First Day at the Ofiice

7/10

I went to bed around 4:15 am local time. I slept through my alarm, which I thought I set for 7:45am although I may have not even set it in my state of delirium. Anyways, I got up at 8:27, three minutes before I was supposed to be at Maastricht University . I emailed Mark, the amazing man behind clean meat in the Netherlands and one of the premier forces in the movement, and Vivian, Mark’s secretary, to let them know that I would be late. They were both understanding of the situation and said it would be OK if I arrived at 9:15am. I did my general morning routine in an abbreviated way, only meditating for 10 minutes and eating the bit of food I had left over from my travels (a few nuts and apricots). After a 10 minute bike ride, I arrived at Maastricht University around 9:20 and met Vivian, who introduced me to Mark, who was meeting with Nathalie, a fellow intern. Vivian got me situated in one of the rooms where some fellow clean meat interns and employees were located. 

I met with Mark at 11:00, and while I had Skyped with him once and emailed him a variety of times, meeting him was awesome. After watching him speak on YouTube, reading his papers, and enthusiastically following his work for the last two years, I felt like a kid meeting one of his childhood heroes. We chatted about activities in Maastricht, the state of clean meat, some questions I had about clean meat, and what I would be working on during the internship. During this time, I will be examining the most transparent and rigorous ways to certify cultured beef as market-ready with food-certifying government agencies in a variety of countries, and contacting beef interest groups in these countries to better understand how they may respond to the introduction of cultured meat into the market. My goal is to help prepare the cultured beef team for possible legal and informational battles surrounding the name, safety of consumption, and environmental benefits of cultured beef.  

After chatting for an hour and a half, the discussion ended because of time constraints. Because I did not pack any lunch, I asked Mark what people generally do for lunch and he said that he brings a lunch (my kind of guy), but that there was a cafeteria downstairs. He walked me down there and I pursued the options, but the only thing I could eat were, tomato soup, bread, and apples. I ordered a bowl of soup, a small loaf of bread, and an apple, and I discovered that my debit card did work after all. It all tasted amazing, but I think that was partially due to the fact that I was famished. 

After lunch, I started helping Nathalie with her experiment, the details of which are currently secret. What I can say is that my part in all of this is to cook burgers, something I have not done in many year due to the environmental and ethical issues associated with livestock production. Cooking these burgers, however, is something I easily justify because finding ways to successfully introduce clean meat to the market will help replace conventional livestock production and mitigate all of its issues.

After work, I one to a supermarket called Lidl and stocked up on food and drink. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the new foods, snacks, sauces, beers, and wines, but disappointed by the complete lack of bulk foods, like beans and rice. I rode back to my apartment and ate my fill outside, as it was a blissful night.