The first page of Sherrie’s print-out, which she generously scanned and emailed to me. Note the timestamp in the top right corner: August of 2015. Sherrie printed out the thread after seeing “cellular agriculture” become popular around the Internet, meaning it was in circulation around the Internet by summer ☀️

👉 Full pdf here

I was shocked!!!!! (But also not shocked at all because of course it would be Sherrie to quietly shepherd New Harvest’s history from cyberspace to meatspace to Panama, where she is currently living.)

I reached out to participants in the thread— messaging them on Facebook, digging up old email addresses, and sending cold LinkedIn requests. What follows is an oral history of “cellular agriculture” and the naming of the field.

In order of appearance…

Isha Datar

Then: Executive Director of New Harvest

Now: Executive Director of New Harvest

“My favorite part of that moment was that it was on Facebook and a true, distributed community effort. This moment is often discussed as the time when ‘Isha’ named the field, but really, it was a moment of collective value creation where we were really strategizing through naming—thinking about the association of the terminology, and really thinking of the ‘need’ the term would fill—a way to talk about the ‘field.’

I feel like a lot of ideas come from ‘jamming’ in a group, playing off of each other and inspiring one another. I especially remember feeling convinced that cellular agriculture was the name when Kevin posted the shorthand form, ‘cell ag.’ I think that shorthand is one of the reasons adoption has spread so quickly!” – Isha Datar

Ben Wurgaft

Then: Postdoctoral researcher at MIT working on a two-year project examining efforts to create cultured meat

Now: Author of Meat Planet: Artificial Flesh and the Future of Food

“I definitely think of Isha as the coiner, but in the spirit that so characterized NH at the time. Isha was trying to make it the product of the community of interest. 

It’s possible that if Isha hadn’t coined the term, somebody else might have coined a similar convening term. It’s possible that Isha was running conversations like that on Facebook in response to a sense that people needed something like that; needed a term to cultivate or crystallize nascent interest. It’s very chicken and egg to figure out whether New Harvest at the time was simply catalyzing things that might’ve been catalyzed by something else, or engaging in what people now call thought leadership.

The term has certainly shaped the trajectory of the field. The idea that a meat company, a fish company, and a company that’s interested in egg replacements are all doing something similar to each other is enormously useful, both at the analytical level and for people commenting on the scene. That was big. Probably big in ways I couldn’t see at the time.” – Ben Wurgaft

Natalie Rubio

Then: Pre-med at University of Colorado, Boulder

Now: New Harvest research fellow completing the world’s first cellular agriculture PhD at Tufts University; coined “entomoculture”

“It’s a warm feeling to be part of the naming of the field! The Facebook group itself felt a bit like a home for misfits, haha. Most of the people who sought out in vitro meat content at that time were quirky. To me, it didn’t feel like a network of professionals, it felt more like a welcoming community that housed a bond over our love for a specific piece of technology.

The conversation felt important because of the degree of engagement and interest in the post, but I didn’t notice it as a defining moment in the field’s history at the time. As you can gather from reading the thread, ‘cellular agriculture’ stuck pretty much immediately.

As I remember it, people started to use cellular agriculture immediately or soon after that post, and it fit so well, it was very natural to begin using the term. So I would say it became ‘real’ immediately, to me at least.” – Natalie Rubio

Bruce Chou

Then: Futurist

Now: Futurist

“I’m a true believer [in cell ag] but I don’t really get too involved anymore. It feels great of course, but as a futurist, I’m keeping my eyes on about a hundred things simultaneously so I can’t dwell on any one thing.” – Bruce Chou

Sherrie Tullsen-Chin

Then: Vegan, animal rights activist, and New Harvest volunteer

Now: Custodian of the world’s only unabridged record of the coining of “cellular agriculture”

“It came about organically. I don’t think any of us thought we were naming a new industry, we were just conjecturing and having fun tossing around an idea. Isha was doing a ton of public speaking at the time. She was in a position to take whatever name we decided on and run with it. We didn’t know from there if it would be adopted. 

I knew it was real when I saw cell ag start showing up on GFI and other org’s materials. I thought, ‘Oh wow this is a thing now.’ So I went back and printed out the Facebook thread, because it was historic and I needed to have a copy of it. I feel like I was a tiny part of the making of history! 

It’s a great term. There hasn’t been any controversy around it, unlike cultured, clean, cultivated…etc. It doesn’t offend anybody. It just describes what it is.” – Sherrie Tullsen-Chin

Kevin Chen

Then: CEO and co-founder of Hyasynth Bio

Now: CEO and co-founder of Hyasynth Bio

“I would say ‘cellular agriculture’ became real to me when either a journalist or investor described us as a cell ag company. When the word became popular in enough circles that we put it in our deck. There are other words to describe the field but that’s the most interesting one to me in terms of the evolution of the terminology.

We’re a little different because we’re not in the meat space. We’re using cell ag to make cannabanoids. So with the type of investor we’re dealing with, we can call it whatever we want and they don’t care that much. They just understand the technology to the core. So it’s been interesting over time to see what words people choose to use in describing our company. Sometimes we don’t call ourselves a cell ag company, and sometimes we do. In our latest stuff we actually don’t use any mention of cellular agriculture, but it comes back every now and then.” – Kevin Chen

Barnaby Dawson

Then: Passionate but pragmatic vegetarian

Now: Engineering Manager at Sainsbury’s; still interested in cell ag but no longer a main interest

“I actually created a Facebook page for New Harvest before the group existed (I asked permission of then-leader of New Harvest Jason Matheny, if I recall correctly). Later on I joined the group when it was formed. I’m certainly chuffed although I don’t feel very responsible for the choice. People picked up on the abbreviation ‘cell ag’ so quickly, identifying it as a term easy to build a buzz around. I think the important point is that the name was a good one and is helping the research programme and political programme in a small but significant way.” – Barnaby Dawson

Kevin Mayo

Then: Hobbyist programmer, musician, and gamer who thinks that we as humans could do a lot better; prophet*

Now: Edmonton-based software engineer

“It definitely felt like the early stages of something that could be world changing.

I was interested in the potential of cellular agriculture and excited about what Isha was doing. She asked for my opinion on dealing with some cryptocurrency stuff and I just weighed in on that convo. I feel like I was mostly just a nosey and noisy observer. I just agreed with Isha’s decision for a name.” – Kevin Mayo