New Harvest has shaped the emerging field of cellular agriculture like no one else. They funded the not always glamorous but crucial basic research when others wanted to rush the idea of cultivated meat to market. New Harvest is in it for the long haul because they care about the impact of cellular agriculture, not the profit potential of it. They have consistently raised the hard but necessary questions and sparked important conversations about the why and the how of cultivated meat when others were focusing almost solely on the when. New Harvest understands the urgency of animal alternatives, but they also understand and are not afraid to talk about the risks, the biggest one of all being the risk that it will never come to pass and have the history making impact we hope it will if things go wrong. Getting ahead of what could go wrong so that we can harness the power of what could go right, and assuring that cellular agriculture reaches it's potential to do good for everyone, not only for a privileged few, has been New Harvest's mission since day one.
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New Harvest is the only non-profit dedicated to using science and innovation to solve the enormous problems created by factory farming by making it obsolete with healthy, humane, sustainable "animal" products that don't require animals. Having come into existence in 2005 and hiring it's first full-time staff, Director Isha Datar, less than two years ago, New Harvest has since achieved impressive results with very limited funds and resources.
One of it's biggest assets is it's ability to mobilize and inspire an ever growing network of volunteers and supporters that have so far allowed New Harvest to remain decentralized and flexible, and to be able to jump at several opportunities at a moment's notice.
One example is New Harvest's instrumental role in giving rise to a new for profit entity to create lab cultured milk to replace conventional dairy milk from cows. In the span of a few months time, New Harvest helped Muufri (pronounced "Moo-free") co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya apply for a grant to jumpstart their research, incorporate, obtain venture capital funding, and set up a headquarters in California.
Acting as a hub for the wide variety of individuals interested in creating animal product alternatives, New Harvest is an organizing force to help the world solve a wide variety of problems, including the environmental devastation of the modern meat industry and the largest sources of animal cruelty on the planet, that touch every one of our lives with a simple solution: instead of trying to improve on the broken systems we have, replace them with something better.
Review from Guidestar
26 scientific publications. International reach. over half of ALL the 1 billion dollars currently in Cellular Agriculture start ups are in start ups created by people who are part of the new harvest community/former employees. Research published or funded by them is open source, allowing for the maximum impact as it allows for as many people to benefit from it as possible. If we are to end factory farming in this century, we need cellular agriculture. New Harvest gets us closer to this goal.
Without a doubt, New Harvest has far exceeded expectations.
Review from Guidestar
New Harvest has a great mission -- to make the world a better place by promoting alternatives to meat raised from animals. Using in-vitro technology to make meat would hugely help the environment, people's health, and prevent the suffering of billions of animals.
I think of the "meat alternatives" or "clean meat" technology as where automobile technology was in 1900 or so. It is clear that the current system (based on polluting factory farms) is unsustainable and is on the way out (just like using horses for transportation at the turn of the last century). We're currently at an exciting point where new technologies are being developed for meat production (in vitro, "printing" of meat, plant based meat).
New Harvest is helping to facilitate the development of new technologies. It's not trying to make money but instead is leveraging its resources to get more interest in and research conducted in meat alternative technologies. Even a small donation now, can really help bring about substantial change in animal welfare, human health, and the health of our planet.
I've long given to animal welfare organizations supporting a pro-veg agenda, but my future donations will be to New Harvest.
I started volunteering for New Harvest a few months ago as I wanted to be a part of such a huge movement away from the abuse and unsustainability that has become an integral part of rearing animals for food. I have worked on two projects for New Harvest, the first being to write landing pages to inform the public about what New Harvest do and why it is so important, with a strong focus on the cruelty, unsustainability and risks to public health that come from factory farming.
My current project is working on outreach - encouraging more members of the public to sign up to our newsletter.
New Harvest is a fantastic organisation run by a fantastic team of enthusiastic, caring people. They are working towards what is in my opinion THE most important cause today, as factory farming is such a significant threat to the environment and human health as well as being the biggest cause of animal suffering on the planet. New Harvest are working hard, rapidly building a huge network of supporters and it is my greatest wish the we succeed in bringing cultured meat to the dinner table!
Review from Guidestar
New Harvest is an organization dedicated to bringing innovation to food in order to change primitive and unnecessary methods of production. In the short time that the organization has been around, they have worked relentlessly to educate the public on the current sad state of food production while also letting them know there is a better way to get our food: through cell culture and other alternatives.
The fantastic work done by New Harvest is made even more remarkable by the fact that the organization is made up of mostly dedicated volunteers who give a lot of their time not only because they believe in the cause, but also because they believe in the organization. New Harvest's Executive Director, Isha Datar, is a true leader; charismatic, intelligent and driven by a genuine desire to make food production a more ethical and efficient system.
New Harvest has brought together two brilliant minds to start the exciting company Muufri, has accomplished a lot on a very modest budget and has played a role in bringing the topic of food production to the masses. Time will only tell what this non-profit will do in the future but I am certain they will only get bigger and better.
Review from Guidestar
I first discovered New Harvest in the spring of 2013 and as I learned more about its mission and vision, I knew I had to get involved as a volunteer. One of this organization's greatest strengths is its clear and focused objective - to advance technology to a point where the factory farming of animals for food and other human uses is rendered obsolete - and its ability to achieve tangible results which can be applied to realize its goals. As a person with many years of experience volunteering in various capacities in animal rescue, welfare, and rights organizations, I was drawn to New Harvest primarily because I found it to be the single most effective avenue for dismantling one of the most destructive forces in existence to animals, the environment, and humans alike: the factory animal farming industry.
I remember being shocked at the discovery that New Harvest had only one full time staff member: Executive Director Isha Datar. I couldn't believe how much and how effectively one person (with the help of a strong, dedicated, passionate network of volunteers) was able to achieve in disseminating the message that science and technology hold very real potential for re-imagining more ethical, efficient, and affordable ways to feed and clothe the world. Isha works closely and directly with community members, volunteers, donors, and supporters, forging connections and fostering relationships between people working around the world towards the common objective of a future where factory animal farming is no longer seen as "necessary". Because of New Harvest, the international network that it has been so integral in creating is able to work smarter and more cohesively than would otherwise be possible.
New Harvest is exemplary as an organization with a highly ambitious, universally beneficial vision, effective execution model, and strategic use of limited funds and resources. The birth of Muufri, a company producing dairy milk without the use of cows, through New Harvest is a testament to its power. This is a non-profit that can be trusted to use its resources thoughtfully, efficiently, and with a view to realizing its objectives. With continued funding, and further growth and development I believe that New Harvest is poised to become one of the most positively influential non-profit organizations of our time.
I'm one of the cofounders of Muufri, a company that is reinventing the dairy industry by producing authentic animal-free dairy products.
New Harvest was instrumental in getting Muufri off the ground: it was New Harvest that brought the founding team together, introduced us to a valuable accelerator program which provided seed investment, and even got us our first few articles in major magazines & newspapers.
Isha, the Executive Director of New Harvest, is the secret ingredient. She's young and iconoclastic, but in the last few years she has built the community and professional network of NH into a force to be reckoned with. She understands that this new industry has the potential to shake up - and ultimately replace - multiple trillion-dollar industries, and she steers her ship with confidence and competence.
Add to this the fact that animal alternatives have an overwhelmingly positive impact on animals, public health, and the environment - and it's clear that NH is one of the greatest nonprofits of this century. Watch out for this one.
Review from Guidestar