Nice to Meat You

Lab-grown meat (or cultured meat as it is scientifically known) has made the news recently as it has been approved for sale by a regulatory body for the first time, in Singapore.

Singapore is vulnerable to food insecurity relying heavily on imported produce to feed its 5.7m population, it is therefore possible that this has influenced Singaporeans being the first to embrace cultured meat.

The news story tends to invoke a surprisingly strong response — vegetarians and meat-eaters, alike. It is well established in behavioural sciences that people are often “sceptical and even fearful of new foods (food neophobia)”. Humans have evolved a biologically beneficial adaptive function of disgust. Whilst this has helped humans avoid potentially harmful foods for millennia, it creates a challenge in introducing lab-grown meats to a wide population. This response is “emotionally charged” with individuals making an irrational judgement that the lab-grown meat is “unsuitable for consumption”. From a personal perspective, as a vegetarian, I find it interesting to see this response in meat-eaters. My own response at the prospect of lab-grown meat feels similar to my antipathy at eating farmed meat — although I feel less moral guilt at the prospect of cultured meat. Cultured meat is, by composition, the same as farmed meat, so the response of disgust is unfounded. In many respects, cultured meat offers a safer, more reliable source of meat than that of traditionally farmed animals.

So, what is cultured meat?
Lab-grown meat is commonly produced by extracting cells from a living animal, placing the cells in a petri dish growth medium to provide suitable nutrients and popped inside a bioreactor (a vessel that maintains optimum conditions such as temperature for optimum cell growth) to grow like a caterpillar to a butterfly. Whilst no animals need to be slaughtered to extract cells, Professor Post, the Dutch pharmacologist at Maastricht University who was the first to prove the concept of lab-grown meat has been quoted in the Telegraph stating that:

“the most efficient way of taking the process forward would still involve slaughter. He said: ‘Eventually my vision is that you have a limited herd of donor animals in the world that you keep in stock and that you get your cells from there”.

Currently, the best-known growth medium is fetal bovine serum (FBS) which is made from the blood of a dead calf. However, despite this unfortunate ingredient, the large reduction of animal slaughter that lab-grown meat could deliver, it is a reasonable starting point and research is ongoing to find alternatives to using FBS. FBS is also an expensive component of lab-grown meat so am alternative solution will also bring the cost of production down allowing cultured meat products to be more competitive in the marketplace.

Growth hormones utilised in cultured meat production are another aspect requiring further development. Within the EU, growth hormone promoters are prohibited within farming for traditional meat production so growth hormones utilised in cultured meat production will need to be compliant with EU regulations, ensuring safety for consumption over the longterm.

Culture Control
This said, the safety of cultured meat is often posited as superior to that of traditional farming due to the controlled conditions that it is produced in. This reduced the opportunity for contact with pathogens such as “cultured muscle cells do not have the same opportunity to encounter intestinal pathogens such as “E. coli, Salmonella or Campylobacter that are the cause of millions of illnesses annually. Unlike animals raised for farmed meat, cultured meat does not require vaccinations to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks due to confined living conditions, nor are antibiotics required to treat infections. Antibiotic resistance is a major, current concern facing livestock. The intensive antibiotic usage in agriculture promotes antibiotic resistance leading to approximately “2 million antibiotic-resistant infections and over 23,000 deaths” annually in the U.S..

“There is considerable concern from public health, food safety, and regulatory perspectives about the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals. Over the last two decades, the increase of antimicrobial resistance resulting from agricultural use of antibiotics …has become a significant global public health concern.” — Oliver and colleagues, 2011

Given the wide interest in lab-grown meat within the scientific community and the numerous start-ups devoted to it, it is fair to say that lab-grown meat is coming to our supermarket shelves and restaurant menus. And there is good environmental and socioeconomic impetus for this change.

Humanitarian aspirations
The humanitarian reasons are clear cut; globally, just under 10% of the world’s population goes to bed hungry each night with 800 million being undernourished and 270 million people on the brink of starvation. The population expected to grow from the current 7.3 billion to 9 billion by 2050 with 90% of the world’s population eating meat. The Food and Agricultural Organization forecast that food production would need to increase by 70% to meet the growing demand, with demand for meat and milk expected to grow by around 50% between 2005 and 2050. Whilst there is an argument that some of this increase could be met by reducing food waste (more detail on this further down), it is clear to see that more efficient and sustainable methods of food production are required.

Globally, food consumption from animal sources makes up 18% of calorific intake but also is a high contributor to a variety of micronutrients. The production of 1kg of meat requires fed between 2.8 kg and 3.2 kg of human-edible food — this makes up 14% of animal feed. The other 86% of animal feed is non-edible for humans but takes up land that could be used for crops. “Global feed requires 2.5 billion ha of land, which is about half of the global agricultural area”. However, 57% of this land is grassland that is not suitable for crop production.

