August 21^st was a huge day delivering the Made & Grown – The Future of Food event that AFII co-hosted with Cellular Agriculture Australia and the ANU National Security College. Over 150 people from government, industry, research, funders and investors attended the event. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect industry, researchers and innovators in thoughtful panel discussions and exciting taste testing.

Then on August 22^nd, I joined a live  radio interview (starting 1 h 45 mins into the program) with Emma Bickley on ABC Canberra 666 to discuss the previous days’ event. ‘My goal for the interview was to highlight the vast opportunities that biotechnology brings for Australia, both for how we make and grow food, as well as ways that biotechnology is helping us address a range of environmental and industrial challenges.  But before I could get to those points, I had to respond to Emma’s first question: “Fake food – is that really the way forward when we talk about the future of food?”.  I should have seen that one coming! 

My response was to move beyond the negativity of ‘fake’ and to highlight the positive roles of biomanufacturing – for not just our food system, but also for the environment and other industries such as mining.  I also wanted to demonstrate how biomanufacturing supports rather than replaces traditional forms of food production (e.g. Miruku using oil seeds to produce dairy proteins that are then used by traditional food manufacturers). It was also important to show how biomanufacturing is a huge opportunity for regional Australia through the creation of new, well-paying jobs and providing new customers for farmers to sell their agricultural produce to.  Indeed, the scale of the economic opportunity for Australia is extraordinary – so long as we have a regulatory and policy environment that supports rather than hinders the sector, use procurement demand from government to reduce risk for investors, and ensure that customers have trust in biomanufacturing products.

While I may not have convinced all listeners (with many of those texting in being dead against cultivated meat), we did get to finish on a positive, with a message from a listener called ‘Bob’ saying “yes, yes, yes – he could not wait to try a cultivated meat product”.  A pity that Bob had not been at the event the day before, as he would have been able to try cultured lamb meatballs from Magic Valley, cultured foie gras quail from Vow, plant-based chocolate with precision fermentation fats from Nourish Ingredients, and delicious oat milk ice cream from Future Swirl.  The participants on the day were very excited for the opportunity to try some of these new innovations, with many asking for seconds. If you are subscriber to the Canberra Times, you can read Amy Martin’s excellent article about her experience eating these products in her Aug 26^th article.

Biotechnology was also a key topic on the agenda for an August visit to AFII by the Ambassador of Thailand to Australia, H.E. Ms Arjaree Sriratanaban.  The visit provided an opportunity to showcase examples of how the ANU-nodes of the Plant SynBio Facility and Australian Plant Phenomics Network, along with two ARC Training Centres (Future Crops Development, Plant Biosecurity) are harnessing the power of biotechnology to improve crop productivity, climate resilience and biosecurity.  Like Australia, Thailand faces the challenge of maintaining agricultural productivity in a future of shifting climates and growing demand for nutritious, affordable food.  As a very positive follow up to the meeting, the lead of the Plant SynBio Facility will travel with others to Thailand to share knowledge on applications of biotechnology in agriculture with Thai researchers.

On another note, earlier in the year, AFII made a submission to the Federal Government’s Strategic Review of Research and Development (SERD).  In our submission, we proposed the “establishment of a new, outcome-focused government funding program, exemplified by a National Resilience Sovereign Innovation Fund. This program would target long-term, complex national challenges through the resourcing of mission-style investments, incentivising collaboration, translation, and the co-creation of solutions with industry and community stakeholders, with a clear focus on developing the skills and pathways for the next generation of researchers and industry professionals”.  Given this input, I was pleased to see the first issues paper ‘National coordination for RD&I impact’ acknowledge the need for a mission-style, long-term (10+ year horizon) approach to address national challenges in selected key focus areas (one of which was agriculture). This proposal aligns well with our (along with University of Adelaide, University of Western Australia and University of Queensland) earlier proposal for a National Mission for Future Crop and Community Resilience.  I’ll be referring to that proposal when providing feedback on the SERD issue paper (comments on the issues papers are due 30/9/2025).

I  also want to congratulate the AFII team and Inspiring Australia ACT for their contribution to events that were part of National Science Week (9-17 August).  Science Week provides an amazing opportunity to connect science with the community and showcase the wonderful work scientists are doing across the country to better our everyday lives.

Finally, back to Emma Bickley’s question about whether fake food is our future.  All of the initiatives in August say to me that the future is not fake – it’s about harnessing the power of innovative research to create a sustainable, more resilient food system for all.

Owen Atkin