Writings

Selected Written Commentaries

Peruse some of Paul’s selected writings in mainstream media outlets:
“South Dakota Should Compete—Not Retreat—In the Future of Meat,” Capital Journal, March 2025
“In Defense of Happy Cows,” Washington Post, February 2025
“Missouri’s Solution in Search of a Plant-Based Problem,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 2025
“States are trying to ban lab-grown meat. It’s a dumb mistake,” The Hill, March 2024
“Vegan: The Product Label Which Shall Not Be Named,” Food Dive, Oct. 2023
“5 Reasons to Support Cultivated Meat,” One Green Planet, October 2023
“8 Questions for Better Meat Founder Paul Shapiro,” Food Dive, August 3, 2023
“When will peace & prosperity return to Altmeatland? Sooner than you might think,” Food Navigator, August 1, 2023
“Why the future of your backyard barbecue meat is animal-free,” Dallas Morning News, July 1, 2023.
“With May as Beef Month, will Laura Kelly declare a Kansas Plant-Based Meat Month?” Topeka Capital-Journal, May 2022
“Will making meat without animals help prevent the next pandemic?” Virgin.com, January 2022
“How we treat farmed animals,” New York Times, December 2021
“With soaring demand for meat, it's time to fund animal-free protein research,” The Hill, December 2021

“The real, the fake and the future,” New York Daily News, May 2021

“Let’s Grow Meat, and Stop Slaughtering Animals,” The New York Times, December 2020
“Poultry pardons: they’re not just for presidents,” Baltimore Sun, November 2020
“Why meat could be top of mind for voters in the upcoming election,” Fortune Magazine, September 2020
“One Root Cause of Pandemics Few People Think About,” Scientific American, March 2020
“Meat industry is trying to stifle plant-based food innovation,” The Hill, November 2019
“The Banning of Foie Gras,” The New York Times, November 2019
“Is fish-free seafood the next wave of change?” San Diego Union-Tribune, October 2019
“Sorry, dairy, consumers not confused by plant-based ‘milks’,” Duluth News Tribune, October 2019
“Taste testing the ice cream that took $60 million to create,” New Food Economy, July 2019
“Don’t want to ditch meat for your health? Do it to avoid pandemics,” Globe and Mail, April 2019
“Is ‘vegan’ a four-letter word on product packaging?” Food Navigator, April 2019
“Meat is meat — on the hoof or grown in a lab,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 2019
“Don’t You Dare Call it Meat,” Scientific American, February 2019
“7 Predictions On The Future Of Clean Meat in 2019,” Forbes, December 2018
“Missouri and France Unite—to Suppress Plant-Based Meat,” Fortune magazine, November 2018
“Of Diamonds and Meat: Culturing a Better Future,” Food Safety News, November 2018
“Plant-based dairy products aren’t new. Neither is the U.S. dairy industry’s hostility,” Washington Post, October 2018
“Interview with Paul Shapiro,” IdeaMensch, September 2018
"Food Fight Over the M-Word," Food Navigator, July 2018
"One order of eggs, hold the hens: How acellular agriculture will reshape food," Food Dive, June 2018
"The Meat of the Matter," Food Safety News, May 2018
"Changing diets isn't enough—we need science and technology to wean us from meat," Daily Climate, May 2018
"Meat lobby wants USDA to ban 'clean meat' makers from calling their products meat," The Hill, May 2018
"Lab-Grown Fish--Coming Soon to Your Local Supermarket?" The Forward, April 2018
"Meat the new meat," Washington Post, March 2018
"Making mastodon gummies, Geltor is recreating a truly paleo diet," TechCrunch, March 2018
"Meet the startup that makes milk—without cows," Quartz, February 2018
"Science fiction no more, can lab-grown meat feed — and save — the world?" Reuters, February 2018
"Lab-made meat could be the next revolution," The Guardian, January 2018
"Chicken Might Be the First Lab-Grown Meat to Make It to Your Grocery Store," Motherboard, January 2018
"Why holiday meals might look radically different in the near future," The Globe and Mail, December 2017
"Lab-Grown Meat Is on the Way," Scientific American, December 2017
"Are we doing more to protect potential aliens on other planets than animals here on Earth?" Astronomy Magazine, July 2017
“How eating less meat could save you more money,” MarketWatch, April 2017
“Fighting Animal Cruelty Now May Be Like Battling Segregation Yesterday,” The Forward, March 2017
“We Are Seeing Animals in a Different Light,” Newsweek, December 2016
“Waste less food by eating less meat,” The Greenville News, September 2016
“What happened when McDonald’s demanded cage-free hens,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 2016
“Today’s chickens more like Frankenbirds,” Savannah Morning News, June 2016
“The swift rise of cage-free eggs reveals Americans’ changing view of the moral universe,” Quartz, March 2016
“The Elephant-Sized Subsidy in the Race,” National Review, February 2016
“Chickens Can Only Dream of Being Treated Like Pets,” Orlando Sentinel, February 2016
“Humane Society Urges Action on Gestation Crates,” Two River Times, January 2016
“Love Cage-Free Eggs? Thank Arizona,” Arizona Republic, October 2015
“Bird flu: USDA should lead on animal welfare,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 2015
“It’s time for Turner egg factory to go cage free,” Bangor Daily News, August 2015
“It’s high time to eliminate cage confinement for egg-laying hens,” Modesto Bee, June 2015
“A plant-based diet can help save water,” Sacramento Bee, May 2015
"What’s the Meat Industry Trying to Hide?,” National Review, April 2015
“Missouri pork producers should drop inhumane practice,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 2015
“Pigs in Illinois stuck in the Dark Ages,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 2014
“Industry hides animal cruelty instead of ending it,” Spokesman Review, October 2014
"Factory farming affects public as well as animals," Louisville Courier-Journal, June 2014
“One Pizza, With Extra Federal Handouts,” Reason, March 2014
"Quit Meat, Save Dough," New York Daily News, June 2014
"Eat Less Chicken," The Baltimore Sun, April 2014
"A Meaty Resolution," Houston Chronicle, January 2014

