Global food leadership: Up for grabs?

Before kicking off this article, I’d like to say upfront that I’d like your opinion. Why? Because I’m still thinking through this article’s ideas. Perhaps you can help me arrive
at the right place; up for it?

If you’ve read my previous articles, you know we’re in an exciting time for the protein industry. The past decades were very much about, ‘Can we do X, Y or Z with technology A, B or C?’

Eureka! in many cases we now know we can actually do what we wondered about.

Expression systems, fermentation, synthetic biology, protein engineering, protein purification, and the past decades have allowed us to validate and prove there are whole new ways to create proteins.

My personal focus, over the past decade, has been to support those crazy people validating technologies that will unlock protein production for the food industry. Why food? Because as our population grows, so does our need for food and also the stresses placed upon our world to deliver on our needs. In my opinion, this is one of the most important reasons for these technologies.

The Malthusian idea that our resources grow only linearly but our population grows exponentially made me one scared teenager. Until I saw what technology was allowing us to do in other areas of the human experience. Light bulb moment! We could think our way out of extinction and the likelihood of civil unrest and revolution. Technology could help us grow our food production exponentially, too. Optimism reigns supreme

We can leave innovators to figure it out alone, or we can bring them together with the resources and infrastructure to scale faster

Back to where I started. We are able to use these technologies to increase our protein production.

Over the past decade I have worked with great people to find true food innovators around the world: we gave them money, introduced them to fantastic mentors, and rolled up our sleeves in an effort to help them realize their visions.

At the last count, Big Idea Ventures and I had invested in and supported +175 teams/companies from more than 30 countries globally. They have been small teams dotted around the planet, working on validating and eventually scaling their businesses.

This is where I am starting to need your opinion. My team and I have written checks, worked with these teams, and done everything we can to help them become successful. Yet these teams are still doing their own things spread throughout the planet. Is there another way? Perhaps a way that can help us achieve that sustainable exponential growth we need?

I’m going to admit something I often don’t talk about – I was born in a place in the UK called Milton Keynes. It’s been the focus of a lot of jokes since its inception in 1968. It was created to be the city of the future. The people who designed this city had a plan, a strategy for bringing resources together to deliver regional transformation – creating a modern urban environment that could serve as a model for future city developments. The city is one of the most efficient in the UK – it has many reasons to celebrate its existence. Some people love it, others are still making jokes.

London, however, grew up organically over centuries. A 2,000-year-old city that has only had city planning for about 130 years. A wonderful city but not
the most efficient. So what?

This is where you come in. We can leave those innovators alone to do their own thing, hope they figure it all out and eventually they will grow and make a significant contribution to sustainable food production. Or we could be bringing the best of these innovators together, making sure they have the resources, know-how, and infrastructure so they can scale their technologies, making a greater contribution to sustainable exponential food growth faster.

This need is a significant opportunity for leadership. Various places have the potential to become leaders, production and distribution centers for global food production. Big Idea Ventures has been asked to work with some of them.

These new technologies don’t need the same amount of land, water, and resources as traditional protein production methods. Places that had historic constraints are no longer constrained with these new technologies. Global leadership will be driven by those who commit to allocating the required resources and the focus on scaling these new technologies. Part of the challenge will be knowing which companies should be part of the new jigsaw puzzle. I wish we had the time to let all this growth happen organically, but the world's clock is ticking.

I would love your input; what do you think? Also, what, how, where, and with whom should we be working? Send me an email: mentions@bigideaventures.com!

Andrew D. Ive is the Founder/Managing General Partner, at Big Idea Ventures. He is an advisory board member for Tufts Nutrition Council, is a Friedman School Entrepreneurship advisor, Harvard Business School graduate, Procter & Gamble brand management trained, and has spent a number of years as an entrepreneur growing companies. This article is republished from the Q1 2025 edition of Protein Production Technology International, the industry's leading resource for alternative proteins. To subscribe to all future editions, please click here