Photo by Rene Asmussen
Can Lab-Grown Meat Change our Future?
Yes…It can!
Introduction
Lab-grown meat is a relatively new development that has been gaining traction within the food industry. Made using animal cells and plant-based ingredients, this type of meat is created in a laboratory setting without animals being involved in the process. In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for more sustainable sources of protein, and lab-grown meat has emerged as an attractive option.
The health benefits associated with lab-grown meat are still being assessed, but early reports suggest that it is most likely a healthier alternative to traditional livestock products. The removal of certain hormones, antibiotics, and other additives used in the production of livestock could be beneficial to individuals who suffer from allergies or intolerances. Additionally, lab-grown meats have a lower fat content than their counterparts which can offer various health advantages.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of lab-grown meat and why it could be a great solution for the welfare of animals, people and the planet.
The evidence is very strong that culturing animal cells is better for the planet than raising and slaughtering whole animals.
Paul Shapiro author of “Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World”
How is Lab-Grown Meat Created?
Lab-grown meat, also known as cultured or cell-based meat, is a type of food product made by taking muscle stem cells from an animal and growing them in a laboratory environment. It is becoming increasingly popular due to its potential to reduce the use of animal products while still providing consumers with the same level of nutrition and taste as traditional meats. The process for creating lab-grown meat begins with harvesting muscle stem cells from an animal source such as beef or chicken.
These cells are then placed into a nutrient-dense solution where they can multiply quickly and form small clusters. Next, these clusters are attached to a scaffold that helps shape the final product into something resembling ground beef or chicken strips. Finally, the lab-grown meat is cooked and seasoned before being served to customers.
There is a very simple way to almost eliminate animal slaughter.
There is a very simple way to almost eliminate animal slaughter. Lab-grown meat is the process of growing muscle tissue in a lab and then processing it into food that tastes like beef or chicken, depending on which kind of meat you’re growing.
This method has several advantages over traditional farming:
- It takes up much less space than raising animals in fields or gardens. If we were to grow all our meat this way instead of using farms, we could fit it on rooftops across New York City and still have room for other things like parks and schools.
- The process doesn’t produce as many greenhouse gases as animal agriculture creates—and by extension, it would help fight global warming because cattle rearing produces lots of methane (which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat). Growing beef in labs would also reduce water use by about 90 percent compared with traditional agriculture methods for raising cows for slaughter; this means less pollution from fertilizer runoff into streams and rivers too!
Meat production is one of the worst culprits in creating global warming.
Did you know that one of the biggest sources of global warming is meat production?
The mechanized farming methods used in the livestock industry are largely responsible for climate change, and methane gas produced by farm animals is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide—meaning that it traps heat much faster than CO2 can. Livestock production accounts for 18% of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions!
It doesn’t have to be this way; we can make better choices with our diets, starting with meatless Mondays or Tuesdays at least once a week (if not every day).
It is now possible to grow meat in labs without needing animals.
It may sound like one of those science fiction ideas that are still far off in the future, but lab-grown meat is already here. And it could have many advantages over conventional meat, including:
- Lab-grown meat will be healthier and more environmentally sustainable than traditional animal meats.
- It’s possible to grow meat in labs without needing animals.
If we care about ourselves, our planet, and our fellow creatures, we must find a better way to produce meat.
If we care about ourselves, our planet, and our fellow creatures, we must find a better way to produce meat. Meat is not a necessity; it’s a luxury.
Over the past few decades, the production of animal products has meant destroying huge areas of land for grazing or feed crops; polluting air and water with the gases that come from livestock; driving native species into extinction through habitat loss and competition for food; depleting topsoil by overgrazing; raising animals in conditions so unsanitary that they have to be treated with antibiotics (which remain in their bodies when they are slaughtered); using massive amounts of energy to transport animals long distances as well as to cook them after they’re slaughtered—and all this just so we can eat them!
In addition to all these problems associated with factory farming—which is an inefficient system because most energy inputs go toward raising rather than feeding meat—consuming meat contributes significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than eating plant foods does (according to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
This extra CO2 released due solely because humans eat animals adds up quickly: According to some estimates, if everyone switched over completely from conventional animal agriculture practices back down towards being vegans that global warming would decrease by half within two decades!
