Is Lab Grown Meat the Future of Food?

We are running out of land. We are running out of water resources. We are running out of time. As animal agriculture proves itself to be simultaneously a grossly unsustainable yet lucrative business and an important means of consumption for the general public, there is some ambiguity regarding the future of how we consume meat and other animal products. Due to the environmental detriments that animal agriculture imposes on our Earth’s condition, the rate at which we consume meat and other animal products is being brought into serious question. Despite being, at least in the short run, economically incentivized to indulge in animal agriculture, we are approaching the point of no return in our Earth’s deterioration. While there seem to be a bunch of ways in which consumers can coexist with the planet in a much nicer way in regards to consumption, there also exists some hesitancy, or at the very least some uncertainty, as to how consumers and society alike will respond to the growing prevalence of lab-grown meat. We must ask the question: will consumers seriously consider buying a piece of “chicken” or “steak” that was not once a part of a living animal, but rather some extracted and “nursed” cells from a living creature? The future of lab-grown meat and its many societal, environmental, and economic implications lie in that very answer. These sorts of questions have been plaguing many consumers, producers, and investors among other people. What is the future for lab-grown “meat?” What sort of environmental and economic implications does the rise of lab-grown have? More simply put, what might the future look like?

In the fourth issue of Wesleyan’s Business Review I wrote about the economics of veganism and what implications adopting a plant-based diet has on the economy and environment. Similarly, the adoption of lab-grown meat would reduce the demand for livestock and the unsustainable practices that are imperative to raising livestock “well.” It is no secret the world’s population is expanding at an unsustainable rate, one that our current resources struggle to provide for. Our dependence on large-scale animal agriculture has become increasingly clear and is continuing to grow more concerning. “Livestock is responsible for an estimated 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Producing a single pound of beef can take around 1,800 gallons of water. As the world population swells to 10 billion by 2050, we’ll need to produce 70% more food calories–and between 2006 and 2050, demand for animal-based protein is expected to grow 80%” (Peters 2018). As Peters writes, the current environmental effect of animal agriculture is an issue we cannot ignore and one that will only continue to worsen as the world’s population grows and our habits remain the same. Logically, this makes sense too. If we have more people, we must create the means to feed them all. This is destructive when the means of feeding the population becomes a hindrance and a gross depreciation towards the Earth. Journalist at the University of Westminister Emily Latimer has similar sentiments regarding the sustainability of modern animal agriculture. She notes that, because we are still seeing population growth across the globe, there needs to be enough resources to nourish the new influx of life. However, with land and water resources becoming more and more scarce, we are left to consider alternatives in how we consume (Latimer 2021). As a result of resource scarcity, the price for both land and water appears to be increasing. “In California, one of America's ag powerhouses, the average cost of farmland is $10,000 per acre” (Krymowski, 2020). Not only is it extremely taxing on the environment to continue to raise livestock with the sole purpose of feeding a nation, but it is growing increasingly more expensive to do so. The land dedicated to animal agriculture is not limited to just the space they inhabit; an even greater amount of usable land on Earth is devoted to growing corn and other crops just for the animals we’re going to eat. So, it seems that it is both monetarily and environmentally taxing to be participating in animal agriculture. A University of Oxford study titled “Lab-grown meat would 'cut emissions and save energy’” sheds some more light on the environmental implications of lab-grown meat. Research leader Hanna Tuomisto of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit says “What our study found was that the environmental impacts of cultured meat could be substantially lower than those of meat produced in the conventional way… Cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat’” (University of Oxford 2011). So, from an environmental standpoint, our current trajectory of animal product consumption is grossly unsustainable and begs for alternative consumption methods. At least in theory, lab-grown meat appears to fill this void. Not only does this new alternative to “meat” consumption offer itself as a healing agent to our world, it has incredibly interesting economic implications as well. 

