Cultured meat: Putting an end to animal farms

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• September 5, 2022

Insight summary

Cultured meat, grown in labs from animal cells, offers a sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional meat farming. It avoids animal slaughter and reduces environmental impacts, though it's not yet as cost-effective or widely accepted as conventional meat. With Singapore leading in approval for commercial consumption, other countries are gradually moving towards regulatory acceptance, potentially transforming the future food landscape.

Cultured meat context

Cultured meat is created by taking cells from an animal and growing them in the controlled environment of a laboratory rather than on a farm. More specifically, to produce cultivated meat, biologists harvest a piece of tissue from cattle or chicken to create cultured meat, then look for cells that may multiply. Cell sample collection is performed via biopsy, separating egg cells, traditionally grown meat cells, or cells obtained from cell banks. (These banks are generally pre-established for medical research and vaccine production.)

The second step is determining the nutrients, proteins, and vitamins the cells may use. Similar to how a chicken raised conventionally obtain cells and nutrition from the soy and corn it is fed, isolated cells can absorb nutrients in a lab.

Researchers claim that there are many benefits to cultured meat:

1. It is more sustainable, requires fewer resources, and produces fewer emissions.
2. It is healthier than traditional meat because it does not contain antibiotics or growth hormones and can be engineered to be more nutritious.
3. It reduces the risk and spread of viruses from animals to humans, such as coronaviruses.
4. And it is considered to be more ethical because it does not involve slaughtering animals or altering their physiology.

By the late 2010s, as cultured meat production technologies matured, food technologists began to steer away from the term “lab-grown meat.” Instead, participating companies began promoting alternative terms, such as cultivated, cultured, cell-based, cell-grown, or non-slaughter meat, which they claim is more accurate. 

Disruptive impact

By the early 2020s, some companies have successfully produced and marketed cultured meat, such as the Netherlands-based Mosa Meat, which manufactures cultivated beef. While the development of curated meat has advanced, many experts believe that mass commercialization in restaurants and supermarkets is far away. Many researchers argue that cultured meat won’t replace the traditional meat industry until after 2030.

Additionally, no global regulations oversee how cultivated meat is produced or distributed; but as of 2023, Singapore is the only country that approved cell-based meat for commercial consumption. In November 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a “no questions” letter to Upside Foods, indicating that the regulator considers the company’s cell-cultured chicken process to be safe for human consumption. However, the actual availability of these products in US markets is still pending further approvals from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for facility inspection, inspection marks, and labeling. 

Producing cultured meat is also not cost-efficient because of its rigid and particular production procedures, costing almost double traditionally farmed meat. Additionally, cultured meat cannot yet replicate the taste of real meat, although the texture and fibers of cultivated meat are convincing. Despite these challenges, cultivated meat may be a more sustainable, healthy, and ethical alternative to traditional farming. And according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the cultured meat industry can be an excellent solution to reduce global emissions from the food production chain. 

Implications of cultured meat

Wider implications of cultured meat may include: 

• Dramatically reduced cost and greater availability of meat products by the late 2030s. Cultured meat will represent a deflationary technology within the food sector. 
• An increase in ethical consumerism (a type of consumer activism based on the concept of dollar voting).
• Agriculturalists investing in the alternative food market and re-directing their resources to produce synthetic foods (e.g., synthetic meat and dairy).
• Food manufacturing and fast food corporations gradually investing in alternative, cultured meat technologies, and facilities. 
• Governments incentivizing the development of synthetic food industries through tax breaks, subsidies, and research funding.
• Reduced national carbon emissions for those countries whose populations widely adopt cultured meat food options.

Questions to consider

• What other synthetic foods may arise in the future that uses cultured production technologies?
• What are the other potential benefits and risks of switching to cultured meat?