2013-present
2013-now
The newest chapter is being written in labs, boardrooms, and regulators' offices: a burger grown from cells, a challenge month that went global, dietitians signing off, and the first governments clearing cultivated meat for sale. This page keeps growing. The fights below, tracked day by day in our Storylines, become history here as they resolve.
- 2013
August 5, 2013
The First Cultured Burger
A burger grown from cow cells was cooked and eaten on live television in London, the first public proof the idea could leave the lab.
Source: Wikipedia, Cultured meatThere is really a bite to it, there is quite some flavour with the browning
Hanni Rutzler, food researcher, tasting in London, August 5, 2013 - 2014
January 2014
Veganuary Begins
A UK non-profit turned the first month of the year into an on-ramp, and millions have used it since.
Source: Wikipedia, Veganuarypromotes the vegan lifestyle by encouraging people to follow a vegan diet for the month of January
Jane Land and Matthew Glover, Veganuary - 2016
2016
The Dietitians Sign Off
The largest body of US registered dietitians affirmed that well-planned vegan diets are healthful at every stage of life.
Source: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (PubMed)It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, position paper - 2019
May 2, 2019
Plant-Based Meat Goes Public
Beyond Meat became the first plant-based meat company to go public, and its shares surged on day one, a sign Wall Street saw a real market in meat made from plants.
Source: Wikipedia, Beyond MeatIn May 2019, Beyond Meat became a public company via an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, raising $240 million.
Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) - 2019
July 11, 2019
Dairy Without a Cow
The startup Perfect Day sold the first ice cream made from real milk protein brewed by fermentation, with no cow anywhere in the supply chain.
Source: Wikipedia, Perfect DayOn July 11, 2019, Perfect Day released its first product, an ice cream made from non-animal whey protein.
Perfect Day - 2020
December 2, 2020
Singapore Says Yes
Singapore became the first country to approve a cultivated-meat product for sale, years ahead of anyone else.
Source: Wikipedia, Cultured meatOn 2 December 2020, the Singapore Food Agency approved the
Singapore Food Agency; Eat Just - 2022
November 16, 2022
The FDA's First Green Light
The FDA completed its first safety consultation for cultivated meat, telling UPSIDE Foods it had no further questions.
Source: US Food and Drug Administrationno further questions at this time about the firm
US Food and Drug Administration; UPSIDE Foods - 2023
June 21, 2023
Cultivated Meat Goes on Sale in America
With USDA grants of inspection, two companies could finally sell cultivated chicken in the United States.
Source: The Good Food InstituteUPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat received landmark grants of inspection
US Department of Agriculture; UPSIDE Foods; GOOD Meat - 2026
Sep 2, 2026 – Sep 29, 2026
California's non-UPF food seal
California's legislature passed AB 2244 near-unanimously, creating a first-in-the-nation Non-Ultraprocessed Certified seal that food makers can voluntarily add to products meeting the state's new definition of ultra-processed, while the bill's criteria would disqualify many plant-based meats and dairy alternatives built on common additives. This storyline tracks whether Governor Newsom signs the bill, how its criteria affect plant-based products, and whether other states adopt similar certification.
Source: Green Queen Read the whole fightFrom our Storylines
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2244, creating the first state-backed Non-Ultraprocessed Certified seal in the US. Foods with dyes, flavor enhancers, non-sugar sweeteners or processing aids cannot qualify, which likely leaves many plant-based meats and dairy alternatives outside it. Non-UPF Verified, which runs its own certification, had urged a veto because the law leaves processing methods out of the criteria, FoodNavigator reported.
From the Vegan Brief storyline, reported day by day as it happened
Still being fought
These storylines have not resolved yet. When they do, each becomes a moment above, the same morning it concludes.
- The alt-protein funding winter
- The cultivated-meat approval path
- Ontario's horse slaughter ban
- Ontario's ban on dog and cat lab testing
- Ireland's Plant-Based Food Fund push
- The plant-based labeling wars
- NIH's retreat from animal testing
- Iowa's factory farms ahead of the ballot
- The University of Minnesota primate lab collapse
- Marineland's beluga transfers
- Smithfield Foods' worker safety crisis
- The fight to end UK farrowing crates
- The COMPACT Act fight
- The EU's food procurement rewrite
- The fight to get H&M off wool
- The fight to end male chick culling
- The mohair boycott campaign
- The Costco chicken supplier accountability fight
- England's school food overhaul
The bookshelf
The book on this era
Paid links. If you buy a book through these links, Bookshop.org pays us a small commission and sends a share of the sale to independent bookstores.
-
The history
Clean Meat (opens Bookshop.org)
Paul Shapiro · 2018
Paul Shapiro, a longtime animal advocate, reports on the startups racing to grow meat from cells and the scientists and investors behind them.
-
The history
Meat Planet (opens Bookshop.org)
Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft · 2019
Historian Benjamin Wurgaft follows cultured meat from early twentieth-century speculation to today's labs, and asks what people expect from it.
This history is still being written.
Every morning we read the movement and write down what changed. When a fight resolves, it lands on this page and in your inbox. Free forever.
Free forever. No guilt. No preaching.