Chapter 138: Cultured Meat (4)

“Let’s go,” Young-Joon said.

He gave the Kochia plant to Kim Chul-Kwon.

“Please keep this in the car for a bit.”

Young-Joon followed the Blue House employees and went to a cafe nearby. There was already a room reserved. As Young-Joon walked in, the cafe owner gave him a drink. Then, a middle-aged man with gravitas came in.

“Hello, Doctor Ryu,” he said as he sat down on the sofa across from him. “I’m Kim Jun-Rak, the chief of staff of the Blue House.

“Hello.”

“We should have met at the Blue House sooner, but we are a little late. I apologize.”

“How did you know I was at a flower shop?”

“Our informants track you when you go overseas.”

“...”

That was a bit of a problematic statement.

“I am a citizen. Are you saying that you were surveilling me?”

“You were attacked in Korea before as well, right? We’re just trying to keep track of your whereabouts because it will be a big problem diplomatically and a big loss for the country if you get into an accident overseas.”

“...”

“I could have made excuses, but I told you in honesty because I respect you. I hope you don’t take it the wrong way.”

“Alright.”

“And from what we know, we are not the only people tracking your movements.”

“Are you saying there are more?”

“Yes. We cannot tell you in detail, but intelligence organizations from a lot of countries and big companies are following you, Doctor Ryu. I mean, they have no choice since... We never know when you are going to do something, like develop cultured meat technology. It is helpful to at least know that you went to Eat the Green, a venture company that does cultured meat.”

“I see what you mean. Then, let’s get to the point,” Young-Joon said.

Kim Jun-Rak took a sip of his coffee. He paused for a moment before speaking.

“Doctor Ryu, don’t develop the cultured meat technology.”

“Don’t develop it?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It is for your own good, Doctor Ryu. They are too big of an opponent. This research will affect the entire traditional livestock industry. There will be opposition, and whatever that opposition is, it will be significant. It could even be physical.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“It does seem like you have a great security team.”

Young-Joon automatically glanced at Rosaline, who was sitting beside the sofa, and Kim Jun-Rak glanced at the K-Cops security team.

“But Doctor Ryu, you don’t know what will happen in a country like the United States where they have guns, no matter how good your security team is. President Kennedy was assassinated here, but you don’t have that level of security,” Kim Jun-Rak said. “And there’s also the question of public support. The concept of cultured meat is unfamiliar to people, and a lot of people are going to reject it. If livestock companies provoke them with even a little bit of false information about its dangers, there is quickly going to be opposition. Cultured meat has too many points that can be attacked in terms of safety. It can be ripped apart by everyone and be destroyed.”

“I already know that.”

“Doctor Ryu, you have become a hero in the pharmaceutical industry. You are the most valuable human resource in South Korea right now. To be honest, we don’t want to lose that,” Kim Jun-Rak said. “We are saying this because we don’t want to see you go into the cultured meat industry and collapse. That industry is too big to take on. It’s a completely different story from competing with big pharma companies like Schuamtix and A-Gen. You should stop when you can.”

“...”

Young-Joon combed through his hair with his hand.

“Mr. Kim, do you not think that this technology is needed?”

“It is. I am also someone in charge of shaping the policies of a country. We are on the verge of a global food crisis, and it won’t be long until it hits the world, but I would like you to leave that to other scientists. There is no need for you to go up against them yourself. You have too much to lose.”

“... Mr. Kim, do you know about a scientist named Jon Beckwith?”

“Beckwith?”

“He was a world-renowned scientist who was the first to isolate a gene from E. coli in 1969. In that important period in his career when he had so much prestige and attention, he held a press conference and said this.”

“What did he say?”

“Be cautious as this technology may ultimately pose a threat to humanity, and scientists must exercise self-restraint in carrying out this research.”

“...”

“Apparently, he was even called a traitor to science at the time because he poured cold water on the rapidly developing field of genetics when he was the greatest scientist in the field,” Young-Joon said. “But scientists must know how to act like that. They have to know exactly what they are studying. What they should be considering is the impact of that research on humanity and the world.”

“...”

“I believe that prestige and wealth are secondary to a scientist.”

“Your life might be in danger.”

“All the scientists working in high-risk labs at biosafety levels three and four have already put their lives on the line. And as you know, I’ve also injected HIV into my body.”

“...”

“If I was scared of danger, I wouldn’t have started science to begin with. Cultured meat is a technology that humanity must secure. I will still do this even if you try to stop me.”

* * *

Diego, the CEO of Eat the Green, held a press conference. There was no way a press conference held by the CEO of a small venture company would attract so much attention, but this was an exception. It was because Young-Joon joined the press conference.

What did this mean? It meant that Eat the Green’s stock prices rose by thirty percent even before the press conference was held. And stock prices of traditional livestock companies, such as Red Meat, began falling rapidly. With the public’s attention centered on the company, Diego gave the reporters hamburgers.

“That hamburger is made from cultured meat,” Diego said.

“It used to cost millions of dollars to produce one, but I’ve ordered fifty, one for everyone here. Obviously, I don’t have that kind of money.”