Paul also writes often about the ways new technologies have ended long-entrenched forms of animal exploitation. For example:

  • Geese were live-pucked for centuries until metal fountain pens displaced goose quills.

  • Whales were massacred for oil for centuries until kerosene displaced whale oil.

  • Horses were whipped for centuries until they were displaced by engines.

  • Even bicycles helped degrade the horse industry prior to cars putting the nail in the coffin.

  • Elephants were slaughtered to make pool balls until ivory was displaced by bakelite plastic.

  • Fireflies were killed by the billions for biotech until their luciferase was displaced by synthetic biology.

  • Diabetics used pig and cattle insulin until farmed animal pancreases were displaced by synthetic biology insulin.

  • Many species of seabirds were driven nearly to extinction until their guano was displaced by synthetic nitrogen.

  • Carrier pigeons delivered messages for centuries until being displaced by telegraphs.

The list goes on and on. It's hard to think of even one form of common animal exploitation that's been essentially ended by humane sentiment. Paul wrote about this in his review of the 50th edition of Animal Liberation in response to Peter Singer's worry that animals would ask him why he failed.

Selected Interviews

Paul has been interviewed on a number of TV, radio, and podcast platforms. Below is a selection of some highlights:

“Ferment to Fork,” Inside Sacramento, September 2024

“How a Non-Scientist & Former Lobbyist Started a Future Food Company,” The Spoon, August 2024

“This Animal Rights Activist Is Changing the Meat Industry,” Prof G Pod, May 2024

“How Paul Shapiro is Brewing Superfoods,” Grow Everything Podcast, October 2023

“USDA Approves Meat from Animal Cells,” NBC Morning News, June 22, 2023

“Growing Business in the Meat Alternatives Industry,” Success Story Podcast, February 2022

“The Future of Meat,” Plant Proof, October 2021

“The Better Meat Co.” Good Day Sacramento (CBS), August 2021

“Paul Shapiro on Better Meat,” Species Unite Podcast, August 2021

“A Future of Meat without Animals?” MarketScale, April 2021

“Growing Real Meat Without Animals to Revolutionize Dinner with Paul Shapiro,” AnthroDish Podcast, January 2020

“Clean Meat - Robert Wright interviews Paul Shapiro,” The Wright Show, April 2019

"Food sustainability expert: Lab-grown meat is the way of the future," CNN, August 2018

"Clean Meat with Paul Shapiro," StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson, June 2018

"Would you eat meat grown in a lab?" BBC Newsnight, April 2018

"What Is Clean Meat? Paul Shapiro on the Future of Food," The Rich Roll Podcast, January 2018

“Election Ballot Debate Series: Should Mass. Ban Some Confinement Of Certain Farm Animals?,” WBUR, September 2016

Bred to Suffer: Paul Shapiro on Animals in Factory Farming, Point of Inquiry, August 2015

The Debate Over State Laws Requiring Bigger Cages for Hens And Livestock, Diane Rehm Show, WAMU, January 2015

Return of Foie Gras Pits Restaurants, Farmers Against Animal Groups, The Forum with Michael Krasny, KQED, January 2015

USDA Suspends Calf Slaughterhouse, CNN Headline News, January 2014

Animal Welfare and the Food We Eat, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU, January 2014

Ag-Gag Bills Spark Controversy, CNN Saturday Morning, April 2013

Paul also authors and co-authors papers in academic journals and textbooks. For example:

Paul has written several times about Donald Trump:

You can peruse more of Paul’s writings: