What is SDG?

In 2015, the United Nations unveiled the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the ambitious aim of effecting substantial progress by 2030, presenting a holistic framework of 17 strategic objectives designed to confront some of the most pressing global challenges of our time.

Last year, Korea-HS, who got the nomination for SDG, endeavored to achieve various SDGs, including SDG Goals #13, #4, and #17.

• Goal #13: Actively shared climate change content and promoted their products via wet tissue distribution.
• Goal #4: Addressed through the "Reel Project" on Instagram, along with the creation and distribution of posters.
• Goal #17: Achieved by crafting a MUN-style resolution in collaboration with other iGEM teams during an open conference.

Building on these past efforts, our team aims to expand and sustain their activities from the previous year.

As part of our commitment to this global agenda, we've chosen to concentrate our efforts on creating cost-efficient artificial meat along with the four particular goals that align closely with our objective: SDG Goals #2, #4, #13, and #17.

• Goal #2: Zero Hunger - Commitment to eradicating hunger and promoting sustainable agriculture.
• Goal #4: Quality Education - Belief in the transformative power of education for all.
• Goal #13: Climate Action - Recognizing the urgent impacts of climate change and advocating for action.
• Goal #17: Partnerships for the Goals - Emphasis on collaboration as a cornerstone of our approach.

Our team is confident that collective effort and commitment can bring about significant positive change.

Stakeholder Interview

As interpreting multiple perspectives from various stakeholders is crucial in terms of acknowledging the viewpoint towards our project, we interviewed over 15 stakeholders in total. Among them, 3 major experts have provided us with notable insights:

• Cherry Sung (Climate Activist)
  • Our team started the interview with the student climate activist Cherry Sung since we prioritized gaining perspectives on the general environmental implications of our project but also a youth organization’s perspective that could potentially be linked to the public’s view towards our project.
• Andy Reisinger (IPCC Vice-Chair)
• Anderson Tan (Molecular Biology Professor)
  • By interviewing IPCC Vice-Chair Andy Reisinger and Molecular Biology Professor Anderson Tan, we focused on getting more professional insights as we wanted to gain a more profound background context, such as the positive impact of artificial meat on SDG Goal #13: climate action and the biological principle of wnt3a and afamin that could allow to effectively address the food security, specifically linking to SDG Goal #2: Zero Hunger.

3 Major Stakeholder Interviews

• 1. Cherry Sung: The founder of Greener is Cleaner, an organization for climate activism
  
  Figure 2 (Interview with Cherry Sung)
  • By reaching out to a climate activist Cherry Sung, we were able to gain further insight into SDG Goal #13, Climate Action, relating to the potential positive influence of artificial meat on conserving the environment.
  • During the interview, we asked if the consumers would be interested in buying artificial meat instead of traditional meat, and whether that could have a profound influence on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Then, she responded that since the idea of artificial meat hasn’t been widely spread, there could be negative impressions towards it; therefore, the most important task right now would be to spread awareness of the potential of artificial meat. She also shared her insight that finding the balance between artificial meat and traditional meat would be a long-term goal our team should consider.

In conclusion, we were able to receive supplemental insight on the positive impact that our project may have on SDG Goal #13 from a youth climate activist’s perspective. Later on, the interview with Cherry Sung motivated us to conduct a climate activism project when engaging with climate action as she emphasized the cruciality of engaging people to acknowledge artificial meat’s potential. In addition, it guided us in terms of setting future long-term environmental goals for artificial meat.

• 2. Andy Reisinger: The Vice-Chair of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
  
  Figure 3 (Interview with Andy Reisinger)
  • In order to develop our understanding of the potential sustainability of our project after the interview with Cherry Sung, we reached out to Andy Reisinger, vice-chair of IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr. Andy Reisinger discussed several critical aspects of artificial meat and its potential environmental impact in the interview. By asking to what extent livestock currently affect climate change and the potential of cultured meat, we aimed to gain environmental insights into the multifaceted climate challenges and opportunities surrounding artificial meat while building the background context of SDG Goal #13 regarding our project.
  • From his experience working at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Center, he highlighted the urgency of addressing carbon emissions from livestock. Regarding the impact of artificial meat on ecosystems, Dr. Reisinger noted that it depends on which production systems it replaces. He hoped that lab-grown meat could replace mass-produced feedlot production, while he still believed that ruminant meat might not be the first to be replaced, and avoiding political opposition is a crucial consideration. Dr. Reisinger expressed optimism about our project: Afamin/Wnt3a conditioned media for lab-grown meat, highlighting the potential benefits beyond reducing livestock emissions, such as freeing up land for other carbon reduction initiatives.

