“Welcome, Team Leader!”
“It’s been a while, Professor.”
HBF headquarters, located on Teheran-ro.
You could tell how much the company had grown recently just by looking at the building.
With the government’s recent opening of the agricultural market, interest in FoodTech had risen even within the country.
As a result, HBF, which possessed Korea’s top cultured meat technology, had seen its stock price soar without knowing where the sky ended. Thanks to that, what had once been a research lab at KAIST in Daejeon was now able to put up a respectable building like this.
“First of all, congratulations. I heard you were relocating the company, but I’m only getting around to congratulating you now.”
“Not at all. If anything, I should be the one visiting you to express my gratitude, Team Leader Lee.”
“Haha. You’re starting to look more like a chairman than a professor now.”
“Yes, money really is nice. Just three years ago, I was busy begging the government for R&D funds, but now that I’m in a proper building like this, I’m overflowing with motivation. The research teams’ morale is sky-high, too. We’re leasing it for now, but at yesterday’s meeting, someone suggested we buy the whole building next year. Haha.”
Capitalism truly was a wonderful thing.
Normally, whenever I visited his lab, he would greet me with greasy hair and a shaggy beard. Now, he welcomed me in a neat suit.
As HBF’s status changed, his research team was also turning into company employees.
“By the way, you said you had good news?”
“Ah, yes. Team Leader, we signed it.”
“Don’t tell me, that issue...?”
“Yes. HBF won the military supply contract! The contract is worth about ten billion won, and we’ve agreed to gradually increase the volume!”
Professor Park’s face was flushed with excitement.
Korea was currently undergoing many changes.
On the road, an unmanned taxi had come to pick me up, and Professor Park had achieved the feat of supplying artificial meat(?) to military bases.
“Congratulations, truly. You did it!”
I was so happy I nearly teared up.
Originally, this military supply selection had not been easy to finalize because the entire livestock industry in Korea had thrown itself down in protest... but the government had stubbornly pushed the project through. Thanks to that, the ruling party’s approval ratings in Honam were crawling along the ground, but I knew.
Someday, this would be reevaluated.
In the future I knew, humanity eventually ate cultured meat. Not because of food security, but because of methane gas.
If you wanted to reduce carbon while still consuming protein, then in the end, you had to eat insects. Humanity chose cultured meat over insects.
“You really worked hard! Congratulations!”
It was a historic feat.
Wasn’t this more than ten years earlier than the future I knew? The fact that our military had succeeded not only in arms security but also in food security independence made this a historic day.
“It’s all thanks to you believing in us and investing, Team Leader. I’ve always been grateful for that.”
“I made the investment because the potential was more than sufficient. HBF’s success is the greatest result among the startups I’ve invested in. I should be the one thanking you.”
“In that case, may I treat you to a meal today? To celebrate.”
“Haha... I appreciate the offer, but another time.”
“Why? Is it because of an internal rule against private meetings with companies you’ve invested in? Come on, with results like this, please let me host you just once.”
“That’s not it. There’s something serious I’d like to discuss. It’s business.”
When I abruptly changed my expression, a slight tension appeared on his face as well.
“What business are you referring to?”
“Professor. What are you planning for HBF’s marketing strategy going forward?”
“Hmm... For now, since we’ve won the military supply contract, I’m thinking of aiming for deliveries to private companies next. We’re currently in contact with several franchise restaurants as well. But people still have resistance toward cultured meat, and our production costs aren’t exactly revolutionary yet, so I think it will take some time.”
“I see.”
“Still, fortunately, we’re preparing several joint projects with KJ. We’re planning to use our cultured meat in retort foods released by KJ Food, and they’re preparing a substantial development budget for it.”
I nodded.
As expected, it had been a good decision to connect them with a major corporation. KJ, the largest shareholder after the National Pension Service, was quite actively pushing cultured meat.
After hearing the concrete plan, I felt that I no longer needed to get involved in this issue.
“Anything else besides that?”
“By anything else, you mean...?”
“Do you happen to have any interest in the smart farm business?”
Professor Park’s pupils trembled faintly.
“By smart farms... first, wouldn’t the issue of corporate farming have to be resolved..?”
“Yes. If the corporate farming issue were resolved, Professor, would you be willing to enter smart farming as well?”
“...Well, of course. Korea’s agricultural market is already of great interest even to our conglomerates. But can that issue really be resolved?”
“We’ll have to try.”
“...I don’t think that’s something that can be solved by effort.”
Professor Park turned pale.
“Team Leader. I’m saying this now, but do you know how fierce the opposition from the livestock industry was when we won the military supply contract? There were tractor protests not only at the Ministry of National Defense, but even in front of our KAIST campus in Daejeon. It was practically a business we couldn’t have won.”
Professor Park waved his hands in denial.
“The only fortunate thing was that the government helped us. I don’t know the details, but I understand they gave the livestock industry a considerable consolation payment. Even a single meat supply contract caused this much trouble, so how can a corporation possibly challenge the rice market?”
“I’ll handle the government relations as best I can. Professor, don’t worry about external factors. Work well with KJ and think seriously about corporate farming.”
