From juicy ribeyes to sushi-grade salmon, cultivated-meat companies have grand plans to reproduce the most popular proteins in the world. Their bet is that consumers will eventually switch to lab-grown versions of their favorite filets due to the significant ethical and environmental advantages they can offer over traditional meat production.

But Australia-based Vow Food is placing a different bet: It wants to bioengineer entirely new, better forms of meat.

“We can just invent entirely new types of meat that are going to become as abundant, well-recognized, and well-understood as a Cheerio is, 80 years in the future,” Vow founder and CEO George Peppou said in June during a talk at New Harvest, an annual cellular-agriculture conference.

Bringing it to life: Vow announced its first brand—a cultivated-quail product dubbed Morsel—in May, and pending regulatory review, it will be available at one high-end restaurant in Singapore later this year, Peppou told us.

• It also just finished building its first factory in its hometown of Sydney, which will produce Morsel.
• Peppou declined to share exactly what Morsel’s made of, but told us that up front you get some “umami, roasted chicken” flavors before it melts in your mouth “like a beef brisket” and concludes with some “seafood notes.”

Zoom out: Cultivated meat is still unproven at scale, and right now it’s only legal to sell in Singapore. But the space is drawing more and more investment as the industry pushes for regulatory approval in the US and elsewhere: Since 2020, investors have poured at least $2.4 billion into cultivated-meat startups.

Keep reading about Vow’s plans to reinvent meat here.—DM

Nearly two years after Starlink became available to consumers, SpaceX’s satellite-internet service continues to improve connectivity speeds, according to a new report by Ookla, a web service focused on internet speed tests.

​​The service is still slower than fixed broadband in the US and Canada but far ahead of satellite-broadband competitors like HughesNet and Viasat. But in several countries, like Australia and New Zealand, the service has faster download speeds than traditional fixed-broadband options, highlighting Starlink’s ability to deliver comparatively strong service in certain areas.

• Starlink’s user base has grown to over 400,000 worldwide as of May, up from 145,000 at the start of the year. The service kicked off its public beta in October 2020.

By the numbers: The report found that median download speeds for Starlink in the US and Canada increased from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022. In the US, Starlink’s median download speeds improved ~38% from 65.72 Mbps in Q1 2021 to 90.55 Mbps in Q1 2022.

• In the same window, Starlink’s download speed in Canada climbed ~58%, from 61.84 Mbps to 97.40 Mbps.
• However, upload speeds regressed, with speeds in America dropping by at least 33% and by at least 36% in Canada, which the report said should be “negligible” for many users.

Improvements in Starlink’s speeds will be critical as the company expands its satellite constellation and coverage. The company launched 53 satellites last week to add to its constellation, which already consists of over 2,500 satellites.

• Starlink released Starlink for RVs in June, the first portable iteration of its satellite-internet service. It was only available at fixed locations like homes prior to June.

Starlink also gained FCC approval last month to operate on vehicles in motion, including boats, planes, and trains. Part of that push included securing deals with Hawaiian Airlines and charter carrier JSX to provide in-flight wi-fi services, which Hawaiian Airlines said will be available as early as 2023.

Click here to read this story on-site.—JM

Stat: The value of recycled solar-panel material could skyrocket from $170 million this year to $2.7 billion in 2030, per an analysis from Rystad Energy.

Quote: “Automation hasn’t led to the doomsday scenario of mass layoffs…In fact, it’s created new roles that didn’t exist before automation.”—Robert Carruthers, acting chief executive at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, to the Wall Street Journal about automation in mining

Read: A review of Oppo’s augmented reality…monocle.

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• Militaries are accelerating investment in AI and innovation as a result of the war in Ukraine.
• Argo.AI, which began testing driverless robotaxis in Miami and Austin earlier this year, has laid off 150 employees—about 6% of its staff.
• Meta is going to stop making its VR-headset users log into their Facebook accounts.
• Tesla will begin manufacturing equipment that allows drivers to charge non-Tesla EVs at the company’s Supercharger ports.
• A right to WFH may soon be instituted in the Netherlands. If an employee’s job can be done remotely, companies would have to at least consider their WFH request.

Snap poll: Do you think companies should have to consider employees’ WFH requests, assuming the job in question can be accomplished from home?

Yes
No

The world is going through a rapid technological evolution—and innovations around food, energy, and health will be key over the next decade. The businesses of today will be disrupted by the technologies of tomorrow.

On September 29, we’re convening hundreds of business leaders and innovators here in New York City to discuss these pressing technologies. You’ve read our newsletter. Now see what’s happening on stage.

But act fast: Ticket prices increase at midnight. Register today to save $200 on your ticket.

Last week, our panel of experts (aka, Emerging Tech Brew readers) weighed in on vertical farming.

The question at hand: How many of you have knowingly tried vertically farmed foods?

• A quarter of our 1800+ respondents have tried food grown on an indoor farm. A little bit less—22%—have never done so.
• The remaining 53% of respondents weren’t sure.

Zoom out: While Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, and others carry some controlled environment agriculture (CEA) products on their shelves, CEA makes up less than 1% of total produce sales. That figure could increase in the years to come as investment pours into the space and more indoor farms are built.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Inside indoor-farming giant, Bowery Farming
• US green hydrogen production, storage gets boost
• Why startups are deploying biochar as a carbon-removal method