The future of sustainable meat production

The cover image is a burger.

But it’s not just any burger.

Look closer. Can you spot anything unusual about it?

If you said “cultivated meat” — you would be right! In 2013, Dutch scientist Mark Post pioneered the creation of the world’s first cultivated meat product in Maastricht University, Netherlands. The burger was made entirely from 20,000 muscle fibres cultivated from bovine stem cells.

By now, you’ve probably heard of this term: cultivated meat. Or, to put it more simply: lab-grown meat. In fact, right here in Singapore, cultivated meat is sold commercially, and has been sold for a few years now. Shiok Meats, founded in 2018, sells cultivated seafood, and Huber’s Butchery in Dempsey Road also offers lab-grown chicken from Good Meats. Back in 2020, we actually became the first country in the world to allow this kind of meat products to be sold on shelves.

Now, you might be wondering: how exactly is cultivated meat made?

Cultivated meat is produced by harvesting a single stem cell from the muscles of a living animal — for example, a chicken. Stem cells are undifferentiated, which means that they can make more cells like themselves (self-renewing), and more importantly, differentiate into other types of cells like muscle and fat: the building blocks of meat. The cell is placed into a nutrient-rich solution that allows it to divide. This set-up is then placed into a bioreactor, which provides the cells with necessary conditions for growth, such as temperature and pH.

Once a sufficient amount of muscle and fat tissue has developed, they are harvested from the bioreactor. The tissues are then processed and made into familiar meat products, like steaks or burgers.

This process of animal cells being grown in a controlled environment is called cultivation, hence the name cultivated meat.

Because cultivated meat is essentially bona fide meat, its nutritional value is identical to farm-raised meat. Though scientists are still working to perfect its taste and texture, cultivated meat is able to provide the same amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals as meat harvested from livestock. It can potentially even be adjusted for greater nutrition by growing the cells in media with additional nutrients.

But… why cultivated meat?

The current system of farming animals is not sustainable. According to the United Nations, meat production alone accounts for 15-20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — greater than the emissions produced by all modes of transportation worldwide. It’s also the planet’s biggest threat behind deforestation — land clearance for cattle farming accounts for more than 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, while supplying just 17% of the world’s calories and 38% of its protein.

Deforestation in the Amazon

Not only does traditional animal farming take a massive toll on our environment, but it also has devastating impacts on animal welfare. Beatles legend and activist Paul McCartney once said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian”. The process of harvesting meat from livestock is, frankly, ghastly and inhumane. In slaughterhouses, animals are subject to harsh, brutal treatment. Death is cruel, with animals being boiled alive or even slaughtered while still conscious. Hundreds of millions of animals are killed like this every single day.

Cultivated meat, on the other hand, bears none of the cruelty associated with animal agriculture, whilst also having significantly lower environmental impacts. A study conducted by sustainability consultant Quantis and environmental research firm CE Delft in 2020 indicated that cultivated meat is estimated to produce 90% lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to beef from livestock. Water consumption drops by 93%, while land use can also be greatly reduced by 99%. Cell-based meat also does not involve the slaughtering of animals, thereby greatly improving animal welfare. It can help to restore the biodiversity which is threatened by traditional animal agriculture, all without forgoing the taste and texture of meat from farm-raised animals.

However, determining the environmental impact of cultivated meat isn’t so simple. While it vastly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the usage of land and water, a large amount of electricity is required to power bioreactors, especially if they were to be used on larger scales. So, emissions can only be effectively reduced if renewable energy sources are used to power bioreactors, such as wind and solar energy. But when compared to livestock meat, there is no doubt that cultivated meat is much more sustainable for our planet.

Cost and scale limitations

While cultivated meat may seem like an excellent sustainable solution, it’s not so straightforward. Costs are high, and it is difficult to meet the demand for scalability while still staying affordable. Post’s cultivated burger cost a whopping US$325,000 to produce, mainly because of the novelty of the technology and its small-scale production at the time. And the industry, which previously had a promising start, is starting to slow down.

But, there’s good news: costs are decreasing! The price of cultivated meat has already dropped from the staggering amount of US$325,000 to just US$10 per burger. If scalability increases in the future, costs could decrease even further.

Besides, cell-based meat technology is still in its infancy: it is a relatively nascent industry. Millions of dollars continue to be poured into research and development for cultivated meat. Undoubtedly, there is still a long way to go — but there is still hope.

Moving forward

Cultivated meat offers a solution to the myriad of problems plaguing our flawed system of food production, especially in today’s dramatically changing environment. It’s a stepping stone towards finding a reliable method to feed 10 billion people by 2050, one of the UN’s goals, while also being kinder to both animals and our planet. Moreover, this will help us to better climate change and the decline of natural resources.

Post’s single hamburger marked a turning point in the quest for sustainable meat production. Culturing meat is no longer a problem of scientific discovery, now that we know it is attainable. Rather, it is an issue of scalability and cost: how can we improve upon this sustainable means of meat production, while upscaling it and making it more affordable?

Editor’s note: Despite the obvious allure of lab-grown meat, the industry has been stuck in a slump. Unable to contend with consumers’ rising demands for affordable meat, several factories have been shut down and mass layoffs have taken place. It has been a challenge to contend with the iron grip that traditional meat still maintains over the market, along with the aforementioned problems described in the article. Even so, scientific advancements have enabled manufacturers to upscale production and regulatory approvals have lent support to this aspiration. In addition to the methods described here, 3D-printing technologies have also been adopted in order to speed up production rates and improve the mimicry of traditionally sourced meat. It appears that lab-grown meat is here to stay, and can potentially become a dominant source of food production in the near future.

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