When lab-grown meat was first introduced to the world nearly a decade ago, it took both society and the markets by surprise. People had to stop and consider, “Would I really have a steak that did not come from a once-living creature?” The question might sound barbaric, but it is true. The intersectionality of science and food is something a lot of people cannot see past. However, money perhaps talks louder and more persuasively than anything else in the world. “In 2013, producing the first lab-grown burger cost $325,000. By 2015, though, the cost had dropped to around $11…” (Adele, 2018). Regardless of whether one would freely consume a burger consisting of lab-grown meat or not, this price drop of $324,989 over the course of just two years is something far too salient to ignore. Yaakov Nahmias, founder and chief scientist of Future Meat Technologies, and his team have begun to find a way to grow meat in a lab. His ideologies and methods have caught the attention of many investors, most notably from “meat giant” Tyson Food. Their process, while still expensive, is clean for the environment and has an extremely promising future. While current bioreactors are really expensive and environmentally unfriendly, their new ones have been proving themselves suitable for the next chapter in our lives. Nahmias says that with a more efficient bioreactor and a distributed manufacturing model, they will be able to drop the cost of production down to roughly $2.27 per pound. These models allow us to use current economics to suggest the best price at which to produce and sell the new lab-grown meat. This inherently births a new niche for agriculture. Instead of animal agriculture and all of its violent implications, we could be shifting towards cellular agriculture, where “These distributive models allow us to grow organically and essentially replace chicken coops with these bioreactors…” (Adele 2018). From a sustainability standpoint, this is really interesting. Yaakov suggests that farmers could essentially replace their livestock with these bioreactors, and this might act as a reasonable replacement for the detriments that animal agriculture brings to the condition of the Earth. We are closer to implementing lab-grown meat products into our consumption repertoire than it may appear. In fact, “In Singapore, on 2nd December 2020 lab-grown meat was approved for sale by a regulatory authority for the first time” (Latimer, 2021). It appears as though it is only a matter of time, monetary incentivization, and societal “buy-in” before widespread implementation becomes a reality. 

From a farmer’s perspective, though, there are still some ethical concerns. They fear that yet again, food production can potentially be consolidated under large corporations (Latimer 2021). Not only do small-scale farmers suffer financially under our current agriculture system, but if not handled thoughtfully, this new system could affect them in a similar way. 

The role that the government plays in the implementation of alternative meat products has enormous implications for the success of these products in a new market. Facilitating the transition from a society that heavily relies on the consumption of meat products to one that relies mostly upon, and perhaps someday solely upon, alternative meat products would mean there would be a much easier (and environmentally friendly) way to meet our protein demand. Additionally, governments could even incentivize the rewilding of unused land to many landowners so as to further this consumption transition (Newton and Blaustein-Rejto 2021). If the government were to flirt with an idea like this, people who don’t use the land they own, or even those who do, could consider rewilding their property and replenishing some of the original biodiversity of their respective ecosystems. Not only would this have a positive effect on the environment, but this type of government intervention and incentivization would also pave the way for loads of economic opportunity that we’re left to consider in this new niche market.  

As the world’s population continues to grow at an alarming rate, there is a direct correlation between population growth and the number of resources needed for food production. As one might imagine, there will be a point in time where we cannot sustain Earth’s inhabitants, human or not, solely through animal agriculture. This, in turn, calls for a change in consumer patterns that takes into consideration consumers’ need for food and desire for varying diets. As many Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries are experiencing increases in average income, there is a greater demand for protein, specifically from animals. This rise in demand for meat products is grossly unsustainable and requires adequate and immediate attention. Lab-grown meat shows itself to be a serious alternative that, while promising, is still in its early stages of development and commercialization. As previously mentioned, the original lab-grown meat burger cost more than $300,000 to produce, but they were able to produce the same burger for $11.36 just two years later. Its commercial production has been rendered less clear to the general public and consumers alike, but this is still quite a promising direction to move in. Instead of spending copious funds on the water, food, land, antibiotics, pesticides, fungicides, etc., of animals for the sole purpose of their slaughtering, lab-grown meat, once refined in its production and distribution, might just prove itself to be not only the only environmental option, but perhaps the best economic option as well (Sergelidis, 2019). The current trajectory of lab-grown meat is something investors surely should keep an eye on, as stocks belonging to the respective labs and companies that lend a hand in lab-grown meat production could see an enormous spike in stock price. While lab-grown meat eliminates the risk of food-borne illnesses such as salmonella and the need for animal antibiotics as an aid to animal agriculture, it will someday be cheaper than real animal meat. But until that day comes, we should hesitate to make any bold assumptions about the future. However, this prediction makes a lot of sense environmentally and economically. Once impossible to ignore, alternative meat products could become a staple in our means of consumption. 

Our current practices in regard to animal agriculture and consumption are grossly unsustainable and in need of change. As the world’s population continues to swell, it only makes sense that our consumption rates and habits increase in tandem. While many countries have seen their demand for protein skyrocket over recent years, there has been a massive increase in the rate in which we perform animal agriculture. From an environmental standpoint though, continuing and even increasing the rate at which we raise livestock for consumption will continue to deteriorate our Earth’s conditions. We simply cannot afford to do it any longer. So then, what alternatives are there? If we are not eating steak that was once from an actual living cow, how are we to consume protein in our diets?  Lab-grown meat is continuing to prove itself as a new considerable means for consumption moving forward. While relatively underdeveloped in its production and commercial roll-out, alternative meat products, lab-grown meat in particular, have a quite promising future.