ABSTRACT  

In November 2020, Singapore became the first country to approve the consumption of lab-grown meats. As a country that imports 90% of its food, the city state sees lab-grown proteins as a critical contributor to its future food security. Cell-based meats also fit into Singapore’s plans to develop itself as a “smart city,” making critical contributions, it is imagined, to the nation’s technological and economic development. In Australia, it is not yet legal to sell lab-grown meats to consumers. Nevertheless, numerous companies are rapidly developing lab-grown meat products and the CSIRO has set targets for capturing “Future Protein” markets as mission for Australian science and industry. Unlike Singapore, Australia exports 72% of its agricultural output and almost one third of this (by value) is made up of meat products.[1] Historically at least, meat production and consumption is a significant aspect of Australia’s culture. 

This talk examines the emergence and development of cell-based (or lab-grown) proteins in these two very different contexts of Singapore and Australia. In both jurisdictions, the transformation of food into a technological product is likely to generate significant shifts in the ownership and control of our food and poses threats to traditional foodways. 

SPEAKER  

Hallam Stevens is Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at James Cook University in Townsville. His research is focused on the history of biotechnology and the history of information technology. He is the author of Life out of sequence: a data-driven history of bioinformatics (Chicago, 2013), Biotechnology and society: an introduction (Chicago, 2016), and the co-editor of Postgenomics: perspectives on life after the genome (Duke, 2015). He is currently completing an edited volume on food and technology in East Asia. Hallam has held positions at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Shenzhen University (China), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and Harvard University. 

 ADDITIONAL DETAILS  

Our speaker will be presenting in-person at Deakin Waterfront: AD1.122 in the Sally Walker building or you can join us via Zoom:  

https://deakin.zoom.us/j/84436200390?pwd=VjRHUVZseTMvYWcrSFFJbU1LRDcrUT09 

 Meeting ID: 844 3620 0390  

For all questions, including the Zoom password, please contact ciara.barker@deakin.edu.au