Starting with Singapore’s lab-grown chicken nugget meat in 2020, innovative new meat alternatives in a state of climate peril have risen to popularity in recent years. In the future, the fake meat industry could be incredibly profitable, with some economist predictions suggesting that by the end of this decade, lab grown meat could accommodate 10% of the global meat industry. However, the limits of cultured meat and its purported effects are not as black and white as we might assume.
Introducing people to fake meat is not easy. For dedicated carnivores, the taste of meat is violently specific. Beyond burgers and plant-based ingredients from places like Slutty Vegan don’t make the cut anymore; they’re bland and unrealistic. What sets Singapore’s Eat Just nuggets apart is that the meat is still meat – just grown from animal muscle cells in the lab.
From a nutritional, best-case scenario perspective, cultured meat products could be as customizable as test-tube babies. Selecting different types of fatty acids and altering the nutrient profile for individualized diets could come soon in the future; maybe someday I’ll be served a much-healthier rack of lamb with the fatty acids found in tuna or salmon. Diet culture could be extinguished because nothing would be unhealthy with customizable meat. Technology has already infiltrated our world in many aspects of daily life, but I’m not ready for everything I eat to slowly be produced from a lab; at that point, I’d rather fully become a Sim.
Founders of cultured meat companies have hailed the technology as “meat without slaughter,” but recent research has called the truth of environmentally friendly meat into question. Carbon dioxide generation doesn’t become fully eliminated just by halting industrial agriculture; even breathing produces carbon dioxide. Cultured meat emissions, however, are solely produced by carbon dioxide, which can create long-lasting and unpredictable impacts on the environment – perhaps in a completely different direction. Simply turning away from conventional agricultural methods doesn’t make something environmentally-friendly.
Environmental cycles are being disrupted by human activity, but further biotechnology enhancements could cause ramifications we can no longer overturn. Farming has always been an integral part of societal development and forming the symbiotic relationship between animals and humans is an inescapable factor; the nutritional quality of meat will only decrease if we start on this road. Textural changes can become more desirable, but the lack of fat from the muscle cells could affect the taste. From a purely gastronomical, selfish foodie desire, this isn’t the hill I’m ready to die on. I don’t want to be wondering if a scientist accidentally put the wrong chemicals together; I want the taste of a real ribeye.
While lab-grown products could eventually become the environmental shift the world so desperately needs, mass production and cultivation of these ingredients comes at a higher cost than we can predict. With the current state of technology, lab-grown meat is immensely costly. $50 chicken nuggets and $300,000 burger patties are not at all enticing, and would probably push those people on the fence more toward traditional farming methods. The details of cultured meat processing are too complicated to explain, but it’s crucial to realize that the digitalization of the entire world – now including food – is now inevitable. Companies like Every Company, Finless Foods and Primeval Foods have dedicated their research toward hotly anticipated directions like chicken-free egg whites, but at what cost? Yes, decreasing land, water and energy use are effective methods in saving endangered animals, reducing methane pollution and reducing animal-borne diseases, but synthetic biotechnology is still under-researched.
Likewise, food safety and administration agencies around the world must be prepared to start discussing new regulations for food distribution, including policies on how to test artificial meat. Sacrificing holistic analysis, education and risk management for the sake of upholding supposedly woke values and maintaining a seat in Congress is not worth having the future clean up your messes.
So while I would love to see my meat come out of a lab and save the planet little by little, the lack of fully fleshed out plans for mass reproduction and their potential impact on the environment must be taken into account.
Sophia Ling (24C) is from Carmel, Indiana.
