A different kind of factory “farmed” meat

Also called “protein analogues,” “animal cell-based meat,” and “in vitro meat,” in simple terms, cultivated meat is grown in large bioreactors from animal stem cells. The cells may come from cattle, chicken, or pigs, but all require a growth medium, which includes inputs like growth factors, hormones, amino acids, and nutrients to grow into what eventually becomes a lump of muscle that can be molded or printed (as in 3-D printing) into familiar forms of meat. The company that makes the aforementioned chicken lists these growth mediums on its website: glucose from corn and sugar; protein from soy, pea, wheat and yeast; fats from soybean oil and corn oil; fiber from corn and wheat; and vitamins from corn, yeast, and “fermentation.”² Growth factor derived from calves (fetal bovine serum) is used to stimulate cell growth by some companies, but because it isn’t cost effective (currently, a liter costs a little more than $1,300)³, some have turned to alternative growth factors, including one derived from fruit flies.^{4 5}

“Precision fermentation” is used to produce ingredients that are necessary to improve the flavor, texture, aroma, and/or the nutritive value of cultivated meat. This can include things like flavoring agents, fats, vitamins, or coloring. What is precision fermentation? It is a form of genetic engineering, hiding behind more acceptable language to make it palatable to consumers. The Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for cultivated meat, describes it as using “microbial hosts as “cell factories” for producing specific functional ingredients.”⁶ In short, microorganisms—this could be yeast, fungi, algae, or bacteria—are “programmed” to produce specific ingredients by inserting the genetic instructions from another species into their cells.

This all happens inside industrial-scale fermenters, or bioreactors, where the cells, fed by the growth medium, continue to replicate, eventually leading to the “meat” that can then be shaped and sold.

Is cultivated meat more environmentally friendly?

Proponents of cultivated meat say it has a smaller environmental footprint, especially when it comes to emissions, compared to raising the actual animal, but a not yet peer-reviewed study by researchers at University of California, Davis paints a different picture. The researchers, from the Department of Food Science and Technology, conducted a “life-cycle assessment of the energy needed and greenhouse gases emitted in all stages of production” of cultivated meat and then compared that with conventional beef. They found that cultivated meat’s environmental impact is “likely to be orders of magnitude higher” than conventional beef based on current production methods (emissions four to 25 times higher and fossil fuel “depletion” three to 17 times higher compared to regular beef).⁷ Currently cultivated meat producers use highly purified pharmaceutical-grade growth media, which is very resource intensive, and leads to higher emissions; according to lead author Derrick Risner, “if this product continues to be produced using the “pharma” approach, it’s going to be worse for the environment and more expensive than conventional beef production.” One of the cultured meat industry’s main goals is to move away from pharmaceutical-grade growth media to food-grade ingredients, but even in this scenario, the researchers found that, while cultured meat would be more “environmentally competitive,” it still wouldn’t outperform “efficient beef production systems,” (e.g., pastured and grassfed beef).⁸

One of the problems with cattle is that they produce lots of the greenhouse gas methane (CH₄), but according to a 2019 review, methane doesn’t stick around in the atmosphere like CO₂, and so the researchers argue that while cultivated meat could lead to less overall emissions initially, this effect wouldn’t last long term because methane eventually dissipates, CO₂ does not. Cultured meat emissions are almost entirely CO₂. Referring to their model, the researchers said, “…cattle systems generally result in greater peak warming than cultured meat, [but] the warming effect declines and stabilizes… while the CO₂-based warming from cultured meat persists and accumulates even under reduced consumption…”⁹ The researchers point out that this is not a green light to over-consume meat—raising animals does create emissions—but cultured meat does not come out ahead when it comes to reducing emissions.