“No, Team Leader, I’m saying this because I’m truly worried. The current administration’s approval ratings are already hitting rock bottom because of the agricultural market opening. In the middle of all this, if you start saying things they don’t want to hear, do you think those above will look kindly on you?”
I smiled and rose from my seat.
“It’s all right. Wherever I go, there’s never anyone who likes me anyway.”
“No, Team Leader!”
“Professor... Well, I suppose I can say this now, but the truth is, I didn’t support cultured meat because of Korea’s food security.”
“...Pardon?”
“In the future I know—no, the future I predict. I don’t think there will be a world where a sudden great famine strikes and every country blocks food outflows. If anything, what truly matters will be energy. If you can’t run tractors, how could food possibly be safe?”
He asked me.
“Then why did you support it?”
“Because cultured meat is a groundbreaking business for carbon reduction. I believe global society will eventually eat cultured meat, no matter how good the land and soil are.”
“I see... But what does that have to do with corporate farming?”
“A national economy is made up of industries that are all organically connected. If we want to sell even one more of our products in the global market, we also need to open up our food market... But our domestic crop yields are too poor. To make low-cost mass production possible, I think corporations will have no choice but to enter and compete like mad.”
Unfortunately, Korea currently did not stand out much in the field of green growth.
The industry that was furthest ahead was electric vehicles, and even there, its technology ranked outside the top ten.
That was why we had to open the market even more. We had to open our agricultural products and lower tariffs on our products to gain price competitiveness.
But with the current structure, foreign agricultural products would inevitably take over the entire Korean market.
So now, we had to let corporations enter as well and force them into insane competition.
“Of course, government relations will take a long time. But I will make it possible within this administration no matter what, so please prepare well, Professor. For your reference, I’ve conveyed today’s discussion to all the other food companies as well. If you don’t do it, HBF will be the only one losing out. Haha.”
I tossed out the joke lightly, but not even the corners of his mouth twitched.
Was it that cold?
“Then I’ll be going now. Thank you for making time for me today.”
“Ah, yes...”
Professor Park’s awkward response said everything. He did not believe me when I said I would persuade the government...
In truth, corporate farming was an issue that had been raised more than ten years ago, and it had not advanced even a single step since.
The irony of saying food security was important while blocking corporations from entering... well, there was no need to spell it out, was there?
“...”
After proposing a ten-trillion-won investment package to China, only one thought had been circling inside my head.
Carbon... Above all else, carbon.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the fate of twenty-first-century industries had effectively been decided at the Paris Agreement. If not for the global society’s “carbon reduction targets” in 2015, Teslan could never have become number one in market capitalization. Ahyeon Motors, ranked third in internal combustion vehicle sales, would not have been crawling along the ground like that.
In this way, carbon reduction targets were consciously and unconsciously dominating our industries as a whole.
“...”
If my memory was correct, energy security was far more important than food security in future society. If you could not run tractors and cultivators, you could not harvest food either.
“...”
And because of that, China’s renewable energy industry, which controlled 75 percent of the global supply chain, continued to weigh on my mind. If its market share collapsed further, it was unquestionably a country that would later abuse its position over parts. How were we supposed to compete against that level of technological power?
*
“I will say this once again. Please do not overestimate Korea.”
Three months ago, at the UN.
At the very place where Donald had unleashed a tirade about the “climate hoax,” Korea’s diplomatic representative stood at the podium.
The UNCTAD meeting, held as a follow-up conference, was an extremely important stage for Korea. To exaggerate only slightly, it would not be too much to say the fate of the nation depended on it.
As if aware of that, the Korean diplomatic representative delivered an impassioned speech with the feeling of coughing up blood.
“There was a grave mistake in the previous UNCTAD decision. Korea is not yet such a country. As you all know, Korea is the world’s only divided nation and remains in a hostile relationship with North Korea. The geopolitical risks are considerable. In addition, among the major countries of the world, we are the one that most recently experienced an IMF crisis, and there is a great gap between currently calculated national income and real income.”
“...”
“Furthermore, only eighty years ago, Korea was a country reduced to ruins by war. That generation is still alive in Korea. A country that was once so impoverished cannot bear such a heavy burden simply because a few economic indicators have improved. Please reconsider the board’s decision.”
When his speech ended, the board murmured among themselves.
Several people exchanged unusual looks, and key executives whispered closely to one another.
The Korean representative swallowed dryly. Had today’s moving speech truly persuaded them?
“We have heard you well, Mr. Lee.”
Meanwhile.
The chairman of the board organized his documents and gazed at him.
“After discussing what you just said, our board has reached a unanimous conclusion.”
“Yes, please, Korea’s status as a developing country—”
“Our board has unanimously agreed that Korea is a developed country. Congratulations. Korea is clearly a developed nation. Please be sure to keep the carbon reduction commitments you made at the Paris Agreement.”
The meeting ended in an instant. Happily, Korea had joined the ranks of developed nations.
“Goddamn it...”
But the Korean representative’s face was not bright.