Meat the Future (2020) User Reviews

Interesting topic, not so interesting documentary...

[peter-707-582246 · 6/10 · 17 June 2021]

The subject about the meat itself is really interesting... but the documentary fails to choose direction.

There is an interesting story to tell about Uma Valeti's trajectory. The technology behind the meat itself is interesting. The people behind the company, the adversaries... But the documentary doesn't choose which story to tell, so it ends up being superficial in all of them. Storywise It seems to keep going nowhere. Camera and editing feel sloppy at times ( filterwheel changes and zooms left in that don't fit the style of Doc, sloppy obvious audio cuts... that maybe weren't necessary ).

Some questions about the technology were left unanswered... for instance: CO2 production per pound of grown meat vs 'harvested' meat...just mentioning off screen that methane production 'will' be less then... if you don't give numbers it feels more like marketing/hyping then documenting.

It just felt like the documentary makers followed the company for a few years, and then just put all the images chronologically next to each other... and forgot to tell a storyline... or tried to tell 4 different ones.

I am sincerely disappointed, cause I think this is a missed opportunity... but maybe we'll see an updated Doc in a few years.

Revolutionary eye-opener - intoscreens.com

[eelen-seth · 9/10 · 10 June 2020]

Silicon Valley, 2016. Fortune releases an article about cardiologist turned innovator, Uma Valeti. He's able to make a meatball with new technology, fully grown from real cow and pig cells, without slaughtering a living creature. The cells take about 14 to 21 days to mature in a bioreactor and the price for just a pound of beef comes to $18,000. Groundbreaking is an understatement.

Valeti could've been a successful cardiologist and save about 2,000 lives in the next 30 years, but wanted to do more for the world his children have to grow up in. After several failed attempts in getting his project approved, he finally succeeds and passionately start building his company, Memphis Meats, with a gender-diverse team of environmentalist, bio-medical engineers and tissue-engineers. Business Insider, Huffpost and several podcasts report on his fascinating technological innovation, explaining what impact this all could have on reversing the damage animal agriculture and the meat-industry have caused to the environment.

Let's make one thing clear, this is NOT lab-grown meat. Life tissue samples have millions of cells, this is where Cultivations Systems Engineer, Matthew Leung, explains how they try to understand and use the different components of this tissue to build their product. It's also very important to keep the cells safe from bacteria, without reaching for antibiotics, which has been a problem for decades in the US meat-industry. Canadian filmmaker Liz Marshall's 'Meat The Future' has a lot to say, and does it in a way everyone can understand the importance of this global change in the way we look at meat, while making sure the planet doesn't suffer even more than she already does.

What works so well in this documentary, is the quality and tempo of everything going on on screen. Sure, the overload of informative PowerPoint-slides are there mostly to split up important events in Memphis Meats progress, but the flawless editing helps with taking a bit of a breather from all the information coming at you. There is so much info that keeps building up, but delivers its message loud and clear. As we can see in the film (and surely some of you already know) is that the demand for meat will double by the year 2050, which will make it impossible for the meat-industry to satisfy that hunger.

Unlike other food-documentaries, such as 'Food, Inc.', 'Meat The Future' isn't here to shock you, but predominantly to educate and open your eyes for what's already happening out there. Or as TIME wrote in 2013: "You may think you live on a planet, but really you live on a gigantic farm, occasionally broken up by cities, forests and the oceans." It's when milestones such as the world's first "clean poultry" get announced, billionaire Bill Gates and the largest chicken supplier in the US, Tyson, start to invest in the project, well knowing this is the direction we need to move in.

Some hurdles aside, when US-ranchers want to use the federal government as a proxy to fight high-tech meat companies, the film isn't here to push back against the meat-industry as we know it. The film and its interviewees raise questions around consumer right issues and explores the ethical concerns and the history around "clean meat". Clean, as in cleaner production development and benefits in terms of energy savings. The standpoints raised during a USDA and FDA Joint Public Meeting are interestingly beneficial coming from both sides of the table, covering mostly the pros of this innovative new way of producing cruelty-free meat, which is exciting to see unravel.

Meat The Future is a revolutionary eye-opener that could easily change the way consumers look at food forever, without losing their appetite.

Screened for Doc Edge Festival 2020

An excellent and engaging view into an important revolutionary food journey!

[taliawo · 10/10 · 22 May 2020]

A must watch film given our current times! Amazing filmmaking documenting a story and revolution that is destined for mainstream consumption. Something that everyone needs to be thinking about and eating asap!

The Rumors Plaguing this Documentary Are Concerning

[TheInformedScientist · 1/10 · 12 June 2022]

As a life-long and generational Berkeley resident, the recent rumors surrounding this company and its founders paint an entirely different narrative then presented in this film.

