Honeycrisps & Orchids, Butterfat & Beef

Prime Future 282: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy

Many moons have passed since I wrote Prime Future 52: Where’s the Honeycrisp of the meat case? in May 2021, but the central thesis — that unlike produce, most genetic progress in livestock centers around live performance, not end product outcomes seen at the meat case — still holds.

While the Honeycrisp¹ eating experience is delightful, apparently the growing experience is less delightful:

That high-maintenance-ness of Honeycrisps led to the creation of the Cosmic Crisp apple, in pursuit of a comparable eating experience with greater field and post-harvest robustness.

Meanwhile, a startup in the Netherlands is breeding a rectangular potato to increase yields of French fries in processing plants. A UK-based startup is developing non-browning bananas and a banana variety with extended shelf life. And a US-based startup is working on a more flavorful strawberry variety that can be efficiently grown from seed, rather than propagation.

These are all examples of genetic innovation at work, which can move an industry in the seeming blink of an eye.

Today let’s look at just how high impact those innovations can be in animal protein, by beginning with an unlikely parallel: orchids.