In conclusion, we expanded our insights about the role of cultured meat in addressing climate change, emphasizing the need for Goal #13 Climate action through technological innovation and thoughtful societal integration of artificial meat. For example, we created a series of climate reels in order to raise awareness in society, encouraging the public to acknowledge the urgency for climate action by informing how artificial meat may solve climate issues.

• 3. Anderson Tan: National University of Malaysia PhD in Molecular Biology
  
  Figure 4 (Interview with Anderson Tan)
  • To investigate the technical prospect that artificial meat can influence customers, we interviewed professional molecular biologist Anderson Tan at the National University of Malaysia. By asking if it is possible to make cultured meat a similar texture to real livestock meat and predicting customer preference, we focused on the potential customer reaction toward cultured meat that may help us to effectively address SDG Goal #2, zero hunger in the near future.
  • Anderson Tan expressed optimism about the willingness of many individuals to follow this trend of adopting cultured meat, citing a high level of interest in cultivated meat among the public. Anderson acknowledged certain challenges of making artificial meat texture to perfectly same livestock meat but highlighted ongoing efforts to replicate by editing fiber structure and addressing flavor compound opposition.
  • In terms of regulation and lab maintenance, factors such as temperature, humidity, cleanliness, and lab procedures play a crucial role in ensuring the quality and safety of artificial meat production. Finally, when discussing the broader impact of artificial meat development, he believed that it could contribute to reducing hunger by enhancing food safety and mitigating disease transmission, underlining the potential for positive societal and environmental benefits.

In conclusion, we gained a positive response about the potential of artificial meat as he suggested that many customers will align with the adoption of cultured meat with rising interest in sustainability and the environment. In addition, we were able to recognize a deeper connection between our project and SDG Goal #2, Zero Hunger, which is one of our targeting SDG Goals, as he mentioned how it could potentially bring food security and high nutritional value. His biological insights regarding artificial meat’s textural limitations motivated us to adopt a scientific approach to address the stated issue when rendering an artificial Meat Recipe Book.

Public Survey: Online & In-Person

During the stakeholder interview, Climate activist Cherry Sung, Molecular biology professor Anderson Tan, and IPCC vice president Andy Reisinger all highly valued the artificial meat’s positive implications in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, consumption of resources, and food security. Nevertheless, they mentioned that the following scenario would be able to happen extensively in real life once artificial meat becomes commercialized, requiring the improvement of the public’s negative impressions towards artificial meat. Therefore, our team wanted to specifically investigate the public perspective as well in order to know what SDG Goal-related activities we should especially focus on.

On July 1st, the SDG team conducted a survey in order to acknowledge the overall perception towards artificial meat and the general level of understanding the public had on artificial meat and its correlation to climate change. By accumulating responses both offline and online, we were able to gain valuable insights that motivated us to inform and engage on how our artificial meat may positively affect global sustainability.

The survey results were somewhat surprising. As shown in Figure 6-1, 83% responded that they had heard of artificial meat before, which indicates a relatively high percentage among the public. Nevertheless, more than half of the respondents chose the wrong answer to the question, “Which area could be improved the most by developing lab-cultured meat?”: Saving animals, Lowering the meat price, and mitigating the food diplomatic regulations.

The overall perception of artificial meat seemed not to be optimistic either, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10.

This wasn't just about mixed opinions; perhaps many aren't fully aware or have misconceptions about the meat's wider impacts and merits; it was a concern to us, especially when thinking about how significant and influential lab-grown meat can be in climate change and world hunger. Recognizing the gap in awareness from our survey results, we've been motivated to elevate the understanding of artificial meat's potential adding to the efforts that we've made by interviewing stakeholders and conducting both offline/online surveys. This led us to prioritize focus on educating the public about artificial meat and its positive implication in SDG Goals #13 and #2 by visiting a childcare center, distributing pamphlets in global high schools, and creating climate reels and Instagram SDG posts.

