The ‘Meat’ of the Future
Meat that doesn’t take an animal’s life or take down a tree. Good meat is the way of animal products to come.
A majority of climate scientists are in agreement: the earth is heating faster than normal, and it is at least partly humanity’s doing. Many people are concerned about what they can do to curb their carbon footprint. Cultured meat, or meat that was grown in a lab, is one of science’s new inventions to do this.
Cells are painlessly harvested from a living animal, and grown in vitro, or in a lab with controlled conditions. Cultured meat uses far less water, less land, and emits fewer greenhouse gases than the animal livestock industry, and can be just as nutritious and delicious as traditional meat.
Quick Science
How do you just grow meat in a lab? Some may think that this is a complicated process but it is pretty simple once you break it down. Scientists take some cells from a cow which holds the building blocks of the muscle and other organs to begin the process of creating the cultured meat. The cells that are created are placed in petri dishes with some amino acids and carbohydrates to help the muscle cells multiply and grow. Once some time has passed, the result is a ‘meat’ that resembles ground beef. Lab-grown meat is an animal product meaning that it is considered part of our carnivorous diet as humans not vegan or vegetarian. Beef is not the only meat product that is being made in a lab. More recently, cultured chicken and duck products have been in the works. With meat being produced in a lab, will we be able to produce milk, eggs, and other animal products as well? Only time, scientists, and money will tell.
Meat is known as not the best nutritional food to eat for the human diet. Eating excess meat can cause an increase in certain diseases. So is this new lab-grown meat better for us nutritionally? Well, scientists only know part of that answer. Scientists making the meat are able to control what goes in it. This can include adding more proteins or polyunsaturated fats as well as eliminate or decrease the amount of saturated fat. With this meat being grown in a controlled environment, they are minimizing animal born diseases and pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. If they are able to do this in mass production, then we can have a healthier meat available for the public. This meat can help the overall choice of what to feed your family. Lab-grown meat or non-lab-grown meat? The choice is yours.
Implications
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that around 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the agriculture sector. About half of all available land on Earth is used for agriculture. Studies show that cultured meat uses far less energy, land, and water than traditional animal agriculture and emits far fewer greenhouse gases. Additionally, it is believed that reducing meat consumption is critical for combating climate change. For those concerned with their carbon footprint, switching to eating cultured meat seems to be a promising way to take action.
Animal welfare
Given that almost 70% of people surveyed said they were vegan for animal welfare reasons, no-kill ‘meat’ grown in a lab may be an option. Cultured meat is typically started by harvesting stem cells while the animal is put under anesthesia, causing the animal no harm with little risk of complications. This painless process leaves the animal alive and prevents their slaughter.
Cost
The first hamburger produced using these methods cost $325,000 to produce. However, as production scales up, costs will go down. At the time of writing, a pound of cultured beef costs about $50. Even though this price point is still prohibitive to many, prices continue to fall as the process is further optimized.
Future
Looking towards the future, chicken, produced by the US company Eat Just, has been the first cultured meat to be approved for sale in stores in Singapore. Josh Tetrick, of Eat Just, says “It’s an open door and it’s up to us and other companies to take that opportunity. My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”
Is there a specific way to cook this lab grown meat? Nope! You are able to cook it the same way as if it was just regular meat from a cow that was killed for it. There is no difference cooking wise. You still need to cook the meat to an internal temperature of 160°F to make sure you do not eat it raw.
Here are some of our favorite recipes that you can use lab grown meat for:
