What grows.
What feeds.

09:00

Chair's opening

The gap between the pilot and the plate.

MEVO opens on the one question the alternative protein industry has not yet answered at scale: what does it cost to produce, and who pays. The biology works. The regulatory pathway is opening. The consumer appetite is real. The gap is the fermenter, the cost per kilo and the supply chain between them. The room is here because those decisions are being made now — and the organisations that make them correctly will determine what the global protein supply looks like in 2035.

09:30

Opening Keynote · 45 min

What scaling cultivated protein actually required.

The first wave of cultivated protein investment assumed biology was the bottleneck. It was not. The bottleneck was — and largely remains — the cost of cell culture media, the scale of bioreactors required, the energy intensity of the process and the regulatory timeline that preceded every commercial decision. The organisations that have moved beyond pilot scale have done so by solving process economics first. This session examines what that actually required — not the science, not the vision, but the manufacturing and commercial decisions that moved the needle.

• The cost-per-kilo problem in cultivated protein — where the process economics stand today and what the realistic trajectory to price parity with conventional protein looks like
• What moving from pilot to production-scale actually required — the bioreactor decisions, media cost reduction strategies and infrastructure investments that made it viable
• The decisions that cannot be deferred if the field is to reach commercial volumes by 2030 — the ones the room must hold before the next funding cycle closes

11:00

Plenary · 45 min

The protein brewery — what precision fermentation learned from beer.

The most underexamined insight in alternative protein is the one sitting inside every industrial brewery: the infrastructure for fermentation at scale already exists, is already paid for, and is already operating at the cost structure the alternative protein industry is trying to reach. Precision fermentation — producing specific proteins through microbial hosts in established fermentation vessels — is the thesis that takes that infrastructure seriously. The organisations executing on it are repurposing a century of brewing process knowledge. This session examines what that transfer actually involves and where the biology forces a different answer.

• What precision fermentation takes from brewing and what it cannot — the process steps that transfer directly from industrial fermentation and the ones that require novel engineering
• The economics of the protein brewery model — where the cost per kilo equation closes and what it requires from infrastructure, feedstock and energy
• Who owns the protein brewery thesis in 2027 — the companies running precision fermentation at meaningful scale and what their process architecture looks like

12:00

Keynote · 45 min

Mycoprotein at scale — the oldest new protein.

Mycoprotein is the only alternative protein that has operated at commercial scale for more than three decades. Quorn has produced fungal protein in continuous fermentation at volumes that the cultivated meat and precision fermentation industries are still trying to reach. The lessons embedded in that operational history — what continuous fermentation requires at scale, where the process breaks, what regulatory acceptance actually demands — are the most underutilised intelligence asset in the alternative protein field. This session surfaces it.

• What three decades of commercial mycoprotein production reveals about continuous fermentation at scale — the process discipline, the quality systems and the supply chain architecture that made it viable
• Where the biomass fermentation thesis holds and where it is constrained — the biological and process limits that define the ceiling for fungal and microbial protein at commercial volumes
• What the field coming after mycoprotein can take from it — the process knowledge, the regulatory precedent and the consumer acceptance lessons that do not need to be learned twice

14:00

Partner session · 30 min

The infrastructure the protein transition runs on.

The protein transition does not happen in the laboratory. It happens in fermenters, heat exchangers, downstream separation systems and fill/finish lines. The partner in this slot is the organisation whose infrastructure — bioreactors, fermentation systems, process control, downstream processing — is the physical layer on which the scale decision runs. Not a product presentation. A manufacturing conversation between the room and the equipment that will either make the economics work or not.

• Where fermentation infrastructure is the constraint on the protein transition — the gap between what pilot-scale process development requires and what production-scale infrastructure reliably delivers
• The bioprocess equipment decisions that determine the cost-per-kilo outcome — what the infrastructure layer controls and what it cannot
• Where the partner is investing to close the gap — the next generation of fermentation infrastructure for precision and biomass protein production

15:00

Panel · 50 min

The cost-per-kilo problem — who solves it, how, by when.

Every alternative protein pathway faces the same ultimate test: can it produce at a cost that a consumer, retailer or food service operator will pay without subsidy. The cost trajectories differ dramatically across cultivated meat, precision fermentation and biomass fermentation. The process levers differ. The infrastructure requirements differ. The timelines differ. This panel puts three operators from different pathways in the same room and holds them to the same question.

• The current cost-per-kilo position across the three main pathways — where each stands today and what the credible trajectory to price parity looks like
• The process lever with the highest impact on cost — what the operators in this room believe will move the equation most and what it requires from infrastructure, feedstock or process design
• The decision that determines whether the field crosses the cost threshold by 2030 — the single most consequential manufacturing choice the panel would each make if the timeline is fixed

16:20

Partner session · L7 · 30 min

The feedstock decision — what protein production runs on.

The room has spent six hours on the process decisions that determine the cost of alternative protein at scale. Every one of those processes runs on feedstock: sugars, amino acids, growth factors, crop-derived inputs. The partner in this slot is the organisation whose ingredient, crop science or feedstock innovation is closest to the cost problem the room has been examining all day. Not a product presentation. The agricultural input layer of the protein transition argument.