Site Reconnaissance

During July, building on the public perception previously gained, Korea-HS visited multiple places, including a butcher shop, the Agriculture & Food Tech Start-up Rising Expo, and Goguryeo Ranch for visual inspection and clarified viewpoints from more direct-engaging stakeholders. While we previously focused on gaining theoretical insights in terms of the environmental and social impacts of our project, we have chosen to visit the following three places to communicate with stakeholders who more directly contribute to the meat industry and are keen on the economic market status as well. With all of this information, our main goal is to raise practical knowledge about artificial meat but also investigate communities that could support our innovative potential.

In order to gain further accurate knowledge of the current meat industry and ask about the general impression of replacing meat with artificial meat, we visited a butcher shop that sells traditional meat. Interviewing him, we were able to gain further insight on the current financial situation with traditional meat, and the fact that most people above age 50 aren’t aware of the existence of artificial meat, let alone butcher shop owners.

• We specifically asked two questions:
  1. What is the rate of production and consumption of traditional meat?
  2. Have you heard of the concept of artificial meat before?
• He replied that the production itself is steadily increasing, while the consumption of the customers is slightly decreasing, mainly due to the preference for vegan food, and the image that traditional meat holds in terms of ethics and health-related issues. Regarding his own awareness of artificial meat, he stated that he had never heard of such a thing before, and is very pessimistic about its success rate if it were to be displayed on the consumer market. Additionally, he pointed out that it is unappealing, especially considering the ethical concerns.

Through this experience, we were able to view this project from a condemning perspective, and it led us to consider specific limitations, such as the consumer’s preference and the viability, regarding the artificial meat industry and what we could do to improve upon it.

On July 28, our Korea-HS team visited the Agriculture & Food Tech Start-up Rising Expo 2023 and interviewed plant-based meat companies and artificial meat companies. We investigated the similarities between cultured meat and artificial meat and also researched a few remaining challenges in the sustainable meat-production industry.

• The interview from an artificial meat company said that cultured meat is more similar to the taste and texture of traditional livestock meat than that of plant-based meat. While maintaining a taste closer to conventional meat, cultured meat offers the same environmental benefits as plant-based meat, making it appealing to those who abstain from meat consumption due to animal ethics concerns.
• However, a few challenges companies mentioned in common were the texture of cultured meat and pricing issues.
  • Common challenges mentioned by companies:
    • The texture of cultured meat
    • Pricing issues
  • Current focus on achieving a sausage-like quality for both plant-based and artificial meat companies.
    • Addressing negative perceptions about pricing concerns is crucial.
    • Government and industry support are essential in promoting cultured meat.
• Main objective: Make cultured meat more affordable for consumers, aiming for a price range similar to imported beef.
• Anticipation of cultured meat products entering the market soon with potential popularity
  • comparable to traditional livestock meats.
    • Cultured meat appeals to those concerned about animal welfare without requiring strict veganism.
    • A flexible approach that may find acceptance among individuals with minimal ethical concerns regarding meat consumption.

  With this Expo showcase, we received predictions from professional meat industry realtors, which further led us to notice potential risks and challenges that remained with artificial meat production. In addition, as we were able to communicate with another artificial meat company ‘SpaceF’ and share common valuable insights into artificial meat, we wanted to expand the opportunities we were able to gain during this visit. Further efforts we made to achieve the following goals are shown through SDG Goal #17 activities: Business proposal, patent proposal, and SDG conference.

  Pasture Owner of Goguryeo Farm Interview
  
  Figure 9 (Interview with the owner of the pasture)

  We also visited the pasture owner of Goguryeo Farm and asked similar questions regarding the production and consumption of traditional meat, and his general understanding of cultured meat.

  This interview offered our team specific insights on breeding cows and resource consumption. Challenges in acquiring necessary natural and mechanical resources are highlighted. Breeding a cow can require 150~200 liters of water per cow. 74 million dollars are invested for the production of 100 cows, with a tractor cost of 7 million dollars.

  The interviewee acknowledged the environmental impact of livestock production and the potential utility of artificial meat technology in the future.

  Currently, traditional meat is likely to outperform artificial meat in terms of customer preferences, including taste, texture, cost, and health considerations.

  Through this interview, we were able to view the technology of artificial meat and the current economic status from a realistic perspective, further guiding us into considering the limitations regarding artificial meat consumption.