The environmental incentive is just as compelling, the food industry generates 25% of global greenhouse gases (GHGs), and rearing livestock along contributes 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. Humanity has already “surpassed the sustainable limits” of food production. In addition to this, 8% of freshwater use is attributed to raising livestock.

How many burgers?!
The dramatic benefits that could be gained from culturing meat instead of farming it are stark. For example, around 1 billion cultured beef burgers could be produced from 1 single living cow cell in under 2 months. To produce 1 billion beef burgers by traditional farming, it would require 500,000 cows and 18 months. A 20% reduction in meat consumption in the U.S. alone would provide a reduction of 100 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions — this is more than the combined annual GHGs of Greece, Slovenia and Luxemborg.

A recent study proposed that the three areas where consumers can have the most impact in terms of reducing their environmental impact are: meat consumption, air travel and heating / cooling systems (Reisch 2020). Whilst there are clear benefits of reduced GHG emissions, water consumption and arable land use, the is a clear disadvantage in that cultured meat is more energy-intensive than traditionally farmed meat. To overcome this barrier, clean energy sources in production facilities would need to be acquired.

Developing cultured meat that accurately mimics conventional meat in terms of texture and structure is one of the most challenging aspects to overcome. In particular, in the development of ‘cuts of meat’. Creating cells that develop like “disordered muscle fibres”, alongside nerve and connectives tissues, fat content, blood vessels and blood itself, all introduce complexity to the development, above and beyond the composition of the cultured meat. Current research is rushing to produce the perfect steak with several approaches being investigated, including edible scaffolds (made from gelatin or soy protein) utilising tissue engineering techniques, micromolding of hydrogel films or 3D printing.

For the nutritionally-adventurous amongst you, another interesting direction for lab-grown meat is the possibility of to consume endangered species of animals; there is no reason why delicacies such as panda or snow leopard could not be tasted.

Bats and geopolitics
In the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is hard to discuss meat consumption without considering zoonosis — an infectious disease that has transmitted from an animal to human. Whilst zoonotic pathogens are relatively common, with over 200 currently documented, the concern is where they have the potential to mutate into “human-only strains” as is the case with HIV, Ebola and Covid-19. Markets that sell wild animal meat are especially high risk due to the level of undocumented pathogens that can exist in wild animals, however, current thinking is that Covid-19 was not originated from wild-meat markets, but likely directly from a bat — either through consumption, a bite, or in the process of hunting bats. This theory is also inconclusive and determining the true cause has become increasingly complex due to geopolitical tensions.

Interestingly, there has been evidence to suggest that C19 was in Europeans pre-September 2019. This would indicate that covid-19 had mutated to a human-only strain long before the Wuhan outbreak in December 2019, but perhaps mutated from a less dangerous human-only strain into something more sinister.

Nevertheless, as the World Health Organization (WHO) so concisely state: “Zoonotic pathogens can spread to humans through any contact point with domestic, agricultural or wild animals…Agricultural workers in areas with high use of antibiotics for farm animals may be at increased risk of pathogens resistant to current antimicrobial drugs. ”

Our dependence on meat consumption in an era in which we have already surpassed sustainable food production practices is an increasing risk in many aspects of our lives; from carbon footprint, antibiotic resistance and zoonotic pathogens, it is clear that an alternative is required.

The future of lab-grown meat also provides the potential for the fine-tuning of nutritional profiles, enabling meat consumption to become a healthier past time by reducing bad (saturated) fats and increasing good (unsaturated) fats.

And come on, tell us how it is — will cows take over the world / go extinct if the world goes vegan?
If the world went vegan overnight, there would certainly be a logistical problem of what to do with all the livestock, however, I doubt they would be in a position of world domination. Extinction for certain farmed breeds is a possibility; i.e. for those which have been bred to grow fast and have weak hearts and bones. These animals have been bred purely for meat consumption and are anatomically disadvantaged when it comes to survival. Nevertheless, species of animal will not go extinct because humans stop consuming them. The majority of farm animals have wild counterparts currently succeeding in the wild. Those that don’t, such as cows, should be able to be introduced back into the wild with a little care and attention which I am sure there will be sufficient willing humans to take on this challenge.

Whilst cultured meat is not quite ready for the mass market, it does have many advantages such as reduction of carbon emissions, reduction of antibiotic use, combat malnutrition, and of course, provide meat without the slaughter of animals.

So, when cultured meat does arrive in your nearest supermarket, which I am certain it will in the next few years, I reckon that it could be worth a try for all you omnivores out there.