Cultured Meat: Designed for the Future
Eating is one of life’s greatest simple pleasures. Except when it’s not so simple. Despite any doubts from the flurry of moral and environmental issues that surround the production of meat, people still love to eat it. So, what if there was a guilt-free way to enjoy that steak, tuna sashimi, bacon, or chicken salad? Cultured meat may be the answer. The technology to grow meat in a lab that is biologically identical to animal meat is here. But is this a viable solution to change the future of how we eat meat?
The Plight. There’s no argument that modern animal agriculture is not sustainable. It’s predicted that the global human population will reach 10 billion by the year 2050. Despite research that shows eating less meat and adopting a plant-based diet is better for the planet, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates the demand for meat will continue to increase by 70 to 90 percent. Currently, beef production uses nearly 60 percent of agricultural land between land for grazing and croplands used for production of livestock feed. Agriculture takes up 70 percent of global freshwater, 29 percent of which goes to animal production. And, says the FAO, animal production accounts for nearly 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Something has to change.
From Concept to Reality. The idea that specific cuts of meat can be developed without growing the whole animal has amazing potential toward sustainability of the planet, removing the use of acres of land for animals and feed, and saving thousands of gallons of water per pound of meat over the several years it takes to grow animals for market. Though this concept of creating just what we need, without any waste, was famously predicted by Winston Churchill in 1931, the first patents for the technology weren’t granted until 1999. In 2013 the first cultured meat product, a hamburger patty, was developed by Dutch scientist Dr. Mark Post. Aside from a price tag of about $300,000 and an unpalatable taste, cultured meat transitioned from science experiment to reality.
Post co-founded Mosa Meat to continue his work on cultured beef, as well as other types of meat. With substantial financial backing from Silicon Valley investors like Bill Gates, as well as big meat companies like Tyson and Cargill, several start-ups in the U.S. and worldwide have joined the laboratory meat market to develop a variety of cultured meats, including pork, Wagyu beef, tuna, and shrimp. The Israel based start-up Aleph Farms is even working on the 3D bioprinting of cultured beef steaks. Companies plan to have their products on the market in the next few years.
How it’s Done. It may seem unfathomable that scientists can recreate something so intricate and natural in a petri dish. Yet, the process of mimicking mother nature is surprisingly simple. Cells are taken from the muscle of an animal—a cow, chicken, or pig, for example—through a small biopsy. The cells are stem cells, whose function within the animal is to create new muscle to replace damaged muscle. In making cultured meat, the stem cells do the same thing— only it happens outside the body of the animal, in a bioreactor, a tank where the process of multiplying cells takes place. For this to happen, the stem cells are fed with a nutrient-rich serum. When the feeding is stopped, the cells differentiate into muscle fibers that become strands of muscle tissue that then join in layers to form meat.
A Work in Progress. Cultured meat, also called cultivated meat or clean meat, has the potential of becoming revolutionary. One sample of muscle tissue taken from a cow can produce trillions of cells to become 800 million muscle strands, which, according to Mosa Meat, is enough to make 80,000 quarter pounders in a few weeks versus the two years it takes to grow a cow. According to a study published in a 2011 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, cultured meat, compared to conventional animal farming, would use up to 45 percent less energy, as much as 96 percent less water, and would reduce greenhouse emissions by 78-96 percent.
There are challenges, however. Although the cost has come down significantly from that first burger, it’s not yet affordable, especially when compared to the cost of conventionally grown meat. The cost of the growth serum, for example, will remain significant until the technology is developed to bring it down. There’s also the lack of technologies and the expense of expanding production of cultured meat on a large, commercial-size scale. However, the energy use required to run a cultured meat facility could potentially be more damaging in terms of greenhouse gasses than conventional agriculture due to the type and amount of gasses released. New technologies are still needed to develop clean, renewable energy sources to produce cultured meat in a climate friendly way.
Cultured meat remains a prototype. But there’s no denying its potential for the future of food. As developments continue with improvements to cost and flavor, and technologies become increasingly sustainable, we can look forward to what may be the change, or at least an option for change, in the way we choose to eat meat.
—Lori Zanteson
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