  Sustainable Goal #2

  
  Figure 10 (Picture of SDG Goal #2)

  Our primary aim is to realize Sustainable Development Goal #2, with a focus on achieving a balanced diet, and sustainable, and cost-efficient meat production. Improving the cost, and nutrition, and fostering eco-friendly production of food are crucial objectives in our pursuit of achieving zero hunger.

  We mainly focused on target 2.4, which strives to ensure “sustainable food method production and resilient agricultural practices.” Previously interviewing one of the stakeholders, Molecular biology professor Anderson Tan, we decided to investigate further how artificial meat may reduce hunger and increase food safety in general. After that, we dedicated our efforts to improving nutrition and promoting eco-friendly food production practices by creating an artificial meat recipe book, visiting a soup kitchen, and conducting an Instagram meat hashtag event.

  Artificial meat recipe book

  
  Figure 11 (Screenshot of the Artificial Meat Recipe Book)

  Before carrying out the activities related to SDG Goal #2.4, we researched the taste/textural characteristics that artificial meat distinctively carries compared to traditional meat. During this research process, we noticed that artificial meat has a lack of juiciness and excessive umami flavor, meaning that it’s rather too sweet or bitter, which also connects to how molecular biology professor Anderson Tan mentioned that certain technological challenges exist in exactly replicating editing fiber structure of livestock meat and addressing flavor compound opposition.

  Acknowledging the textural limitations through research, we decided to create a Korean recipe book solely for artificial meat, aimed at raising awareness and expanding the reach of these innovative recipes. While creating, we extensively focused on including processes such as marinating, and adding smoking flavors in order to address the textural drawbacks. Not only did we focus on including the recipe, but also included the purpose of the recipe book and how we made considerations for artificial meat as well. That way, the public was able to easily expand their thoughts toward how artificial meat may positively contribute to our target SDG Goal in terms of sustainable food method production and resilient agricultural practices.

  Rather than explaining our project in technical terms, which may be hard to understand, we chose to create a recipe book that serves as an interactive alternative. People from all over the world can try out artificial meat through the easy recipes we included in our book, and we also added a variety of recipes to fit the taste of a large group of people.

  Visit to Soup Kitchen

  
  Figure 12 (Visit to Soup Kitchen)

  To physically share our insights by distributing the artificial meat recipe book to our local community, we visited a soup kitchen for the elderly population of Korea, also expanding on the recipe book project.

  During the visit, we provided meals to homeless individuals and economically disadvantaged seniors who often struggle to access nutritious food. We physically engaged in SDG Goal #2.4, sustainable food method production, by cleaning dishes, distributing foods, and washing the ingredients required. We also shared our artificial meat recipe book and received feedback from the soup kitchen cooks regarding how effective the recipe is for complementing artificial meat’s textural limitations. Through this additional feedback section, we were able to develop our existing artificial meat recipe quality into a better form when sharing it with the public during the next activity session.

  By making meat more economically affordable through our artificial meat project, we would be able to supply more resources to these soup kitchens and ultimately bring more nutrients and benefits to the elderly community who rely on these kitchens, achieving SDG Goal #2.

  Instagram Meat Hashtag Event

  
  Figure 13 (Picture of Instagram meat post from our team and other IGEM teams)

  Based on the artificial meat recipe developed by the Soup kitchen staff, we expanded our recipe-sharing activity on a global scale. Utilizing Instagram, we developed an online community through social media, especially a Hashtag event, #igem_2023meat on Instagram, rendering a total of 8 posts. The Instagram meat hashtag event also connects to the Instagram SDG hashtag event, which is an event connecting various SDG Goals to the benefits of artificial meat, as it solely focuses on addressing SDG Goal #2.4, ensuring sustainable food method production.

  We first initiated the hashtag event by sharing the Korean artificial meat recipe through our Korea-HS Instagram account posts. By posting artificial meat recipes for Korean traditional food such as Galbi-jjim, Jeyuk Bokkeum, and Korean fried chicken, we were not only able to implicitly make the public consider the connection between artificial meat and its contribution to zero hunger but also let the followers become acquainted with Korean food tradition as well.