• Where feedstock cost sits in the alternative protein economics — what proportion of cost-per-kilo is determined before the fermenter starts and where the input supply chain can be moved
• The feedstock decisions that compound from early process design — the ingredient choices made during development that the production-scale operation then has to source globally
• Where the partner's innovation closes the cost gap — the specific feedstock or ingredient development that the room's scale thesis depends on

L7 position. One partner. Selected for process fit with the day's cost-per-kilo arc. Not category sponsorship.

17:00

AIO · 20 min · single provocation · into dinner

What the data layer knows about protein consumer behaviour that the field does not.

One question. Twenty minutes. No deck. The room has spent the day on process economics — cost per kilo, fermentation infrastructure, feedstock decisions. This provocation asks one thing: what does the consumer behaviour data show about alternative protein adoption that the manufacturing thesis assumes but the data does not yet support?

Format: 5 min framing · 15 min open exchange · Chatham House · chair closes into dinner · no resolution required

09:00

Chair's opening

Who decides what feeds the world.

Day Two opens on the market question. The room spent yesterday on whether alternative protein can be produced at scale. Today it holds the harder question: whether the food system — retailers, food service operators, consumers, regulatory bodies — is designed to absorb what the industry produces. The decision about what scales is not made in the fermenter. It is made in the buying office, the regulatory agency and the household.

09:20

Keynote · Day Two Opening · 35 min

What the food system actually requires from alternative protein.

The alternative protein industry has spent a decade telling the food system what it needs. The food system — the retailers who list it, the food service operators who feature it, the consumers who decide whether to buy it twice — has been largely patient. That patience has limits. The organisations that have moved alternative protein from novelty to category are the ones that started from the food system's requirements, not their own production capabilities. This session examines what those requirements actually are.

• What the food system needs from alternative protein that the industry has not yet reliably delivered — the taste, price, texture, shelf life and supply consistency criteria that determine whether a product stays listed
• What the retailers and food service operators who have moved alternative protein to meaningful volume did differently — the commercial architecture that made it work
• Where the market will be in 2030 if the industry solves the cost-per-kilo problem — the demand side assumption that the scale decision depends on

10:00

Partner session · 30 min

The regulatory path that determines commercial timing.

The regulatory landscape for alternative protein is not uniform. Singapore approved cultivated meat in 2020. The US followed in 2023. The EU Novel Foods pathway is active but slow. The UK FSA is moving. The divergence between jurisdictions is not academic — it determines which products reach which markets, on which timelines and at what commercial scale. The partner in this slot is the organisation whose regulatory expertise is closest to the commercial timing question the room is making decisions around.

• The regulatory timelines that are most consequential for commercial alt protein launch decisions being made in 2027 — EU Novel Foods, UK FSA, APAC frameworks
• Where jurisdictional divergence is a strategic opportunity and where it is a constraint — the regulatory geography of the alternative protein market in 2028–2030
• What the regulatory dossier requires now to support a 2029 commercial launch — the decisions that must be made before the approval timeline can be trusted

11:00

Plenary · 45 min

The plant protein incumbent — what scale already looks like.

Plant protein is not a future technology. It is a present industry, operating at commercial scale, with real consumer data, real retail relationships and real cost structures. The organisations that have built plant protein into global category positions know things about consumer adoption, food system integration and process scale that the cultivated and fermentation protein industries are still accumulating. This session surfaces that knowledge — not to compare protein pathways, but to examine what the food system has already demonstrated it will pay for, list and eat.

• What commercial plant protein has proved about consumer adoption — the taste, price and availability thresholds that actually move purchase behaviour at category scale
• Where plant protein has reached its ceiling and why — the biological and process limits that open the market for fermented and cultivated alternatives
• What the incumbents see coming from precision and biomass fermentation — the competitive signal that the organisations with existing retail relationships are already responding to

14:00

Plenary · 40 min

The investor thesis that survived 2024.

Alternative protein investment fell from approximately $5 billion at its 2021 peak to under $1 billion by 2024. The organisations that received capital in that environment, and the investors who deployed it, made decisions based on a different thesis than the one that drove the first wave. This session examines what that revised thesis looks like — what it funds, what it avoids, what milestones it requires and what the capital landscape for alternative protein looks like heading into 2028.

• The investment thesis that worked through the correction — what the organisations that raised capital in 2023–2025 had in common and what the capital landscape looks like today
• What the next funding cycle for alternative protein is likely to fund — the technology readiness, commercial traction and cost-per-kilo milestones that unlock growth capital in 2027–2028
• Where the smart capital is positioned on the protein transition — the pathway, the geography and the stage that attracts patient, informed investment in the current environment

15:50

AIO · 20 min · single provocation

What the supply chain data knows about protein demand that the market does not yet price.

One question. Twenty minutes. No deck. The room has spent two days on process scale and market acceptance. This provocation asks one thing: what does the data layer — supply chain signals, consumer behaviour patterns, retail category data — already know about the protein transition that the market price of conventional protein does not yet reflect?

Format: 15 min provocation · structured discussion · Chatham House · chair-moderated · no resolution required

16:20

Forum close · 40 min

Who decides what scales.

Two days. Every session in this room — cultivated protein economics, the protein brewery, mycoprotein at scale, fermentation infrastructure, food system integration, investor thesis, neurogastronomy, regulatory timing — traced back to one question. Not who can grow it or ferment it or process it. Who decides what scales. The chair closes the forum on that question — without resolution, with accountability.

Format: 15 min chair's close · 25 min open floor · Chatham House · no recording · closes MEVO 2027