Once the preserve of science fiction, cultivated meat has become a reality. According to its advocates, it is a way to revolutionise food with more environmentally and ethically sound meat. Even though it is not allowed in the EU yet, will cultivated meat soon be on European plates?
In 2013, Professor Mark Post unveiled the world’s first lab-grown beef burger to much fanfare, cooked and served on film at a special event in London.
Now, more than a decade later, “cultivated meat” is a burgeoning industry, with around 150 companies worldwide starting to produce animal proteins from cell cultures in labs. This biotech innovation comes at a time of heightened global awareness of the need to transition to more sustainable food systems.
The beef with meat
Agriculture is responsible for 11% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, with sizeable livestock populations across the Union: 134 million pigs, 75 million bovines, 59 million sheep and 11 million goats (as of end of 2022).
As well as contributing to climate warming and biodiversity loss, current agricultural processes will also become increasingly difficult to sustain due to these crises, with consequences for food security.
The EU acknowledged in its Farm to Fork strategy how transforming the food system is essential to achieve the bloc’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The strategy identifies alternative proteins as an enabling area of research for this transformation.
Research has found that novel foods, like cultivated meat, but also insects and algae, can contribute to a transition to more sustainable food by reducing carbon emissions and water and land use by over 80%.
A more sustainable and slaughter-free alternative?
Professor Mark Post, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the European company Mosa Meat and sustainable tissue engineering professor at Maastricht University: “Cultivating meat from cells could cut the climate impact of meat production by up to 92% […] And if we use the freed-up land for regenerative agriculture and rewilding to sequester even more carbon, the positive climate impacts could be greater still.” – Read the full interview of Mark Post
By directly cultivating animal cells in labs, cultivated meat is more efficient than the conventional rearing and slaughtering of live animals; it requires less land and water resources and emits lower levels of greenhouse gases.
The cells can be stimulated to become the different types of cells that make up meat, like muscle, fat and connective tissue. A range of companies are starting to produce not just meat, but also other animal products, including seafood, dairy products, foie gras and leather.
Furthermore, cultivated meat is an opportunity to avoid the ethical concerns around the living and slaughter conditions of livestock, as the cells can be extracted without killing the animal. Advancements in the field also mean that the process of cultivating the meat does not require other animal components.
In general, the sustainability advantages of cultivated meat depend on the type of meat produced, due to the different environmental and climate impacts of different livestock – for example, cattle are the largest source of methane in the EU agricultural sector. No methane is released in the production of cultivated meat.
However, cultivated meat production is energy intensive. So, it would need to be powered by renewable energy in order to be an actual sustainable option.
Food and farming – touchy subjects
There remain scientific challenges to the commercial scaling up and viability of cultivated meat. Consumer acceptance also poses a significant hurdle, with food intrinsically tied to many national identities across Europe and the world.
Food and farming in Europe are as ever touchy subjects, amidst farmers protests across Europe – fuelled by various national and European grievances, including cheap imports and measures to cut emissions and pesticide use.
At the end of 2023, Italy’s parliament voted to ban food and feed made from lab-grown animal cells mainly to protect the food industry and the farmers.
Eleven other countries have lined up to defend “real” meat. A note from the Italian, French and Austrian delegations to the agriculture and fisheries council in January 2024 claimed the lab-grown variety threatens the “very heart of the European farming model”.
According to Prof. Post the cultivated meat is not a threat to European farmers, but rather “can complement our existing protein production and create new revenue opportunities for example for farmers to raise the crops needed to feed our ‘cultivated meat’ cells.” He points to a future of the industry where cultivated meat coexists with conventional meat sources and provides consumers with a sustainable alternative.
The notion of choice is also highlighted by Rachel Mazac, a food system transformations postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, as novel foods like cultivated meat can provide greater diversity for healthier and more sustainable diets.
A systemic approach for sustainable and healthy food
Novel foods like cultivated meat can be one of the tools in the toolbox for making our food systems more sustainable and healthier says Mazac.
However, Rachel Mazac emphasises that eating more plant-based foods is an already known solution for reducing environmental impacts and meeting health goals, and that there is a need for a systemic approach to transforming our relationship with food.
Rachel Mazac, postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University’s Stockholm Resilience Centre: “The thing about food is we can’t just not eat… So, why don’t we focus on quality and sufficiency over efficiency and maximisation of productivity and profits? If we have our hunger and nutritional needs met, we can start making progress on better production systems and making the sustainable choice the better choice, the easy choice, the only choice.” – Read the full interview of Rachel Mazac
So far, selling cultivated meat is allowed in the United States, Israel, and Singapore. And although the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has yet to receive applications, it has stated that cell culture derived food is “ready for evaluation“.
Related content:
• Rachel Mazac: ‘The whole food system needs to change’
• Mark Post: ‘The future of lab-grown meat is promising’