  Not stopping from informing our own traditional meat recipes, we collaborated with other IGEM teams that are CNPEM. Brazil, KCIS Xiugang, and SVCE Chennai through direct messages and posts. Through this event, we encouraged the exchange of traditional meat recipes from diverse cultures while facilitating the incorporation of cultured meat. This initiative not only fostered creativity in the kitchen but also facilitated collaboration with global iGEM communities.

  Together, we explored how cultured meat could enhance traditional recipes, showcasing innovative possibilities for target Goal #2.4: sustainable meat production and contributing to the worldwide effort to achieve zero hunger.

  Sustainable Goal #4

  
  Figure 14 (Picture of SDG Goal #4)

  Our primary aim is to realize Sustainable Development Goal #4, with a focus on ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning. Our main objective is to improve the public acknowledgment of the environmental and nutritional advantages that artificial meat potentially has.

  Primary focus on Goal #4.7: Ensuring all learners acquire knowledge and skills for sustainable development through education.

  Recognized the significance of education, especially in the context of our novel cultured meat project. Discovered through a Google survey with 54 public respondents that many were unfamiliar with the positive implications of artificial meat and often had a negative perception of technologically designed food.

  Decided to address these issues by educating the public about the severity of climate change and the vital role artificial meat plays in mitigating it. Employed multiple methods, including visiting a children's center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, to introduce younger children to artificial meat and creating awareness-raising posters displayed in the school building.

  Child Care Center Education

  
  Figure 15 (Picture of Korea-HS SDG members educating children)

  We started off providing quality education to members of our local community. Among them, we decided to focus on teaching elementary school students. As artificial meat is currently renowned as a product that would be commercialized in the near future rather than in the present, children, who are the future citizens of the country, would significantly benefit by getting educated in artificial meat.

  On August 3rd, the SDG team visited a children's center located in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, South Korea, to educate the elementary school children about the prevalent issue of climate change and how it could be mitigated by consuming artificial meat instead of traditional cow meat. The information that we’ve taught the children also involved the information previously gained from stakeholders Cherry Sung and Andy Reisinger, who were also experts on climate change issues. We engaged children by asking questions and giving the ones that answered correctly prizes, and we also made them draw a 4-cut scenario about artificial meat saving the world. Furthermore, we prepared a 10-minute presentation on sharing the current status of climate change and what actions we could take, including consuming artificial meat as an alternative eco-friendly method to traditional meat.

  As the younger generations are the hope of our future, visiting the children's center was a great, inclusive opportunity to enhance the impression of artificial meat. The visit specifically targeting elementary school children allowed us to achieve target 4.7 by ensuring young learners, who are future citizens of our society, “acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development” through presentation slides with visual representations, 4-cut scenario drawing session that allowed children to incorporate their creativity into theoretical knowledge of artificial meat, and quiz session to check whether the children gained a sufficient amount of knowledge.

  Poster Development and Distribution

  
  Figure 16 (Picture of SDG members educating their school students/faculty members)
  
  Figure 17 (Picture of the poster)

  Not only did we educate the children from the childcare center, but also broadened the target community by focusing on the respective global schools. We each made posters that included basic information about artificial meat, the production process of creating artificial meat, and how it could specifically impact SDG Goals #2 and #13. By creating the poster, we discussed severe climate issues and introduced artificial meat as one of the solutions to mitigate the issue;

  Then, we started to put it around our own schools in order to raise awareness and educate a group of peer students.

  We distributed posters to 7 different schools, spanning 3 different countries. Seoul International School Korea International School of Jeju Saint Johnsbury Academy Jeju Branksome Hall Asia Cornerstone Collegiate Academy of Seoul And others

  Each member of the Korea-HS team distributed 120 or more posters to students and school faculty members.

  This ended up being a huge success. Constantly communicating with the school members when educating, we achieved target Goal #4.7 of ensuring “that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.”

  As each member of the SDG team went to different schools in different regions, we were able to target broader audiences by familiarizing more people with the innovative idea of artificial meat as an alternative to traditional cow meat.

  Sustainable Goal #13

  
  Figure 18 (Picture of SDG Goal #13)

  Our primary objective is to inform people about the urgent need to take action on SDG Goal #13: climate action, along with the need for artificial meat during this process. Focusing on telling the artificial meat’s efficient water usage, land usage, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the public is our main objective in SDG Goal #13. More specifically, we aimed to address SDG Goal #13.3, which is to “build knowledge and capacity to meet climate change.”

