Our Approach

New Harvest is an international field-building organization advancing cellular agriculture for the public good.

Learn about our purpose, vision, values, and 2025-2030 Strategic Plan below.

Our Purpose

Cellular Agriculture for the Public Good defines our purpose as an organization.

This purpose acknowledges that the advancement of the public good is not inherently embedded in technological progress. It serves as a “North Star” that guides us through a continuously changing landscape.

Our purpose recognizes the complexities and challenges involved in steering technology toward the public good.

  • “Cellular agriculture for the public good” implies that there may be instances where technology should be slowed down, regulated, or reevaluated in the interest of the public good.

  • Cellular agriculture could address issues of animal welfare, climate change, food security, and public health.

    “Cellular agriculture for the public good” acknowledges that prioritizing one cause over another may be necessary, or that compromises may be needed to achieve the greatest public good.

  • Achieving our purpose necessitates collaboration with other approaches, such as regenerative farming, plant-based solutions, Indigenous land management, and the evolving agricultural sector, which collectively feeds billions of people daily. Our shared efforts are crucial to nourishing the world sustainably and ethically.

The Mission of Cellular Agriculture

When New Harvest refers to “mission,” we are addressing the mission of cellular agriculture technologies and the broader field—delivering a more sustainable, secure, and safe food system for both people and the planet. 

This mission is embraced by many practitioners in the field and has inspired numerous individuals to engage with the concepts of cellular agriculture and the diligent work involved.

This “mission” remains a vital aspect of our work. However, we refer to it as a shared mission upheld by many beyond our organization.

Our Vision

We believe our purpose is realized when cellular agriculture is:

  • Accessible, enabling anyone around the globe to engage with and utilize cellular agriculture technologies;

  • Applicable, ensuring that cellular agriculture technologies remain relevant and suitable for addressing diverse regional, environmental, and cultural challenges;

  • Accountable, guaranteeing that claims can be substantiated and that transparency is maintained throughout the supply chain.

Cellular agriculture is a transformative technology with the potential to change our world.

We bear a responsibility to direct this technology toward creating a better reality than the one we currently inhabit. 

Our Guiding Principles

Fundamental to our purpose and vision are our values, which articulate the world we aim to create. The following values represent the core principles guiding our decisions and actions:

  • The ends do not justify the means. We are dedicated to honesty, honor, and truthfulness in all our endeavors. We acknowledge the power and responsibility we hold and strive to wield it solely for positive outcomes.

  • Embracing openness fosters collaboration and dialogue. We prioritize ensuring that all intellectual property (IP) assets we create or contribute to (publications, images, etc.) are accessible for public use, reuse, and redistribution. While not every piece of content must be open, we choose to default to openness as a publicly funded organization, promoting new norms regarding publicly funded research for the public good.

  • We must communicate the potential and progress of cellular agriculture to the public while distinguishing between the two. In a field with limited unbiased public information, it is essential to identify where data is lacking, where cellular agriculture may not provide benefits, and when claims cannot be substantiated.

  • Diversity—of thought, perspective, experience, and expertise—strengthens our work. Our efforts can enact change only if we embrace diverse voices within inclusive environments that allow for equitable participation.

  • Our food system is not the only area in need of re-envisioning. The status quo often conflicts with the public good. In our work, we seek to identify systemic issues that require transformation across investment, technology development, academia, philanthropy, policy, and beyond. We aspire for our actions to create a trail of positive impacts in every sphere we engage with, allowing cellular agriculture to inspire change beyond its own sphere.

Our Strategic Plan

Given where the field has come from, and where see it going, New Harvest has determined that it would be most impactful to focus our work on advancing responsible research and innovation in cellular agriculture through facilitative leadership.

Read more about our thinking in our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan.

“…Yes, we've got a long way to go to realize the potential of this technology, and it's going to take ingenuity both inside of the lab and outside of it, too.

But think about what we get in return. We get a chance to usher in a transformation as big for humanity as our transformation from hunting to agriculture some 12,000 years ago.

This could be a new era of abundance in so many different ways.”

— Isha Datar, Executive Director of New Harvest, TED 2021

Push
Cellular Agriculture Forward

We can’t do this alone.

A generous network of visionary donors makes our work possible.

Philanthropy drives our mission. Make a gift today!