Conclusion
Lab-grown meat has the potential to be a powerful solution to many of the challenges we face today. By supporting research and development into this new technology, we can ensure that it is accessible and affordable for everyone. Working together, we can make a positive difference in addressing global issues like climate change and food insecurity. Lab-grown meat could also reduce our dependence on traditional animal agriculture, creating healthier ecosystems and more humane conditions for animals.
Lab-grown meat could help us to save the planet, reduce animal suffering, and may even be a healthier to consume than animal meat. It seems a wise technology to embrace for a bright future.
Life is a co creation and we thank all the co-creators who were part of this pages creation.
Special thanks to cottonbro studio, Pressmaster , Rathaphon Nanthapreecha, Anastasia Shuraeva, Biplab Sau, harabe 1001, and Laura Varela for their video contributions.
The following is a transcript and video for “Lab-Grown Real Meat is Finally Here.”
Narrator
Since the dawn of man, meat has been on the menu.
And even with growing trends of vegetarian diets and plant-based substitutes, around 89% of the world population consider themselves omnivores.
Agnieszka De Sousa
We have come a long way from our hunter and gatherer roots. We have managed to establish a whole industry designed to feed almost 7.7 billion people. We’ve maximized production and we’ve managed to reduce hunger over the past couple of decades. And although we’ve become exceedingly efficient at putting meat on the table, raising livestock animals by the billions comes with its own set of consequences.
If animal agriculture continues to expand the way it has there’s a risk that we won’t be able to stop climate change.
Narrator
But with rapid advances in technology, we might soon see a food industry that leaves all those problems behind.
Mark Cudmore
I’m about to be one of the world’s first commercial customers for lab-grown meat, cultured meat. Eat Just is the company and I’m very, very excited.
Here is the chicken. Looks pretty crispy outside. It’s really good. I mean look it’s really tasty.
Narrator
Here at 1880 in Singapore, cultured chicken is being served under regulatory approval granted by the Singaporean government. It’s the very first time a cultured meat product, meat made from animal cells grown in a lab has been approved for commercial sale.
Eat Just, the company behind these chicken nugget style dishes is based out of San Francisco and got their start in 2011 developing plant-based egg substitutes, like mung bean scrambled eggs and mayonnaise. But it wasn’t until 2017 that they announced they were shifting focus to a cultured meat product.
Josh Tetrick
In order to feed the world that we live in a lot animal protein, we need to take a third today and it’ll be more tomorrow of our world and make it dedicated to feeding chickens and cows. We go to areas that are filled with biodiverse rainforests, taking a bulldozer to them and planting soy and corn to feed the chickens that we eat.
Climate change is accelerated by the kind of animal production that we engage in. When we bring animals in tiny little spaces, it accelerates the probability that more zoonotic diseases are gonna impact our families.
And from a morality perspective, why do we need to cause any harm to any other living thing to have dinner that tastes good? It does not have to be that way. And those things underlie the force of this idea.
Narrator
The meat alternatives that have made it to the market thus far have been plant-based, imitation beef, and pork made from ingredients like pea protein and coconut oil by companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.
That’s a very different proposition from cultured meat, which is made from actual animal cells.
Josh Tetrick
I’m a huge fan of any company, of any person, trying to make a product that’s improving the food system, including all the plant-based proteins. Maybe in some future menu, you’ll have this kind of cultivated chicken and you’ll also have a plant-based version. That’s fine. But I guess you have to ask yourself in our lifetime is that diner likely to also remove the conventional option on the menu too?
We do think we need a more permanent solution. We do think we sort of need, if you will, an end game to this problem. And we just think this is more likely to be the path to achieving that.
Vítor Espírito Santo
So animal cell technology has been around for several decades for applications such as the development of vaccines and other biotherapeutics. The first known prototype of cultured meats was done by Mark Post earlier in 2011. And essentially he was developing a beef patty. It was a very expensive prototype. If I’m not mistaken above 250,000 Euros at the time to produce just one beef patty. It was more of a proof of concept to really demonstrate that this technology is possible and that it can be done.
The way that we grow and produce cultured chicken is essentially we isolate chicken cells from the chickens without having to kill them, so from a small biopsy, for instance. We immerse these cells in a liquid broth that contains the nutrients that the cells need to survive and be healthy and grow.