  Climate Reels

  While previously conducting both offline and online surveys to the public, our team acknowledged that the public is not aware of the environmental benefit that artificial meat can bring as more than half of the respondents haven’t chosen the correct answer, which was lowering the greenhouse gas emissions, and picked other wrong answer choices to the question of “Which area could be improved the most by developing lab-cultured meat?”. In this experience, we were motivated to create a short video regarding the environmental benefits of artificial meat as the public enjoys watching short video formats that could convey compact information nowadays.

  
  Figure 19 (Picture of the reels posted on the Korea-HS Instagram account)

  On July 21st and August 1st, our team created a series of climate reel videos that had a total of 592 views, to inform about climate action in an engaging way to the public audience. We utilized Canva’s animation features in the video to add visually appealing features, such as .gif files and graphs.

  Produced 2 reel videos in total: Focused on environmental issues exacerbated by livestock meat. Emphasized how artificial meat can tackle these environmental problems. The approach involved initially presenting the current environmental concerns, followed by introducing artificial meat as a solution to these issues. The primary goal was to encourage viewers to establish a conceptual connection between artificial meat and its potential to combat climate change. Click this link to watch the reels. After informing the public through these means, climate reels, and hashtag events, we initiated a climate activism project, allowing people to participate more directly and straightforwardly in the project. Through the numerous interviews and visits we have made, our team saw the potential impact cultured meat could have in solving the global problem of hunger and the climate crisis. We used these methods of outreach in order to brief a larger audience on how cultured meat can have a significant impact on not only the environment but also the worldwide food insecurity issue, addressing SDG Goal #13.3.

  Instagram SDG Hashtag Event

  
  Figure 20 (Picture Instagram posts with the hashtag #igem_2023sdg)
  Adding on to informing the public through reels video format, we also motivated to show the public how artificial meat directly engages in various sustainable goals through an Instagram post form as well. Since June 12th, Korea-HS has established the “Instagram SDG Hashtag Event” through our official Instagram account. We have uploaded 36 posts about various topics for 3 months, relating artificial meat with 15 different main themes with 102 pages of the posts in total. The primary focus was on establishing connections between artificial meat and its potential contributions to SDG Goals, particularly emphasizing Goal #13: climate action. Themes within the posts included extensive discussions on climate change, featuring an interview summary with Climate activist Cherry Sung. Additionally, the posts highlighted how artificial meat could contribute to water conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Utilized visual images and concise bullet points to enhance information delivery and accessibility to the public. In addition to informing how our project relates to various SDG Goals, especially climate action, we reached out to other iGEM teams as well and requested them to join our hashtag event. After active communication, other IGEM teams, such as REC CHENNAI and IISER Pune, also used our hashtag to post and explicitly show how their projects contribute to different SDG Goals. Instagram is a platform where people can share and learn information openly and easily. Considering the fact that cultured meat may not be a familiar term to numerous people, our team decided to utilize Instagram for the purpose of informing our novel topic of cultured meat through posts and reels. Actively utilizing both video format and post format on Instagram, Korea-HS achieved the target Goal #13.3 of building knowledge and capacity for the public.

  Climate Activism Project & Handkerchief Distribution

  
  Figure 21 (Evidence for Korean members’ conduction of climate activism)
  After informing the public about the necessity of artificial meat through Instagram posts and reel videos, we were determined to take real-life action by holding climate activism in the local community where each member is involved.
  • Climate activism occurred in 7 different schools, including…
    • Seoul International School
    • Korea International School of Jeju
    • Saint Johnsbury Academy Jeju
    • Branksome Hall Asia
    • Cornerstone Collegiate Academy of Seoul
    • And more
  • Poster education also took place in these schools.
    • Prior to the climate activism efforts, each member's school community had been educated about artificial meat and its contributions to various SDG Goals through the poster education process.
  • The current emphasis is on highlighting the significance of artificial meat in relation to SDG Goal #13: climate action.

  We were able to efficiently inform the public to target SDG Goal #13.3, the capacity to meet climate change since we shrewdly built up our activity from the previous poster education activity done for SDG Goal #4.

