Plant cell cultivation is revolutionizing the production of various crops by growing plant cells in controlled environments, such as bioreactors, to produce plant-based products.
Why do we need plant cell cultivation technology? Demand for commodities like coffee and chocolate continues to grow as Earth’s populace continues to hurtle towards a figure of 9.8 billion projected for 2050. Meanwhile, the area of land suitable for growing such crops is rapidly shrinking.
Plant cell cultivation bypasses the need for extensive farmland, reduces water usage, and minimizes environmental impact. With the ongoing effects of climate change and the increasing scarcity of arable land, these innovations are crucial for maintaining the future supply of essential crops.
Around the world, innovators are creating methods which aim to ensure human beings can continue to enjoy high-demand staple crops needed for luxuries they are accustomed to such as chocolate and coffee, and are also cultivating further needed crops like cotton, spices, and botanical ingredients (see Alternative Plants and Novella).
Here, we showcase some of the key players in the emerging field of plant cell culture technology.
Coffee
Why?
As global warming continues to impact the coffee industry, viable land for cultivation is shrinking, leading to higher prices and decreased production. By 2050, land suitable for coffee production will be halved, with 30% of production needing to shift to higher altitudes due to the temperature sensitivity of Arabica plants. Additionally, the rising demand for coffee contributes to deforestation and increased water and pesticide use. This has led to the following innovations in plant-cell-cultivated coffee products:
Who?
- PluriAgtech: A subsidiary of Israel’s Pluri, is leveraging plant cell culture to grow sustainable coffee. This innovation can produce high-quality “real” coffee at scale, reducing water usage by 98% and growing areas by 95%. This March, Pluri secured a patent from the Israel Patent Office for its “System for 3D Cultivation of Plant Cells and Methods of Use.” Pluri claims this is the first-ever patent approval for 3D bioreactor technology in plant cell cultivation.
- California Cultured: This food tech company got its start in cultivated chocolate but moved into the cultivated coffee space in 2022. Following notable investments from Blue Horizon and CULT Food Science, California Cultured is working on cultivating coffee, leveraging plant cell technology that is already being successfully employed in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Amatera: Amatera is a French biotech company using advanced technology to rapidly develop perennial coffee plants. They are working with the plant’s cells to develop new varieties with desired traits like climate resilience, higher yield, and disease resistance.
- Food Brewer: Food Brewer is a Swiss biotech company that produces coffee ingredients using cell culture. The company grows coffee plant cells in bioreactors, which are then harvested, dried, and roasted to create coffee powders. Food Brewer is also leveraging AI to optimize its cell growth processes.
Chocolate
Why?
Climate change poses a significant threat to cacao (the unprocessed version of cocoa) supply, with most farmland predicted to become unfit for production by 2050. Traditional cacao farming, which causes 70% of deforestation in West Africa, contributes to significant biodiversity loss and is highly vulnerable to fluctuations in climate. Cacao is also susceptible to diseases and pests. Therefore, traditional farming faces significant yield losses.
Several companies have made notable progress in developing cell-cultivated cacao products, ensuring consistent quality and supply of cacao.
Who?
- Kokomondo: Kokomodo is an Israeli startup producing cacao through plant cell cultivation. The company takes cacao bean cells and cultivates them in bioreactors under controlled conditions. These cells are nourished with a specific nutrient solution to encourage growth. Once the cell mass reaches a sufficient size, it’s harvested and processed into cocoa powder.
- Ayana Bio: A spinoff from Gingko Bioworks, Ayana Bio is a biotech company focused on producing cacao bioactives using plant cell cultivation. The cells generate specific compounds, such as polyphenols, which are then extracted and purified, providing a consistent, sustainable, and potentially higher-quality source of cacao-derived compounds compared to traditional agricultural methods.
- California Cultured: is a California-based food-tech company using cell culture technology to create sustainable and ethical cocoa products like cocoa powder, chocolate, and cocoa butter. The company has secured funding from prominent investors and recently signed a 10-year deal with Meiji, a major Japanese chocolate company, to supply their cell-cultured cocoa powder.
- Celleste Bio: Based in Israel, Celleste Bio uses AI and bioreactors to produce customizable, high-quality cocoa butter and powder at scale. It extracts a small sample of cells from a cocoa bean and places them in a controlled environment, where the cells are nourished with a nutrient-rich solution that encourages them to multiply readily.
Foods and spices (saffron, vanilla)
Why?
Plant cell cultivation of foods and spices is essential for ensuring supply chain stability, especially as traditional agriculture of crops like vanilla, saffron, and avocado faces significant challenges. Ayana Bio highlights that climate change is worsening the situation for saffron crops, adding to existing supply chain issues. The labor-intensive harvesting process for saffron, requiring up to 170,000 flowers to produce just one kilogram, contributes to its high cost as an ingredient for dietary supplements.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that all eight wild species of vanilla are at the highest risk of extinction. Vanilla production, being labor-intensive and heavily weather-dependent, has seen prices soar to $500 per kilogram due to supply instability.
Who?
- Ayana Bio: Ayana Bio is, amongst its other work, partnering with Wooree Green Science to develop a sustainable and cost-effective method to produce saffron using plant cell cultivation technology. This process involves extracting cells from a saffron plant and cultivating them in bioreactors. The cells are provided with essential nutrients so they can multiply rapidly, producing the valuable compounds found in saffron. The partnership with Wooree Green Science aims to bring this innovative saffron production method to the South Korean market, focusing on its application in weight loss supplements.
- Chibotanic: Chibotanic specializes in sustainable agriculture through plant cell cultures, aiming to optimize the production of plant-based products such as flavors, fragrances, beauty, and therapeutic items. The company’s “Plant Cell Foundry” customizes plant cells for scalable production, targeting products like aloe, citrus, rice, iris, vetiver grass, and vanilla, leveraging advanced biotechnology and robotics.
Cotton, forests, and more
Why?
Plant cell cultivation is revolutionizing industries like cotton and forest restoration by offering sustainable, efficient, and innovative solutions. Cotton farming consumes 2,700 liters of water to produce a single T-shirt and accounts for 16% of global insecticide use, straining water resources and harming ecosystems. Plant cell cultivation can help ensure the industry’s resilience against resource scarcity and climate change.
For forest restoration, plant cell cultivation accelerates reforestation by rapidly producing tree cells and allowing for the sustainable production of biomass without the need to harvest trees.
Who?
- GALY: This Brazilian biotech company produces cultivated cotton from plant cells. Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has invested in GALY, recognizing the potential of this technology to address the environmental and social challenges of the fashion industry. Additionally, the company signed a deal with Suzuran Medical to supply thousands of tons of lab-grown cotton annually for medical and consumer products like gauze, absorbent cotton, and cotton sheets.
- Foray Bioscience: Foray Bioscience is a biotech company using uses plant cell culture for forest restoration. The company recently secured $3 million to expand its technology and accelerate reforestation efforts. The company’s approach involves growing plant cells in controlled environments to produce valuable materials and seeds, aiming to reduce pressure on natural forests.
In an Op Ed for vegconomist last year, Erik Amundson, CEO and co-founder of Vevolution, pondered, “The cellular agriculture market is set to hit $100Bn+ over the coming years. What might the market share be for auxiliary or plant cell technology applications?
“Here’s how I see it. We all have that uncle who says he would never try alternative protein. Maybe there are other low-hanging fruit to invest and scale into. My guess is that no one will blink an eye about how their morning coffee is produced in 2030.”