Researchers from the University of Nebraska have also found that grazing cattle can even offset their CO₂ and methane emissions by increasing the carbon-capturing abilities of the soil—healthy soil can capture and lock in larger amounts of CO₂ and methane.¹⁰

So then there is the question of land. Proponents argue that producing cultured meat requires less land, and indeed, it does. But that’s not necessarily an advantage. Livestock is intimately tied to the health of the land, especially the soil. Through smart grazing practices—practiced in regenerative and organic agriculture—animals contribute to soil fertility, biodiversity, carbon storage, a healthy water cycle, and can actually repair environmental damage, restoring soil health.^{11 12} Indeed, many experts agree that putting livestock back on the land, with well-managed grazing practices, is a solution to climate change.¹³

Finally, there’s the question of nutrition. Animal protein is an important source of a variety of nutrients for humans (iron, zinc, vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, in the case of grassfed beef, etc.), and as it currently stands, it’s not known if cultured cells can uptake micronutrients like iron, at least at the levels needed for human nutrition.¹⁴

Zooming out

So, is cultured meat the future of food? As it stands now, cultured meat is just another form of factory “farmed” meat, with no real benefits to the environment or our health. And the reality is that most people just want to eat real food. What if we were just more mindful in our food choices and the impact they have on the environment? What if we choose to buy meat that has been regeneratively and/or organically grown? Then we know we are contributing to a system that is not just sustainable, but regenerative.

References

1. Baker A. “Lab-Grown Chicken Can Now Be Sold in the U.S. But Good Luck Finding Some to Buy.” TIME June 21, 2023 https://time.com/6238727/usda-approves-cultivated-chicken-for-sale/
2. GOOD Meat | Process. (n.d.). GOOD Meat. https://www.goodmeat.co/process
3. Fetal Bovine serum, qualified, United States Catalog number: 26140095. (n.d.). ThermoFisher Scientific. https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/26140095  
4. Klein J. “Lab meat has 3 big problems. Is it time for a pivot?” GreenBiz, February 22, 2022. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/lab-meat-has-3-big-problems-it-time-pivot
5. Future Fields. (n.d.). Future fields. https://futurefields.io/
6. Good Food Institute, “The science of fermentation: Learn about the emerging role of microbial fermentation in building the next generation of alternative protein products.” Retrieved from https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-fermentation/
7. Derrick Risner, Yoonbin Kim, Cuong Nguyen, Justin B. Siegel, Edward S. Spang “Environmental impacts of cultured meat: A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment” April 21, 2023 bioRxiv 2023.04.21.537778; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.21.537778
8. Quinton A. (2023, May 22). Lab-Grown Meat’s Carbon Footprint Potentially Worse Than Retail Beef: Study Finds Scaling UP Production Using Existing Processes Highly Energy-Intensive. UC Davis News.  https://caes.ucdavis.edu/news/lab-grown-meats-carbon-footprint-potentially-worse-retail-beef
9. Lynch J and Pierrehumbert R. “Climate Impacts of Cultured Meat and Beef Cattle.” Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 19 February 2019; vol. 3 https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00005
10. Whitney A. “Research shows cattle might not contribute as much to climate change as previously thought.” KMTV Nebraska, Oct 19, 2023. https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/research-shows-cattle-might-not-contribute-as-much-to-climate-change-as-previously-thought
11. Teague R, Kreuter U. “Managing Grazing to Restore Soil Health, Ecosystem Function, and Ecosystem Services.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 29 September 2020; Vol 4 https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.534187
12. Girgis CL. “Level up on soil health with livestock.” Successful Farming magazine, June 27, 2023. https://www.agriculture.com/crops/soil-health/level-up-on-soil-health-with-livestock
13. Nargi L. Can Cows Help Mitigate Climate Change? Yes, They Can!” JSTOR Daily, December 19, 2018. https://daily.jstor.org/can-cows-help-mitigate-climate-change-yes-they-can/
14. Fraeye, I., Kratka, M., Vandenburgh, H., & Thorrez, L. (2020). Sensorial and Nutritional Aspects of Cultured Meat in Comparison to Traditional Meat: Much to Be Inferred. Frontiers in nutrition, 7, 35. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2020.00035