The Promise and Peril of Artificial Meat
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The Promise and Peril of Artificial Meat
Dead end, panacea, or something in between?
Lab-grown meat, known also as cultured, cell-based meat, or “clean” meat, is a new and rapidly emerging technology that offers the potential to revolutionize the food and agriculture industry. While there are risks that need to be managed, lab-grown meat has incredible implications and potential benefits for civilization’s long-term sustainability.
What is Lab-Grown Meat?
While plant protein meat alternatives have grabbed headlines in the last few years, advances in lab-grown meat have been just as dramatic. Plant-protein meat alternatives use a variety of plant products to mimic the taste and texture of common cuts of meat. Lab-grown meat, on the other hand, hopes to literally grow or “culture” meat cells in bioreactors, without the need for birthing, raising, and slaughtering animals.
In my humble (and often wrong) opinion, I see the plant-protein alternatives as a technological dead end. On a high level, there is something farcical about devising a concoction that simulates the texture and taste of meat, but without any actual meat. I cannot speak to the environmental benefits, but from a health perspective, these plant-derived alternatives are engineered foods, more akin to simulated food. Presumably, it’s far healthier to consume the plants themselves directly.
As I discussed here, artificial “food” is only as good as our understanding of nutrition. Historically, many “healthy alternatives” to more natural products have later revealed themselves to be more harmful than the product it was replacing. I suspect that at some point in the coming decades, plant-protein concoctions will reveal themselves in a similar manner. Though, I could very well be wrong about this.
It may seem odd that I am defending “lab-grown” meat over plant protein, but lab-grown meat is still meat, albeit produced in a bioreactor instead of an animal. Lab-grown meat doesn’t require treatment to make it taste like meat, it already is. Thus, it is much closer to “natural” than any highly processed plant-based alternative could ever be. Of course, this may depend on the production process used, of which there are several.
Regardless of which path humanity ultimately takes, there are plenty of good reasons to start looking at alternatives to meat procured from animals.
Climate Mitigation
While it is common knowledge that the world is warming due to growing concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, most pin this on an overreliance on automobiles and human industrial activity. In reality, agriculture, particularly the raising of livestock, is a significant source of these troublesome emissions.
Indeed, some estimates put the meat industry as responsible for some 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, though admittedly there is some controversy behind these figures, and the real number is probably somewhat lower. Further complicating the matter, remember that much of the emissions from the meat industry are in the form of methane, which is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, even if it only has only a 12-year lifecycle in the atmosphere.
Such nuances in the calculation make it difficult to ascertain the impact of meat on the environment, but anyway you slice it, it’s large. Lab-grown meat has the potential to dramatically mitigate the environmental impact of agriculture. An analysis by Oxford University and the University of Amsterdam estimates that compared with traditional meat sourcing, lab-grown meat can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 96 percent, realize 7-45% lower energy use, 99% lower land use, and 82-96% lower water use depending on the type of meat.
These estimates are certainly optimistic, but even achieving a fraction of these figures would be a massive boon for humanity, if not also for the environment. Note that these figures do not include, for instance, the lower energy costs of transport/refrigeration of cultured meat, and the environmental and social benefits of freeing up farmland that could be reforested, used for housing, or growing food for humans instead of cattle.
Beyond the Environment
Lab-grown meat also has the potential to improve food security by providing a more sustainable and scalable means of producing meat. With a growing global population and demand for meat products, pressure is already high on traditional livestock. Lab-grown meat could address these challenges by providing a consistent source of meat that is less dependent on the availability of land and water.
Fewer animals in close proximity to humans will also reduce the risks of future pandemics, as it will reduce the opportunities for viruses to make the jump from livestock to humans. Additionally, on the food safety front, because the meat can be grown in sterile facilities, concerns about foodborne illness are almost a non-issue. We may even be able to eliminate the use of antibiotics that are normally fed to animals to prevent disease, a major contributor to growing antibiotic resistance, which threatens human longevity.
Challenges
With all this said, lab-grown meat faces challenges, the single biggest of which is cost. Currently, lab-grown meat is significantly more expensive to produce than conventional meat. This is likely due primarily to technological immaturity. Like anything else, should the technology achieve sufficient scale, costs can be expected to fall.
Another challenge is public perception. Many consumers are wary and concerned about the safety of lab-grown meat, which could impact its acceptance by consumers. I don’t see this as unsurmountable, as the general public already happily consumes plant-based concoctions, margarin, artificial sugar substitutes, and foods containing ingredients that they can’t pronounce.
Not a Panacea
Lab-grown meat has the potential to benefit human civilization in profound ways. Time will tell if the technology is proven safe and scalable enough to become a viable alternative to traditional sources of meat. Nevertheless, the potential benefits of this technology make it an exciting and promising area of research that has the potential to shape the future and sustainability of human civilization.