Startups Revolutionising The Alternative Meat Industry 🐣

A turn towards sustainable animal agriculture. 

• Every year, an estimated 50 billion chickens are slaughtered for food. 
• The agriculture industry is reportedly responsible for 10%-12% of greenhouse gas emissions — a major contributor to climate change.

The industry, which supports the livelihoods of at least 1.3 billion people worldwide, has been racing to keep up with the rising demand for meat. And in the process has been popularly committing unethical actions on animals that have been chided by both animal rights activists and environmentalists.

No wonder the demand for cultured meat is rising. A report estimated that the alternative meat market could be worth $140 billion — or 10% of the global meat industry — within a decade. In 2020 itself, the market size has reached about $800 million. Several startups have already propped up in the alternative meat market to make cultured meat at reasonable prices. 

Read about this Israel-based startup Future Meat Technologies producing lab-grown chicken for less than $10 per plate, or this Dutch startup that recently raised a $47 million funding. 

In 2019, a research counducted by Gartner found that 22% of organizations around the world are using employee-movement data and 17% are monitoring data on how employees use their work computers.

This was the beautiful pre-pandemic time when employees were working from office. Now, with the majority working from home, one can only imagine how much the business of spying has increased. 

In a post-pandemic poll conducted by Skillcast on startups and WFH employees, it was found that 20% companies had already engaged in 'remote tracking' systems. Some have even launched a full-fledged invasion into employees' private lives.

Where's the limit?

A recent research conducted on behalf of Alfresco asked more than 300 IT professionals about what their companies are really doing behind the digital scenes.

• 98 percent admitted that they monitor their employees' digital behaviour.
• 87 percent of companies apparently track their employees' email.
• 70 percent grab their whole web browser history.
• 41 percent of companies creep in on voicemails.
• 34 percent observe LinkedIn and Facebook activity.

• U.S. startup Basecamp designs policy to ban 'social and political discussions' at the workplace - 33% of the staff resigns in response. . 
• U.K plans to pass a law that treats animals as sentient beings - restricts live animal sports and some hunting activities.
• Austin healthcare startup - Decent - ranked 2021's Best Workplace by Inc. Magazine. 
• Collective, a back-office platform for the self-employed raises $20 million in Series A funding from Ashton Kutcher's VC.  
• U.K. publishes its 145-page "groundbreaking" Online Safety Bill - a plan to regulate online content and speech for children - on the government website.
• TikTok removes 500k accounts from Italy after the country's data protection watchdog orders the company to block underage users.
• Elon Musk does a flippety-flip on using cryptocurrencies to buy Tesla cars - sends Bitcoin price into a 17% slump. 
• China becomes the second country to land a rover on Mars.
• Walmart acquires visual clothing try-on startup Zeekit.