All PFN ARTICLES

The UK just hit launch on one of the boldest moves in plant-based yet - Meat-Free Made Easy. With over 40 brands on board, from Beyond Meat to Compass Group, the campaign aims to shift everyday eating habits through simple swaps, practical messaging, and collective muscle. Now, Australia and New Zealand might be next.

New Zealand’s next-gen meat future just scored a power-up and this time, it’s women calling the shots. Auckland-based biotech startup Opo Bio, founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 2024 honouree Olivia Ogilvie and University of Auckland scientist Laura Domigan, has secured funding from Epic Angels, Asia Pacific’s largest female-only angel investor collective.

The Forbes Asia 30 Under-30s list just dropped, and guess what? The future of food, fibre, and function has a Southern Hemisphere accent. New Zealand and Australia aren’t just keeping up, they’re quietly producing some of the most exciting young founders on the planet. Not influencers. Not crypto bros. Actual scientists. Actual biotech founders. Actual climate-smart inventors.

If you think India’s future food scene is all about lab coats and Silicon Valley suits, think again.The next big biryani, the next luscious kebab, the next cheesy naan might be made with zero cows, zero chickens, and zero guilt and it’s all happening in kitchens and labs you’ve probably never heard of. This isn’t just about trendy food swaps or eco-virtue signalling. It’s about survival.

And here’s a wild thought - EARTH is an anagram of HEART. Coincidence? Maybe. But let’s run with it. Because something is changing, not fast enough for the forests or the fish, but enough to whisper perhaps, just perhaps, we’re learning to eat with our hearts again. This isn’t just wordplay — it's a shift in planetary intimacy.

In a development, part science fiction, part Sunday dinner, Japanese scientists have just unveiled the world’s largest lab-grown chicken nugget with veins. Yes, you read that right. The nugget, grown in a lab using a simulated circulatory system of hollow fibres, marks a huge leap forward in the cultivated meat race. But before you fire up the air fryer, no it’s not edible yet.

Mumbai based, Biokraft Foods has just launched what could be the tipping point for Asia’s cellular seafood sector, revealing bio-manufactured (cultivated) rainbow trout fillets created without the fish. Developed in partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Institute of Coldwater Fisheries Research (ICAR-CICFR), these next-gen fillets aren’t just lab-grown, they’re also 3D-printed.

Bio-manufacturing isn’t just for lab nerds and VC types. It’s the quiet force about to rewrite how we produce food, cosmetics, clothing, and even your future protein shake. Dr James Ryall, an Australian-based consultant and former Chief Scientist at VOW Foods and long-time insider in the cellular agriculture space, closed out the 2025 CellAg Symposium in Nelson with a rallying cry - Australia and New Zealand are sitting on a goldmine and doing nothing.

Can cellular agriculture feed 10 billion people by 2050? That was the big question behind New Zealand’s first in-person CellAg Symposium, held in Nelson and hosted by Plant & Food Research. Nearly 70 scientists, engineers, founders, investors, and regulators came together from across New Zealand, Australia, and beyond to chart the future of food and what’s needed to get there.

In Israel’s booming future FoodTech sector, where everything from lab-grown tuna to AI-designed proteins is being cooked up, women are doin

Well, it’s official. Australia has just greenlit its first-ever lab-grown meat and it’s not beef, chicken or kangaroo. It’s quail. Cultivate

Let’s face it: the Earth’s undergoing massive changes, food systems are stretched, and half of what we eat is either soaked in guilt or ship