Originally we thought this would be about 'clean' meat and how the technology will usher in a new era of global and consumer enlightenment. We would meet the future farmers, butchers, and chefs of the world and hear their great technological advancements.

Directly addressing climate concerns we champion here in the Bay Area is the noblest goal for a company trying to feed us for the foreseeable future... with the added benefit of saving countless innocent critters.

Fast forward to today, multiple rumors of gender based harassment by the now non- existent co founder Dr. Nicolas Genovese (including one of the young, empowering females scientists in this film) and Human Resources cover ups aplenty? A German scientist being recorded as saying the pilot plant he built is completely fake $50million dollar farce but he 'had to go along with it because he would lose his visa?'

There's a clearly amazing story here- but it's a sad one and it was ignored by this filmmaker in lieu of this ode to a failed surgeon and medical device company founder.

It brings amazement to all of us that this took as long as it did to be made and contains nothing of substance.

Exciting film and future!

[louisejorgensen · 10/10 · 25 May 2020]

Animal agriculture has long been known to cause immense animal suffering, zoonotic viruses, climate devastation, deforestation, deadly human diseases, and more. This is a powerful and important film that documents visionaries and their incredible work to take animals out of the meat equation. A must watch!

Yes, Let Us All Dumb-Down and Devolve!

[jackkern-862-993699 · 1/10 · 29 August 2022]

Political Leftist Garbage! It is Scientific Fact that Mankind (Not Human Kind) evolved into the upright standing Apex species it is today due to Proteins only found in meat and poultry! I say lets do it! Lets watch what happens to Vegan only Diet consuming humans over two generations! You can already see the physical results of Vegan eating people over the course of a decade or more. They look atrocious and most are psychologically unbalanced and on handfuls of psychotherapeutic drugs of one kind of another! Bravo! Yes, Bravo to the Left in finding more ways to destroy an entire nation through diet!

A "Must See" film. This IS the Future of Meat

[vidyalake · 10/10 · 11 April 2022]

Meat the Future focuses on one man's journey to fulfill his dream of creating slaughter free, real meat. This is a burgeoning industry, soon to be the norm, and Liz Marshall's film captures the early stages of this new, exciting and very important development in the way people will be eating in the years ahead. It would be ideal if everyone became a whole food vegan, but cultivated meat allows for those who are simply unwilling to forego real meat. The film explores the efforts of others engaging in this new way of making meat and shows some of the technical, financial as well as legal hurdles involved in bringing cultivated meat to the table. Meat the Future is well made and informative about a very important subject.

Beautiful mix of personal, political, and technological insights weaved together

[lizspecht · 10/10 · 27 May 2020]

A must-watch film. Inspiring but also candid regarding the challenges faced by a revolutionary new technology. Follows one cultivated meat company over several years through multiple stages of growth, forging of new and surprising partnerships across the industry, and several iterations of their product development. Compelling filming plus an incredibly engaging story.

A solutions-based breath of fresh air for folks who care about the kind of world we live in.

[carolineandthedogs · 9/10 · 12 April 2022]

Great storytelling here from Liz Marshall as can be expected based on her stick-to-the-facts past films. And what better subject than a cardiologist who cares about saving people's hearts, the environment in which his own children do and will live in and the welfare of animals which die inhumanely, no matter what the marketing says on the package to the contrary to make us feel better about paying for death.

This is a story about meat. Real meat that doesn't require the slaughter of animals after they have spent months standing in their own excretions. That doesn't require the cutting down of the Amazon. That doesn't require massive use of water. In fact it is minimal. That doesn't pollute and change the temperature of the oceans. That doesn't create greenhouse gasses destroying the biosphere. It is about a food that could feed the planet with minimal land use. And it is real meat which people have an appetite for.

By 2050 it is expected that we will have about 3 billion more mouths to feed and that the consumption of animal based products will double. That is 29 years from now. Animal production for food is only second to fossil fuels in greenhouse gas emissions. It sometimes seems hopeless our fight for the planet we live on. And then here is a film that shows a solution. A doable solution! A humane, good for the health of the planet solution. And this is a story about solutions. We need those.

There is one thing I know and it is that people care about their kids, this planet, their own health and the world we live in. There are so few solutions offered to counter our sadness of what is happening to the world by our consumption habits , but if you watch this film for nothing else watch it so that you can feel hopeful. Watch it with your kids so that they can also.

Two thumbs up for Liz Marshall's Meat the Future.

The revolution will be documented!

