Why do you use the term "cultivated" salmon?

With new technology comes new nomenclature. At some point, the “internal combustion engine” just became the “car.” In the early days of cellular agriculture, there was very limited consumer awareness of the process, so productive debate over a descriptive, accurate name ensued.

Along with many of our peer companies, we commissioned a study to better understand what names would best serve customers and our budding industry. We chose to use the term “cultivated” in order to signal a clear distinction from farmed, plant-based or wild-caught seafood. We want everyone who enjoys Wildtype salmon to know exactly what they’re eating. But we also wanted consumers to be excited about it! Pejorative terms like “lab grown” put people off and they aren’t reflective of how our scaled-up process actually looks. Ultimately, consumers need to understand where their food comes from and how it impacts their health and the health of the planet.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we landed on the term cultivated, check out this blog post as well as our response to FDA’s request for information on nomenclature. For good measure, here’s a peer reviewed paper that dives into our underlying research on naming this new category.