Picture this: The year is 2050, lab-grown meat is now the norm and food insecurity has been eradicated.
In 2016, the World Health Organization labelled meat as carcinogenic and we were told to refrain from putting an extra shrimp on the barbie. However, with development of lab-grown meat – also known as cultured or in-vitro meat which means to manufacture meat products through ‘tissue-engineering’ technology – times are now truly changing.
It all started on August 5, 2013, when the world’s first lab-grown meat was cooked and eaten in London. The lab-grown burger was developed by Professor Mark Post in his laboratory at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Stem cells were taken from a cow and cultivated on strips of muscle which were combined to make a burger patty.
Google co-founder, Sergey Brin paid more than $330,000 for the five-ounce burger patty to be produced. Recently, scientists announced the cost of producing one burger patty would drop to $11. In an interview with BBC News Professor Post says “I am confident that we will have it on the market in five years.” Others believe that feasible production of lab-cultured meat could take longer, with other sources saying it could take up to 20-30 years for a full-fledged industry to form.
However, many others are not convinced by the virtues of alternative meat, such as dietitians like Caitlin Rabel from Bites for Health. ‘We don’t yet know what component of red meat is considered possibly carcinogenic, and also can’t guarantee this lab-grown meat is free from any carcinogens… I think it is too soon to tell what long term health benefits or consequences lab grown meat will have’ says Rabel. She recommends ‘reducing red meat and using some vegetarian alternatives on a few days a week instead of lab grown meat at this stage.’
Scientists recognise that the effects on biodiversity would be less compared to traditional production of meat. According to a study by Hanna Tuomisto from the University of Oxford, lab grown meat would produce less greenhouse gas emissions, and use less water and land.
Bert De Groef, Professor at La Trobe University, says ‘labs require less space than pastures and paddocks, so less deforestation is required. They can also be built in urban areas where no additional deforestation is needed… meat in a lab dish does not produce methane or nitrous oxide like live ruminants do, nor does it produce ammonia.’ However, he also noted that ‘the people working in those labs require lighting and heating, reagents/consumables that need to be transported to the lab and the meat needs to be transported to the consumers. So this type of meat production also uses energy and produces CO2 which contributes to global warming.’
Vegetarians shouldn’t get too excited either. As cultured meat comes from stem cells taken from cow muscle, animals still need to be bred as a source of stem cells unless scientists find a way of replicating stem cells. Professor Post told The Telegraph, ‘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.’
Will the public truly take to vitro meat? With the limited scientific research on the product causing uncertainty, convincing people to eat lab-grown meat will be an inevitable challenge in the next 10 years. With more research, money and advertising, maybe consumer fear could be avoided and we would see it on supermarket shelves by 2050. However, with our fragile environment and depleting food supply, maybe there will be no choice other than to eat lab-grown meat much sooner than we think. To preserve the world as we know it, perhaps very soon we will be eating vitro meat at the dinner table while streaming The Simpsons on our holograms.
Findley Pollock is studying journalism and dietetics at La Trobe University, interested in all things nutrition and exploring Melbourne’s food culture. Find more of her writing here, and follow her on Twitter.