We really need these cells to multiply, to reach the numbers that are sufficient to make a meat product. We’re looking into the cells that are really important for meat. So we think about muscle cells, and fat cells. By that isolation, we are able to form those muscle tissues in culture. The culture happens inside a fermentation tank, what we call the bioreactor, which is essentially providing the same conditions as the animal body, warm temperatures, and some sort of mechanical stimulation so that the cells are exposed to very similar conditions that they have inside of the animal.
After the cells proliferate and reach a certain density, the final step is essentially to separate those cells from the liquid broth that they are in.
We just make sure that the product meets our quality and safety standards, and then those cells are ready for consumption. Milk, cheese, yogurt, a lot of those derived from fermentations. The only difference is that they are starting from a different cell type. In this case, we’re just using the animal cells as the initial and beginning of the product.
Narrator
Eat Just has developed chicken nuggets so far with far more textured chicken breasts planned for the future. But another cell-based meat startup UPSIDE Foods (Memphis Meats), has already started working on culturing other animal cells as well.
Uma Valeti
We’ve done beef, we’ve done duck, we’ve done chicken. And these are things that are favorites in various parts of the world. For instance, people in America love beef and chicken. People in China love duck. So we wanted to show that we at UPSIDE Foods (Memphis Meats) can produce meats that we as a global population love to eat. There are a lot of similarities in how we grow meats from various animals or fish, but they’re also different because of the nutrients they need and how they actually come together to form the final product, the meat.
And I think it’s very similar to how we also grow various animals. There are similarities in the feed that we give cows and pigs and chickens, but there are also differences in how we cultivate and it’s very similar for us as well. So we’ve been working with the FDA and the USDA for the last three years at really developing the guidelines on how this food should be regulated when we come to the market.
As soon as we get regulatory approval in the United States people that will be able to go to their supermarket and buy it and enjoy it, and they’ll be able to go to a restaurant near them and order meat directly from animal cells.
Narrator
But it’s not just getting the meat right. Once approved, the gates open to a very high potential demand, and scaling becomes the next big hurdle.
Josh Tetrick
Before we could only make chicken for myself, my friends, my girlfriend, my family, and my colleagues. Now we actually have the ability to make chicken for millions of people. So that allows us to invest and to allow the economies of scale to drop the price.
The second is we need to reduce the cost of the nutrients that these cells are consuming. So I think chicken feed raises or drops the price of chicken. The nutrients we feed ourselves does the same thing. So we need to drive that down. The cell density is another technical element. We need to continue to increase that. And hammering all those things over the course of the next five, 10, 15 years will put us in a place where we’re significantly below the cost of this animal protein and that will be one of the main inflection points that will lead to a new way of eating meat.
Mark Cudmore
So here is a closeup of a half-eaten crispy chicken bite. You know what? What I’m really thinking is just I’m eating chicken. I like chicken. You know, the normal chickens eat, I don’t know where they came from. And so I don’t know why I should be very stressed where this came from either.
Narrator
The meat market is worth more than one trillion dollars annually. And there are over 60 startups in the cultured meat field.
Agnieszka De Sousa
Cultured meat has attracted several prominent investors, including Sergey Brin, Richard Branson, and Bill Gates. What is also interesting is that even meat giants, such as Cargill and Tyson have invested in the space.
It’s this disruptive potential of the market as well as the promise to greatly reduce the climate impact of meat production that has attracted investors.
Narrator
It remains to be seen who will get regulatory approval in which countries and whether consumers will like lab-grown meat enough to make the switch.
And while there’s no evidence that lab-grown meat is any less healthy than traditional meat, there’s an ongoing debate over how healthy eating meat is in general. But if these products are a success they could be the beginning of a more humane, less destructive meat industry.
Uma Valeti
The food and ag industry is the most innovative industry in the world. It’s always figured out how to feed a growing population and we’ve never failed to do so.
And it’s been very clear to us that we are part of that and we’re gonna figure out how to feed the next three billion people joining us and I just see an evolution.
Josh Tetrick
We can do this a bit differently. We can do this in a way that is consistent with the kind of people that we want to be, and the kind of planet that we all want to live in. We can build a food system that reflects really the best characteristics of who we are and that makes me really hopeful.
Author: Bliss
Dedicated to making a positive difference for people, animals, and this beautiful planet!