The reporters weren’t interested in Diego’s show; they hadn’t even taken a bite out of the burgers and were already typing up their articles on their tablets.

[Eat the Green has drastically reduced the cost of cultured meat with the help of Doctor Ryu Young-Joon. It is now ready for commercialization...]

Diego presented the experimental data analyzing the synthesis process of cultured meat on the monitor. Eat the Green’s lab reproduced the experiment that Young-Joon demonstrated several times.

“With the help of Doctor Ryu Young-Joon here, Eat the Green was able to reduce the production cost of cultured meat and drastically increased the growth rate by using FBS substitutes,” Diego said. “We have sent a commercialization plan to many governments. The currently developed cultured meat will be commercialized soon following the FDA’s approval, and further research will be done to improve the flavor. Within ten years, we plan to replace most of the meat currently on the market.”

Everything was announced by Diego, and even though Young-Joon just stood there beside him, everyone’s attention was on him; everyone knew that this huge incident was because of Young-Joon.

“Doctor Ryu!”

The reporters showered him with questions when it was time for questions.

“Is it really possible to replace all meat on the market in less than ten years?”

As the CEO of a company, Diego could inflate his achievements and bluff. But not Young-Joon; there wasn’t a single technology he’d talked about that hadn’t been realized.

“Yes, it is possible,” Young-Joon said. “We will make it happen.”

Some of the reporters stood up from their seats out of excitement.

“You’re going to clash with the traditional livestock industry; do you have any plans for this?”

“The government will make a detailed announcement on that matter.”

“Did A-Bio acquire Eat the Green?”

“We received a lot of equity in Eat the Green, but we don’t intend to interfere with the management of the company. We are going to limit our role to the technical advisor.”

“Doctor Ryu...!”

All the questions were directed at Young-Joon, which was a little embarrassing for Diego.

The internet was going wild with the breaking news. The United States was the world’s largest livestock producer. Not only had public opinion in the United States been turned upside down, the world was so noisy that it was like someone had poked a beehive with a stick.

It was certainly a different atmosphere than when Young-Joon developed a new drug. The world cheered when big drugs like the Alzheimer’s cure and pancreatic cure came out, but not this time. People were more worried than cheerful.

—That’s trouble...

—We were going to need that technology someday.

—What’s going to happen when a primary industry like the livestock market gets disrupted like that...

—I wish the American economy good luck.

Those in the agriculture and livestock industry who were watching the news quickly began thinking. Red Meat, the world’s largest livestock processing company, was shocked. They received a letter from the United States government about the plan to replace traditional meat with cultured meat almost simultaneously with Eat the Green’s announcement.

“Are you kidding me?”

Steven, the CEO of Red Meat, crumpled up the letter and threw it against the wall.

“Kochia? They’re going to replace meat by growing some little ornamental plant? They’re crazy...”

Steven had started out as the owner of a small cattle farm, but he had built the largest livestock company in the world. He was often compared to Mckinney. They had a lot of similarities, but a lot of differences as well. Mckinney adapted himself to changes, but Steven adapted the world to his standards.

“What does everyone think?” he asked the executives of Red Meat. “Tell me about the situation.

This situation was also urgent for other companies, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Calls from traditional livestock companies were pouring in. They had already asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate cultured meat in the early days of its development. They demanded that the definition of meat be limited to those produced by traditional livestock farming methods. However, the Department of Agriculture had held off on answering for a long time. This resulted in the rapid development of cultured meat. Farmers in Korea were already preparing to rally.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, a United Nations agency, was also put on the spot. People were asking about the United Nations’ position on this issue. Their priority was solving humanity’s food problems, and they had been working with the World Health Organization and others to campaign against hunger in poor countries. In some contexts, cultured meat was great because it would help solve the world’s food problem. But on the other hand, no one knew how it would affect the primary industry of livestock in poor countries.

* * *

“Oh my god...” Tanya Manker, the founder and CEO of Gro, an AI-powered global food data analytics company, was horrified by the news. It had been two years since she spoke at the TED Conference and warned the world that a food crisis was going to come in ten years. She thought that there was nothing they could do.

With the United States leading the charge, agricultural and livestock superpowers were throwing away food to control the prices of their products and starving half of the plant. The environment was extremely degraded, and much of the land in underdeveloped countries like India, China, and Africa had been urbanized. The population was rapidly increasing while the amount of arable land was sharply declining. The situation was dire from the perspective of a food expert who analyzed data, and other food organizations including the FAO[1] knew that as well.

However, those superpowers did not care as they were not the ones who were starving. At this rate, humanity was going to have an energy deficit of two hundred fourteen trillion kilocalories by 2027. The food crisis was going to be a catastrophe larger than any disease, and it was clear that it was going to crush poor countries first.

“...”

But now, there was a solution.

“Get in touch with this Doctor Ryu Young-Joon. I know it’s going to be hard to reach him right now with his phone blowing up, but we have to do it somehow,” Tanya Manker said to her employees with the newspaper in her hand.

1. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ?