New Harvest is a charity that works to advance the development of alternative protein products. They accomplish this by distributing grants to fund scientific research, and by providing academic and professional resources to the alternative protein community.
New Harvest's approach focuses on cellular agriculture, which is the production of foods such as meat, milk, and eggs through cell culture instead of traditional farming.
Overall, we think New Harvest is a promising opportunity to help farm animals.
New Harvest funds research related to the development of alternative protein products. From 2020 to 2024, roughly half of their revenue was distributed as research grants. This research is largely focused on the development of lab-grown meat, such as:
We think that the impact of this work is unclear, but that it is a worthwhile pursuit. For more information, please see our article: Lab-Grown Meat Might Never Work—But It's Still Worth Trying.
New Harvest also supports the alternative protein community by publishing educational resources, hosting conferences, and providing networking opportunities.
We believe that this type of work is important given how new the field of alternative protein is. And although it is difficult to assess the impact of this work, New Harvest's efforts are known to have played a key role in the creation of at least two large alternative protein companies: Perfect Day and The EVERY Company.
Note: collectively, Perfect Day and The EVERY Company have raised over a billion dollars in funding. New Harvest itself receives less than two million dollars in donations per year.
New Harvest does credible work in the alternative protein sector, and for donors who are interested in the possibility of ending factory farming, it is a promising donation opportunity.
That said, the impact of New Harvest's work is quite speculative, and it is unclear if products like lab-grown meat will ever become economically viable.
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