People Are Eating Up Lab-Grown Meats
Photo Credit: David Parry/Press Association via New York Times
After years of development, lab-grown meat could be seen on consumers’ plates in the near future. It appears healthier and more environmentally-friendly than traditional meat, and the rise of many new startups has made it more affordable and accessible.
Lab-grown meat is also known as cultured meat, cultivated meat, cell-based meat, and clean meat. Regardless of which name is used, they all refer to the process of growing meat in a laboratory setting using tissues taken from an animal.
The process of creating lab-grown meat begins by taking muscle tissue from an animal. “The animal will experience a momentary twinge of discomfort, not unlike the feeling of getting a routine blood test at the doctor’s office”, The Humane League, an animal welfare organization, states on their website. The muscle cells are then separated from the tissue and fed amino acids and carbohydrates, which help them grow. The cells naturally merge together, and are then grown into a strand. In the case of cells from a cow, they are layered to form a hamburger patty.
Since significantly less water and land are required, lab-growth meat uses fewer environmental resources. According to Hanna Tuomisto, an associate professor of Agricultural Sciences from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, “cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat.”
The Humane League estimates that the number of cells harvested from one cow can produce the amount of meat that would traditionally require 440,000 cows.
Moreover, lab-grown meat can be healthier for humans, as explained by Grace Derocha, a member of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Scientists can control the amount of cholesterol and saturated fat in the meat, which reduces the risk of some heart diseases that are associated with eating meat. As well, scientists could potentially alter the nutritional content of the meat by adding heart-healthy fats. Since the meat is grown outside of the animal in a sterile and controlled environment, there are no growth hormones and fewer antibiotics used.
The first lab-grown patty, debuted in 2013, cost $330,000 USD to create. The price has now dropped to $9.80 per burger, according to Forbes. This may be because lab-grown meat has received official approval by some countries in recent years.
In 2020, Singapore became the first country to allow cultured meat to be sold. Other countries have been following suit. Just last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begun approving consultations for companies seeking to sell lab-grown meat. However, it will likely be a few years before coming to Canadian markets, with some suggesting that “the meat lobby is very strong, very powerful”, and will try to put a damper on the industry, as Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University says.
While hamburger patties were the first type of lab-grown meat, chicken nuggets have also been produced by a startup called Eat Just. Other types of meat, including duck and seafood, are still in the process of being created by various companies. The pet food market also has seen the emergence of lab grown meats. The company Bond Pet Food plans to create cultured chicken for pets.
The future for lab-grown meat remains unknown. Although the impact of creating meat without the slaughter of animals may cause a decline in the existing meat industry, the scale and cost-effectiveness required has yet to be seen.