Precision fermentation is a relatively new food technology that is rapidly entering the mainstream. Products such as milk protein, animal fats, collagen, honey, lobster, egg whites and more are receiving hundreds of millions of investor dollars.

They are being rapidly commercialized for the mass market without the raising and killing of animals. These products are being marketed to a young consumer base that wants sustainable, climate-friendly foods that buck the system and promise a better tomorrow.

But what should consumers being asking about this new wave of food technologies?

Because this technology is new and just starting to scale, consumers may still have the opportunity to push for greater transparency.

Researchers Julie Guthman and Charlotte Biltekoff describe the marketing techniques of such food-tech enterprises as magical disruption.

One the one hand, they intend to replace or compete with the brutality of [factory farms] and the resulting pollution. But they are also bound by intellectual property regimes that create tremendous value for their founders and investors while clouding potential externalities.