To get consumers interested in lab-grown meat, companies are turning to products based on exotic, or even extinct, animals.
How would you feel if the “meat” on your plate wasn’t really meat at all, but was the result of genetically modified cells grown in a lab?
Goaded by juxtaposing the “climate crisis” with an ongoing, aggressive PR campaign that aims to demonize meat eating by wrongly suggesting all livestock farming contributes to excessive carbon emissions, huge amounts of money are being invested in lab-grown, or “cultured,” meat, as we reported a few months ago. Lab-grown chicken was approved for sale in the US, though it won’t be on store shelves for some time. But there’s a problem: consumers aren’t quite sold on the idea that their meat is the product of a science experiment! Polls have found that large swaths of the American public would not buy cultured meat; only about one third of respondents said they would be likely to buy artificial meat. Another poll found that under one in five US and UK consumers said they were “eager to try” lab-grown meat. Lack of consumer interest combined with a hefty price tag for lab-grown meat is not exactly a recipe for success (no pun intended!).
Some companies are attempting to generate interest in lab-grown meat by going beyond chicken and pork. Companies like Primeval Foods and Vow are developing lab-grown meat from the cells of animals like tiger, zebra, or even mammoth. Advocates of lab-grown meat are hoping these novelties and nontraditional meats can attract consumers who are otherwise wary of these food.
Some companies are attempting to generate interest in lab-grown meat by going beyond chicken and pork. Companies like Primeval Foods and Vow are developing lab-grown meat from the cells of animals like tiger, zebra, or even mammoth. Advocates of lab-grown meat are hoping these novelties and nontraditional meats can attract consumers who are otherwise wary of these food.
Leaving aside the ethical concerns with this (some argue, for example, that creating lab-grown tiger meat would create an appetite for real tiger meat) are the human health and environmental issues we raised in our previous coverage:
- These are genetically engineered products, even if they aren’t discussed as such by industry advocates and news reports. To create a sufficient volume of meat, the cells that are used to grow the meat must be genetically modified so they can replicate indefinitely.
- Nutritionally, lab-grown meat is not biologically the same as real meat. Lab-grown meat is made from animal cells, but it’s not just about protein: it’s the composition and nature of the protein as well as the fats, minerals, vitamins, and other compounds found in meat.
- Boosters of the lab-grown meat industry harp on the idea that it’s far better for the environment than industrialized meat production. While we’re no fans of factory farms, a recent study from the University of California, Davis found that lab-grown meat’s carbon footprint is potentially greater than retail beef. Consumption of meat per se isn’t the problem when it comes to the environment—it’s the industrialized factory farm system. Sustainably-raised livestock and associated pasture actually helps sequester carbon in the soil.
Bottom line: don’t be drawn in by the marketing gimmick of eating meat from exotic or even extinct animals that has been grown in a lab. Lawmakers instead should take a lesson from Italy, which is pursuing a ban on synthetic foods.
Simply put, when it comes to lab-grown meat, please consider making an informed choice rather than a choice influenced by an incredibly well-oiled and misleading propaganda machine.
Our ask is a simple one: please share this article among your friends, family and wider network, and help balance the propaganda about lab-grown meat.
