Doug says Atlantic Fish Co is doubling down on genetic engineering rather than avoiding it.
1. Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast speaks with Doug Grant about Atlantic Fish Co. and cultivated seafood focused on white flaky fish.
2. Doug Grant is the guest, Atlantic Fish Co.'s founder, and his Navy and startup background explain how he moved into cultivated seafood.
3. The episode asks how Atlantic Fish Co. plans to build cultivated fish products around white flaky marine species and a partner-led strategy.
4. Doug says he spent 10 years in the Navy as a helicopter pilot, mainly in San Diego, and last flew in 2013 after landing on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
5. He says a 2019 Rolling Stone article about Upside Foods first pulled him toward cultivated meat, and Paul Shapiro's book Clean Meat pushed him further.
6. Doug says COVID lockdowns gave him time to start Brave New Meat and to reach out cold to Paul Shapiro for his first guest.
7. He describes meeting more people at conferences, coming to CMS, and deciding there was room to start Atlantic Fish Co. in seafood.
8. The company name began as a beta label, but Doug says Atlantic Fish Co. fit the small-seaport feel he wanted and stayed.
9. Atlantic Fish Co. focuses on white flaky marine species instead of salmon, tuna, or shrimp.
10. Doug says the company wants to replace fish caught via trawling, not fish already produced in aquaculture.
11. He cites a Nature paper that linked trawling to sediment release and said up to 1.5 gigatons of CO2 could be stirred up.
12. Doug says that 1.5 gigatons is equivalent to all global air travel, which is why he treats trawling as a major climate problem.
13. He argues that cultivated seafood customers will already be past the biggest adoption hurdle, so genetic engineering should not be the main deciding factor.
14. Doug says Atlantic Fish Co's first demo product is a hybrid deep-fried fish nugget, part plant-based and part fish-based.
15. He says the team plans to target an initial demo by the end of the year and expects the first commercial product to be hybrid and unstructured.
16. Doug says Atlantic Fish Co is in the middle of a pre-seed round, backed by IndieBio, Sustainable Food Ventures, and angels.
17. He says the team is three full-time people, including Trevor Ham as CSO and RJ Savino on the science side.
18. The conversation stays interview-driven and technical, with Alex asking detailed follow-ups about texture, scale, fundraising, and product strategy.
19. Listeners interested in cultivated seafood, startup strategy, and climate-linked protein replacement would get the most from it.
20. Listeners looking for a finished product launch or a very short overview may skip it.