[aristotle-14760 · 10/10 · 11 April 2022]

The future is now! Meat from cells designed to grow in an ecologically efficient way, harmless to animals and clean is one massive proposition to humanity. With growing incomes and populations in the developing world, the demand for animal-based meat is expected to double by 2050. The sheer economic waste from clear-cutting land for animal grazing and meat production is killing the planet. By going cell-based for our consumption, would reduce land use and climate emissions by earth saving amounts. Animal Agriculture already takes up 45% of Earth's inhabitable land and our current food system by extractive capital is beyond its capacity limits.

Enter Meat the Future, which tells a fascinating story of a trail-blazing doctor, Uma Valeti, determined to save billions of human lives and trillions of animal lives. Viewers are brought into the exclusive and secretive world of Silicon Valley where technology and biology meld to solve a meat induced climate crisis. The film methodically showcases experts who discuss the complex issues surrounding cultivated meat from all angles of environmental, bio-medical and tissue engineering. It also delves into the huge problem of antibiotics and resultant antibiotic immunity in communities. The film does not look to do a shock and awe number but rather educates in a smart way in the face of all the scientific complexities from this nascent industry.

In essence, this captivating and truly avant-garde film is a gift to audiences in it presents a truly first hand look at life altering technology that could potentially change the arc of the humanity's co-existence with the planet.

One solution to climate change & a kinder form of protein

[dianermft · 10/10 · 1 September 2022]

Meat the Future addresses three big challenges facing humanity: carbon (from fossil fuels) & methane (from cattle) levels increasing & drivers of climate change; the terrible cruelty of factory farming & slaughter increasing around the world; and the universal need for protein. The film introduces us to a visionary cardiologist whose experience growing up in India deeply affected his worldview in all these areas.

The audience is introduced to a new process which helps meet the litmus test of the challenges facing us all. In seeking to develop a solution to cultivating meat, Dr. Uma Valeti and the team of multidisciplinary scientists have created the possibility for us to live together with animals & the planet with greater kindness.

Ahead of the times

[kimelliott-79465 · 10/10 · 1 September 2022]

Meat the Future is an eye-opening feature documentary that I first saw on CBC television in Canada. It is a must watch for anyone seeking answers to challenges posed by meat production to the climate crisis. This was the first time I heard about the possibly of animal tissue - meat - potentially being produced in a lab. Mind blowing. Beautifully filmed, thoroughly researched, and presented in a highly engaging and accessible format. Liz Marshall brings her elegant eye, passion for storytelling and sensitivity to the subject matter in this film The documentary is sure to become a conversation starter for anyone who watches.

This will change you think...about everything

[epetridis-1 · 10/10 · 21 April 2022]

One day you'll tell someone where you were when you saw this film. The process, evolution, innovation, and paradigm shift documented is literally ushered in by the very making of this documentary. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200. Just go watch this now. There's no turning back. The revolution will be mooed and clucked and chirped and b'aaed and bubbled, play your part, take your place in the world!

Tasty Appetizer - Can't wait for Meat the Future 2

[futur1st · 10/10 · 18 April 2022]

This film deftly sets out a courageous multi-year journey of Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) and its founder, Uma Valeti. The film answers how and why a small team lead by a former cardiologist came together around a vision to create a new way of producing meat. Humanizing this game-changing food production method evokes a high sense of comfort in the science and a delicious end product. There is one part of the film that presented a view that is not consistent with realities everywhere in the world; however, it got an important message across. Can't wait for the main course, "Meat the Future 2".

Meat The Future : what's possible

[libbydavies-03100 · 9/10 · 2 September 2022]

I so enjoyed this documentary for many reasons - not the least of which - was understanding what is actually possible for a healthy planet. I learned so much and loved the informative and clear understanding the film brings to people. It gave me a sense of hope as to what is possible for better living and less harm to animals. Thank you taking a complex issue and for putting it all together in a way that is accessible and clear! In todays world it's easy to fall prey to a sense of cynicism that things can't change and that we can't change. Meat The Future shows what is possible and real and provides in depth information and explanation about dynamics of meat culture. It was an eye opener and is an excellent tool for education, discussion and debate. I would love to see this film presented in school curriculum as it would engage students in healthy dialogue and discussion. Meat The Future touches ethics, science, innovation, the art of what's possible and how we can all play a role.

Revolutionary

[nellsembroidery · 10/10 · 4 September 2022]

A valuable and timely documentary highlighting the challenges we are facing and it documents a solution for these challenges in a very inspirational and educational way.

Being vegetarian for almost 20 years I couldn't ever imagine eating meat again but after watching this I realize I could consume it with impacting the environment or animal cruelty. Its inspiring to learn of how things are changing for the positive.

Being vegetarian for almost 20 years I couldn't ever imagine eating meat again but after watching this I realize I could consume it with impacting the environment or animal cruelty. Its inspiring to learn of how things are changing for the positive.