Berkeley Yeast, S2G dish on the future of beer, meat and more at TC Disrupt 2023 | TechCrunch

In case you missed it, July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. On the bright-ish aspect, research shows that 69% of People need our nation to develop into carbon impartial by 2050. Attaining that purpose would require altering the best way we expect and act about sustainability.

However, when push involves shoveling meals into our faces, how far are we keen to go? Will we make room on our plates for lab-cultured meat or pour frosty mugs of genetically modified beer? And can shifts equivalent to these meaningfully assist us keep away from worst-case local weather eventualities?

These are only a few of the questions we will’t wait to digest when Charles Denby, co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Yeast, and Matthew Walker, managing director of meals and agriculture at S2G Ventures, be part of us for a session referred to as “Beer, Lab Meat and Local weather Chaos.” You’ll discover it cooking on the Sustainability Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which runs September 19–21 in San Francisco.

Denby’s Berkeley Yeast focuses on genetically modifying yeasts to imbue beer with a variety of various taste notes. One such yeast produces hoppy-tasting beer with out hops, a crop that requires a lot of energy and water all through the rising and drying course of. Can the corporate discover methods to slash emissions from different fermented merchandise?

And Walker sits on the board of Believer (previously Future Meat Applied sciences), which focuses on lab-grown rooster; Greenlight, a agency making use of RNA tech to agriculture; and Hazel, which focuses on boosting the shelf lifetime of produce.

Now we have the know-how to make meals and drinks extra sustainable. However do sufficient individuals need to strive them, and may we scale them to broad availability, affordability and profitability?

And, extra broadly, who’s engaged on limiting the environmental toll of different ubiquitous meals and drinks? Can we actually protect beer, meat and different cultural touchstones — like espresso and wine — whereas mitigating local weather chaos? Don’t miss what guarantees to be an insightful dialog on the way forward for sustainable foods and drinks.

Be taught extra about our audio system — and their {qualifications} for tackling this tasty matter — beneath.

Charles Denby: Berkeley Yeast co-founder and CEO

Charles Denby is a scientist turned entrepreneur. Working below UC Berkeley professor and famend metabolic engineering pioneer Dr. Jay Keasling, Denby spent his early scientific profession bioengineering yeast to provide next-gen biofuels (e.g., clear diesel). His profession path, nevertheless, was redrawn by a passion.

Whereas exploring residence brewing as a method to interact his ardour for beer, Denby noticed how the identical know-how used for making biofuels might be utilized to the manufacturing of beer and wine, making them extra constant, environment friendly and fewer reliant on resource-intensive agricultural merchandise equivalent to hops and fruit.

In 2017, he co-founded Berkeley Yeast to commercialize this know-how and its transformative advantages. In the present day, the corporate sells bioengineered yeast with extraordinary capabilities to tons of of breweries and wineries throughout the nation.

Matthew Walker: S2G Ventures managing director of meals and agriculture

Matthew Walker has greater than 10 years of expertise in enterprise capital, funding banking and securities regulation. At S2G, Walker focuses on making investments, managing portfolio corporations and serving on numerous portfolio firm boards.

Earlier than becoming a member of S2G, Walker was an funding banking affiliate at Perella Weinberg Companions in New York, the place he centered on M&A and restructuring transactions throughout a variety of industries. Previous to that position, he served as a securities legal professional within the funds, regulation and fairness derivatives follow at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP in New York.

Walker has an MBA from the College of Chicago Sales space College of Enterprise, a JD from New York College College of Legislation, and a BS in mechanical engineering from the College of Michigan. He’s additionally a member of the Illinois Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 takes place in San Francisco on September 19–21. It can save you as much as $600, however the deadline is August 11 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Hurry and buy your Disrupt pass at present!

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