The Department of Defense granted $1.4 million to a lab-grown meat company.
The award to the Better Meat Company, based in West Sacramento, California, along with other companies, is part of the White House’s Executive Order 14081, “Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy.”
According to the 2022 executive order, biotechnology and biomanufacturing can be used to “achieve our climate and energy goals, improve food security and sustainability, secure our supply chains, and grow the economy across all of America.”
Companies will receive “funding to produce business and technical plans that detail construction of domestic bioindustrial manufacturing production facilities under the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC) Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), a contract vehicle awarded and overseen by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy,” according to the DOD.
The awards aim to help build “resilient supply chains and address emerging threats,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience Carla Zeppieri.
Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Company, said the United States will be “greatly advantaged by taking a leadership role in biomanufacturing, especially when it comes to efficient, innovative methods of food production.”
The Better Company Meat Company uses protein from fermented fungi to create its fake meat. The lab-grown meat product is called Rhiza.
Earlier this year, the DOD sought to give service members lab-grown protein.
The DOD has since backed down from the effort.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) announced in July that after “weeks of engaging with Congress and speaking out against this plan, we are thrilled to have DoD confirmation that lab-grown protein is not on the menu for our nation’s servicemembers. These men and women make the greatest sacrifices every day in service to our country and they deserve high-quality, nutritious, and wholesome food like real beef grown by American farmers and ranchers.”
NCBA Senior Director of Government Affairs Sigrid Johannes said that while the DOD “can and should be on the cutting edge of science,” there is a “big difference between industrial or defense applications and the food we put in our bodies. U.S. farmers and ranchers are more than capable of meeting the military’s need for high-quality protein.”