  
  Figure 22 (Picture of the custom handkerchiefs)
  Additionally, while running the climate activism project, we designed and distributed sustainable handkerchiefs to citizens and simultaneously informed citizens about how artificial meat is beneficial and friendly towards the environment. By not including paper or plastics, we minimized the environmental harm even when distributing the product as well. We added two figures: One figure indicates that artificial meat may reduce CO2 emissions by up to 96%, and the other figure shows that artificial meat may reduce water usage by 82~96%. The visual figures made the public increase awareness of climate change, leading us to achieve target Goal #13.3 in an indirect form. By running the climate activism project, 41 more members from 7 different schools followed our Korea-HS Instagram page. That way, more community members were able to “build knowledge,” which is SDG Goal #13.3, of artificial meat through our Instagram SDG posts that connect artificial meat’s engagement with various SDG Goals and the climate reel video that further elaborates on the artificial meat’s positive environmental contributions mentioned on the handkerchief.

  Sustainable Goal #17

  As an extension to the social media approach to raising awareness of our project, we decided to reach out to different teams and organizations outside of iGEM that strive to achieve the SDG Goals and companies that are dedicated to commercializing the artificial meat product. Our goal was to spread as much awareness as possible through collaboration with organizations that have the same motive in mitigating global issues. We aim to focus on target Goal #17.16, “enhancing the global partnership for sustainable development.” During the previous visit to Agriculture & Food Tech Start-Up Rising Expo 2023, we had an opportunity to encounter the artificial meat company Spacef and had a short conversation regarding their own unique technology used to create artificial meat. As we thought that both our teams might benefit from making partnerships with organizations or companies, including the SpaceF company, we made the following two activities: SDG conference and Business proposal.

  SDG Conference

  
  Figure 23 (Picture of SDG Conference)
  This conference was hosted mainly for the purpose of reflecting on our primary objective of SDG. To bond various social groups, stakeholders of SDG, and individual world-changers, sharing ideas and addressing solutions to build a better world, we hosted the SDG conference on September 17th from 10 PM KST to 12 AM KST.
  • As we tried to provide an online place where various stakeholders of SDGs worldwide can share experiences and actions, the SDG conference aimed to achieve our target Goal #17.16: “Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries.”

  A total of 14 organizations, including Korea-HS, Biospect, Rainmaker, PowerUs, Healthcove, and others, participated in this conference for the purpose of sharing their own project. By discussing the importance of certain SDGs that each team focused on, our team was also able to share and emphasize four SDGs that were targeted in our project: #2, #4, #13, and #17. We also received feedback from each team on our project, allowing us to reflect on specific limitations and benefits regarding our goal. Through this event, we were able to come up with and share different strategies to tackle SDG Goals while reaching out to the broader community.

  Since these teams all had the same intentions in terms of achieving specific SDGs, we were able to share our method of raising awareness (we shared about making Instagram reels, distributing physical flyers, etc.), and we gained new ways to target specific audiences. For example, some teams had given public speeches, collaborated with other businesses for a bigger impact, had gone on climate strikes, or public marches.

  
  Figure 24 (Picture of the JamBoard Activity Session)
  After sharing each other’s projects and discussing how they contributed to various SDG Goals, we utilized the Google JamBoard as a platform to brainstorm and collaborate ideas regarding SDG Goals in general.
  • Key focus: Answering and listening to peer feedback regarding SDG Goals.
  • Addressed fundamental questions:
    • Which SDG Goal is important?
    • Why are SDG Goals necessary?
    • What can I further do, as a citizen, to be more sustainable?
  • Offered organizations an opportunity to reflect on their initiatives and motivations for their projects.
    • Concluded the conference with a creative activity involving the team logo and mission related to SDG Goals.

  By holding an SDG conference and inviting 14 other organizations to share their own targeting sustainable goals, we were able to achieve SDG Goal #17 on a large scale. In addition, utilizing the Google JamBoard also positively contributed to acquiring target Goal #17.16 in particular. Google Jamboard is a virtual collaboration tool that lets users work together in real-time. Allowing organizations to facilitate communication through efficient utilization of this platform, Korea-HS successfully enhanced “the global partnership for sustainable development.”

