2023: A Terrible Year for BS Peddlers
A look-back at the fall of biotech meat, effective altruism, and other cons
While not usually a fan of “year in review” posts, when I remembered all the good news this past year of BS finally getting exposed, I got excited about it.
It was especially fun to see “lab-grown chicken” included in this round-up of “The worst technology failures of 2023”.
But wait, there’s more.
The Cult of Cultured Meat Exposed
I recently wrote about the latest (by Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek) in a series of exposes about Upside Foods, the over-capitalized and under-performing biotech (aka cell cultured) meat company. But let’s not forget all the other great investigative stories this year about this company’s BS.
Wired exposed how the shiny tanks the company loves to show off don’t work.
The Wall Street Journal exposed how science is seriously lagging behind PR.
MIT Technology Review listed Upside Foods’ biotech chicken as one of “the worst technology failures” of the year, nestled in between the Titan submersible disaster and dangerous Cruise robotaxis. Fun fact: Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt is also an investor and board member for Upside. Misery sure does love company.
Narcissistic Leadership Exposed
Since the 2016-17 series of Bloomberg articles about the highly questionable tactics of plant-based egg start-up Hampton Creek’s brash CEO Josh Tetrick, the company now known as Eat Just has been on the media’s radar, for both good and bad. But 2023 really drove home how operating off VC fumes for too long can be beyond toxic, especially when your leader appears to be living in an alternative reality.
As I summarized last month, Wired did a deep dive into Tetrick’s financial mismanagement, among other failures. One former employee called the situation “a house of cards”.
This disturbing profile came on the heels of news of one of the vegan movement’s largest donors giving Eat Just an incredible $16 million. It appears that Tetrick ran out of legit investors to tap, so he got money from a wealthy philanthropist instead.
And because the field of biotech meat has no shortage of BS peddlers, let’s not forget the company called Omeat, which, as I wrote about, claims to extract plasma from live cows to make serum to grow cells into meat. Mkay.
In the treating your workers like crap category came the biotech milk company, Perfect Day. As I explained, despite an incredible $700 million of VC cash, the company cruelly laid off 134 of employees via their personal email while simultaneously locking them out of their computers and work software. Not very compassionate for a company that claims to be saving cows.
Effective Altruism Darling Headed to Jail
Of all the fun downfall stories to follow in 2023, my greatest schadenfreude came from that of Sam Bankman-Fried, the ersatz golden boy of crypto. As I wrote about while covering his criminal fraud trial, Bankman-Fried was a major promotor of “effective altruism”, a massive cult with hooks into the vegan movement. Let’s review.
Understanding the ties between SBF, effective altruism, and food tech.
Why is the Good Food Institute not giving back fraudulent funding?
Effective altruism is an “intellectual scam”.
SBF found guilty: effective altruism is not an end that justify any means.
Let’s hope this truth trend continues into 2024. I will be following closely. Also expect to read more about workplace abuse in the coming year and most importantly, how we can fight back to break the silence and stop the harm.