David Hunt: Europe must back food biotech to reap its benefits

“There is a real momentum in Europe to unlock opportunities in sustainability connected to the food system and highly qualified jobs,” says David Hunt.

With a background in plant biotechnology, project management, and research community-building, he can identify several aspects that he sees as crucial for the wide uptake of biotechnology in the food space.

Long-term investment is key

“One major barrier is the lack of strategic, long-term investment from national public funders and the European Commission. This injection of capital is needed to take ideas from the lab all the way to consumers and therefore reap the benefits of protein diversification for people and the climate. It is not enough to have great research clusters and infrastructure if this part is missing.”

For this sector, long-term investments are more important than for other innovation areas, he explains. There are much smaller margins in food production than in pharma for example, where a successful new drug patent could make millions back for early investors. This means that the room for risk-taking is smaller, and that start-ups can find it hard to access the necessary funding to scale up. But this could change if Europe were to connect biotech for food to a strategic agenda of innovation, self-sufficiency and sustainability, he argues.

“At GFI Europe, we are working to outline a vision where we firmly link biotechnology to sustainability, economic opportunity and competitiveness and back it up with solid evidence. For this to succeed, we need to show how the biotech food sector can create benefits on a range of levels.”

Bringing farmers along in the transition

Another key aspect for accelerating the use of biotechnology for food in Europe is to ensure that innovation also reaches primary producers and calling for governments to support farmers in finding ways they can valorise and up-cycle side streams directly on the farm. In practice this could look like farmers installing small-scale bioreactors on their land and working with different microorganisms to produce food from harvest residues or selling these sidestreams in bulk to companies who can process and utilise them.

“Small-scale farmers are the bedrock of our food system. Getting them on board will be important to produce new types of food and for their widespread uptake."

Creating a clear regulatory pathway

Finally, he emphasises the need for clear regulations so that new products can be introduced and sold on the European market. Today, it takes a long time to get European Food Safety Authority approval for new ingredients or foods, and the tests required are rigorous.

“The number of microbial strains approved in Europe is currently quite limited. Robust regulation is essential to secure consumer confidence in new foods, but regulators can help to prevent unnecessary delays by ensuring the process is transparent – engaging in dialogue with companies, and clarifying requirements by producing bespoke guidance documents for the sector.”

More places to test, learn and scale up

David Hunt commends Biotech Heights’ mission to connect academia, start-ups, and public actors, and its work to push for a national large-scale demo plant. Such a plant could help lower the risk for companies wanting to try out new ideas and products before taking the leap to go large-scale.

“Having smaller test beds and large-scale demo plants is important. We need more spaces where companies can come and try stuff, fail, learn, and try again. These spaces also need to be readily available, not too costly, and open for researchers to learn new things too.”

What will we eat in ten years?

What does David Hunt think we will eat in ten years? And what other changes are likely to happen?

“I think that we will see a diversification in sustainable proteins and what you can do with new microorganisms and side streams. We still have a long way to go in terms of taste and texture. For things to really take off, new foods need to both taste good and be affordable.”

“I also think that the cost for technologies will come down once economies of scale kick in. But this is dependent on whether we are committed to protein diversification. The degree of change is a function of how seriously we take this, and how much investment we are willing to put in.”

Building a better food system

David Hunt started working with GFI Europe because he wanted to make a difference in how we produce and eat food.

“Having kids got me thinking about the impact our food system has on the environment and biodiversity. I want to be part of building a more sustainable food system  and to support the growth of a robust ecosystem for biotechnology in Europe.”

More information

Read more about David Hunt at GFI Europe

Read more about GFI Europe

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