High Steaks, High Rewards: UPSIDE Foods Board of Directors, 2015
The year is 2015. Uma Valeti (CEO), Nicholas Genovese (CSO), and William Clem (Co-Founder) have a vision: use biotechnology to grow meat in a lab. Their plan? Cultivate stem cells in bioreactors, creating the muscle, fat, and connecting tissues that constitute meat. If they succeed, they will create a product identical to meat from an animal in taste, texture, and cellular makeup--but from a lab bench instead of a slaughterhouse. It is radical, but if UPSIDE Foods can pull it off, successfully pitch their product, and keep costs low, they will fundamentally alter the food system.
While much of the science already exists, there is a long, uphill battle ahead. How will delegates create what has never been made before? How will they find investors in the aggressive, fast-paced worlds of silicon valley and the food industry? How will they scale and keep costs down? Throughout this, delegates will need to pay careful attention to the company image, presenting themselves well to skeptical consumers and bureaucratic FDA regulators. The task ahead is daunting and full of uncertainties, but the steaks are enormous: Alternatively sourced, animal-identical meat has the potential to save trillions of farmed animals and eliminate factory farming, one of the greatest moral atrocities and environmental destructors of our time. Can delegates meat the challenge?
Emma Tung
Chair
Emma is a second year in the college double majoring in Business Economics and Psychology, hoping to finally actually figure out what she does in her life without changing majors again. Emma was born in San Francisco, California, attending elementary and middle school at the same place. Then, she made the grand decision to move across the country for high school to attend boarding school in Boston, Massachusetts, where she learned that Bostonians live quite differently than Californians. Emma has been on the West Coast, the East Coast, and now she wants to be in the middle. Throughout high school, Emma competed in Model UN even with a fear of public speaking. She finally conquered that fear as senior president of her boarding school and with her multiple attempts at speeches in MUN. Last year, Emma co-chaired in room and back room for the crisis committee on Bega Cheese At CHOMUN XXV. Emma will also be serving as a chair for Chicago’s high school MUN conference. Outside of Model UN, Emma loves to play tennis, rock climb, eat lots of food (literally anything in front of me), and dance to K-Pop.
nolan shaffer
Crisis Director
Nolan is a second-year student majoring in Computer Science and Fundamentals: Issues and Texts. He's from New York City, and studied drama at a performing arts high school called LaGuardia. He enjoys organizing Model UN and has been involved with MUNUC and ChoMUN since his first year. Last year, he served as an Assistant Chair on Who Cut the Cheese? Bega Cheese Board of Directors, 2017.
Outside of school and ChoMUN/MUNUC, he organizes for UChicago's Effective Altruism chapter, acts in University Theater and Fire Escape Films, helps out with the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, and enjoys running, cooking, rock climbing, and skateboarding. If you ever find yourself at UChicago, you might be able to hear him giving a tour.
Nolan is beyond excited to be working on an alternative proteins committee. He founded the UChicago Alternative Protein Project, which seeks to create community, awareness, career opportunities, and research in alternative proteins. He believes that the field has extraordinary potential to transform our food system, which is overwhelmingly in need of change.
If you have any questions about alternative proteins, in the context of MUN or not, or if you just want to say hi, you can find him at nolanshaffer@uchicago.edu.
kevin gu
CRISIS DIRECTOR
Kevin is a second-year majoring in Economics and Public Policy. He was born in Fairfax, Virginia, but lived the majority of his life in Shanghai before going to Connecticut for high school. Prior, he served as an assistant chair for Cabinet of Florvil Hyppolite (Haiti) and as chair for OPEC at UChicago's high school conference, as well as assistant chair for Bega Cheese Board of Directors for ChoMUN. In his free time, Kevin enjoys playing basketball, eating good food, and playing more video games than is probably beneficial for his academic career.
Feel free to reach out at kevingu@uchicago.edu for any questions, concerns, or terrible (but backed by "evidence"!) sports opinions.
Secretariat oversight:
charlie ortega martinez, Under-secretary-general