After spending a decade building the field of cellular agriculture, Isha Datar is now on a mission to make sure this technology delivers on its promises to make the world a better place.

Why you should listen

Isha Datar is the executive director of New Harvest, a nonprofit dedicated to ending our dependence on industrial livestock production by growing foods like meat, milk and eggs from cells instead of animals. After publishing one of the first papers to discuss cultured meat in academic literature, she coined the term "cellular agriculture" to create a new category for agricultural products produced from cell cultures rather than whole plants and animals.

In 2014, Datar cofounded two of the world's first cellular agriculture companies: Perfect Day Foods (formerly Muufri) and The Every Company (formerly Clara Foods). She promptly donated all of her founding equity to New Harvest to establish a public endowment for cell ag research. Now, she works to accelerate scientific breakthroughs and steward cultured meat such that it serves the public good.

Isha Datar’s TED talk

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