal values and public perception is important to have a view on preconditions under which developments can be acceptable." And then they come up with the example of the COVID-19 pandemic and biotechnology's contribution to the protein transition. Nowhere does it say that consumers embrace these biotech developments. Yet it is being pushed through with a lot of money while the dangers are still incalculable.
