Lalit Kishor Kumawat’s Post

We just released another signal!  By the hands of the talented Damien Lutz, The Insect explores our research about why new food innovations need vehicles to better adapt to consumers through a sci-fi short story. Explore the insights embedded in the story to discover more, and check the other posts we have made. These sci-fi stories result from ongoing research on the future of food that we release slowly to the world. Find it all on our Substack :) Sci-Fi Stories is a collection of sci-fi texts by Damien Lutz based on prompts from real-life research. Each text contains serious clues regarding future food innovations that represent research paths taken by the Transformative Times team. Current research focuses on how to accelerate the adoption of new food habits. About us Transformative Times is a research platform for different companies and organizations to work together towards new futures. Find more about what we are doing by reaching out to us or following us on LinkedIn and Instagram. https://lnkd.in/dFEXBQwq

Join us for the final AdvancedAg field day of the summer in Portreeve, SK, where we'll tackle one of the most pressing challenges in pulse crop production: disease management. According to Sask Pulse, diseases affect between 60-84% of yield annually. We will spotlight the impact of SRP on lentils, showcasing trial results from the past two years. These trials have demonstrated improvements in both plant health and overall yield. Connect with producers who are at the forefront of using biological solutions to address challenges in dryland crop production. Gain valuable insights into how these innovative approaches not only enhance plant health but also optimize ROI for farms. https://lnkd.in/guTAYAVc

"How can we be better prepared for future events when we do not know what will happen? On 17 October 2022, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) held a one-day, inperson, structured futures workshop, called a ‘Futures Literacy Laboratory’ (FLL), on ‘The Futures of Collaboration, Partnership and Multilateralism’. [...] The objectives of this Futures Literacy Laboratory were to: • discover how foresight methodologies and Futures Literacy can be pertinent to the ways in which WOAH responds to its Members in the face of dynamic and uncertain futures; • apply scenarios and Futures Literacy to consider what the future may look like, contemplating what actions should be taken while challenging our deterministic and linear ways of thinking; • be open to and inventive with uncertain futures An FLL is a learning-by-doing, collective-intelligence, knowledge-creation process. It emphasises context-specific design and participatory processes. Participants are introduced to more diverse ways of thinking about the future and invited to leave the comfort of projected and probable ideas. By expanding their way of thinking to embrace novelty, uncertainty and complexity, participants are empowered to be more innovative in rethinking and addressing the challenges of the present. An FLL typically comprises four phases: Phase 1: Reveal; Phase 2: Reframe; Phase 3: New questions; and Phase 4: Next steps Link to download: https://lnkd.in/e3PwWFxM

Our Latest Publication

📣 Out now | 📖 Scientific reports in the realm of #Microbiome Discover how ‘GUT-MB’ project, focusing on human & animal gut microbiomes & ‘ENV-MB’ project, delving into environmental microbiomes are paving the way for innovative food & feed #RiskAssessment strategies. The projects' findings will promote a comprehensive approach to microbiome-informed safety guidelines, supporting a healthier and more resilient future for our food and environment. Learn more: ⤵️ Lot 1: https://bit.ly/3UIRcSc Lot 2: https://bit.ly/3T3lxtk

I am happy to share that I have been selected as one of the finalists in this year's lightning talk competition organized by FFAR. Please vote for me if you like my talk.  The link is provided below;

If you have any interest at all in cellular agriculture, I am sure you have already read Joe Fassler’s guest essay published February 9, 2024 in the New York Times, ”The Revolution That Died on Its Way to Dinner”. If not, here is the TL;DR: - Cultured meat promised a vision of simultaneous hedonism and altruism: affordable, abundant food with far less cost to the environment and animal welfare, with no need to change behaviors or diets. - Close to $3 billion was invested in cultivated meat and seafood companies between 2016 and 2022. - Almost a decade later, we have not seen the outcomes promised by these companies, the result of “squandered resources, broken promises, and unproven science”. While I agree completely with the above three points, I have not arrived at the same conclusions that Joe has, that “a broader cultivated meat revolution was never a real prospect.” The cultured meat revolution is possible. But we can not expect business-as-usual means of advancing technologies – like off-the-shelf venture capital models – to yield revolutionary results. In the blogpost below, I make five key points in response to Joe’s article about what's going on with cultured meat and how we can do better. Take a peek, leave a comment... tell me what you think!

"Joe is telling the story of the finance, not the science, of cultured meat." Thanks to the incredible work by field building organizations like New Harvest, the foundational science of cultivated foods has advanced incredibly fast. 💸 $350,000 was the price of the first cultivated hamburger made by Mark Post in 2013. Only a 'mere' 10 years later, prices have dropped to 10% of that, with some companies achieving 1% (IFYKYK). 🥩 This is where to put dollars if you want to have the most impact on cultivated meat becoming a reality. We're proud to be a B2B company servicing the cultivated foods industry, advancing alternative protein Flavoring techniques and a part of the entirely new end to end supply chain for the #futureoffood.

When REACh is revised to include endocrine endpoints, how will the new challenges be met? And how many animals will be required to fulfill the new requirements? The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) as well as my former colleagues James Wheeler and Lauren Kent PhD, DABT, ERT have released a paper, available as a pre-proof, to spell out the issues. https://lnkd.in/eB-wSn7u

🌍 I am excited to share with you our review in the Journal of Natural Pesticide Research, Elsevier: 'From soil to host: Discovering the tripartite interactions between entomopathogenic nematodes, symbiotic bacteria and insect pests'. 🧪 This paper provides a deep dive into the complex relationships and the challenges involved in the use of these organisms for sustainable pest control. I am grateful to all co-authors and my supervisors for their valuable contributions. Link:https://lnkd.in/ePB_wt8i