  Business Proposal

  [File 1: Business proposal]
  During the SDG conference, we were also inspired by the idea of collaborating with other companies, so it led us to revisit our experience with the meat Expo where we were able to meet biotech-related companies, specifically the ones that were attempting to commercialize artificial meat and 3d printed meat. Then, we decided to reach out to one that stood out and wrote a business proposal introducing our project. We sent the stakeholder SpaceF company a business proposal, which explained why our findings in cultured meat could potentially help their company, and these reasons included cheaper ways to make the meat and the alignment of our goals in producing cultured meat. By creating a partnership and synthesizing the work together on the project of lab-grown meat, additionally incorporating our fundamental knowledge of business, SDG Goal #17 was able to be achieved.
  [File 2: Patent proposal]
  In order to achieve target Goal #17.16, enhancing global partnership is not only limited to the SpaceF company, but we also constructed a patent proposal in order to protect the intellectual property (IP) of the product. With the integration of both the business proposal and the patent proposal, The future company that would collaborate with others will show more credibility towards our product once our product receives the patent in the future. In order to achieve our target goal with greater impact, we applied for the patent to gain the right to prevent any appropriations of our property.

  Conclusion & Reflection

  Our team’s focus on artificial meat has been catalyzed by the predicament the current meat industry is confronted with. As global demand for meat is drastically growing, more resources are required to grow livestock, resulting in harmful environmental effects, including carbon emissions and soil erosion. While finding a way to address this issue, We have decided to investigate further artificial meat, lab-grown meat evaluated as a prime alternative to livestock meat. With the motivation to make an even superior product among the existing artificial meat, Korea-HS has rendered a wnt3a-afamin serum-free media that allows it to be more cost-effective and sustainable.

  Our Accomplishments

  Throughout our artificial meat project, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) allowed our team to not solely focus on creating a superior product itself. It also further extended our team’s vision as we were able to further branch out our project by actively engaging in the 4 Sustainable Development Goals that our team initially aimed to focus on: Goal #2: Zero Hunger, Goal #4: Quality education, Goal #13: Climate action, and Goal #17: Partnerships for the goals. Constantly endeavoring to make positive implications, Korea-HS was able to contribute to all 4 Goals conclusively. While contributing to those SDG Goals, we engaged with multiple communities by educating children from the childcare center, achieving SDG Goal #2, interviewing multiple stakeholders from a climate activist to a biology professor, conducting climate activism in the school and local community, achieving SDG Goal #13, and suggesting a business partnership with another artificial meat company, achieving SDG Goal #17. We also have created an open space for teams and organizations to freely share their experience in achieving various goals by holding the SDG conference. This way, we successfully expanded the sustainable effect to a bigger group of communities, which would lead to a global scale of sustainable impact.

  Limitations

  Even though we have achieved all 4 Goals throughout our journey, we encountered some limitations along the way. The first challenge was the interactions with other iGEM teams. Even though we have successfully gained collaboration opportunities with different iGEM teams and organizations, we thought it would be better if we could have reached out to more iGEM teams to make broader collaboration and engagement in the context of sustainability with the synthetic biological aspect. Also, by doing so, we could have made a recipe book with the food of wider culture and distributed our education pamphlet to broader audiences. Furthermore, despite having a thorough plan and structure for implementing artificial meat into the market, the real artificial meat couldn’t be distributed and tested to the public for food safety approval. Therefore, we could only expand our project to making a recipe book that could be used once the artificial meat is released to the public.

  Future Directions

  We would like to focus more on reaching out to various IGEM teams and conducting more engaging collaboration activities as an IGEM community. For example, we would further develop collaboration activities by creating a 4-cut scenario storybook that shows each project’s main idea and holding the SDG conference with a broader audience on a bigger scale. By doing so, the synthetic biological aspect, which is unique to iGEM, could be shared with the general public more, which provides them with different perspectives on sustainability, reaching SDG Goals #4: quality education and #17: partnerships for Goals. In addition, we would further focus on the development of the actual artificial meat that implements our unique utilization of wnt3a and afamin protein. Once artificial meat is officially created with a safety license, we would like to ask the public’s opinions about artificial meat with tastings and create a product based on it to spread our sustainable goal further. Also, we would be able to develop the artificial meat recipe book in a more engaging way for the public by creating a recipe that can maximize the flavor that we intended to render. Therefore, we can make our project more successful and sustainable by achieving our next goal, creating a real artificial product based on our research.