Perhaps you’ve heard of the Beyond burger, a plant based burger which claims to be just like the real thing. It’s become so popular that various chains and restaurants have all started selling their own versions of a plant based burger.
A restaurant burger which uses a plant based patty. Wikimedia
With all this fanfare about plant based burgers, this may pique consumer’s interests and questions. What about traditional meat? Are there any alternatives to the slaughterhouse? There may not be any available currently, but options are in the works. Mainly, cultured meats.
Unlike the Beyond burger and other similar offerings, cultured meat is meat which is grown by in vitro fertilization. Using quickly dividing cells such as stem cells, a growth medium is used to facilitate tissue growth, while a scaffold is used to help direct cell structure and growth, though the actual process is of course much more complicated.
The potential benefits of cultured meat are numerous. Meat manufactured in this manner would consume considerably less energy, less land and produce less greenhouse emissions than traditional meat. There would be no need for acres of land to be used for animals and the food to feed them. In fact, a study conducted by Oxford researchers has shown that cultured meat could be produced using up to 96% less water, 96% lower greenhouse emissions, 99% less land use, and 45% less energy. Other benefits of cultured meat include the ability to control exposure to antibiotics, reducing the chance of unwanted antibiotic resistances developing.
There are downsides to cultured meat, though these downsides may perhaps be on the human side. Would cultured meat be a choice which consumers reach for? If presented with a choice of steak and a cultured steak, what would a consumer reach for? Perhaps the steak would be preferred, as questions of taste and texture are raised. These questions would likely persist even if cultured meat were to become more mainstream. Even the name “cultured meat” may be off-putting, as research shows that “cultivated” meat would be a much more consumer friendly name. In terms of economics, as of 2015, a cultured meat patty cost eight euros, which may seem a tad expensive, particularly since you can buy a Big Mac for around $6 CAD. However, compared to 2008 when 250 grams of beef was around a million dollars USD, this is a remarkable improvement, and in the next few years, cultured meat may become a viable and economic alternative.
However, there’s yet to be any commercial testing of meat, so there’s still no telling how potential customers may react to it.
-Bradner Coilan
