Cultivated Meat is Approved in the US - How Real Meat is Created Without Killing
Cultivated meat, specifically chicken, has been officially cleared for sale in the United States, and the good news is ricocheting throughout different industries. Cultivated meat on a large scale could mean a decrease in the billions of animals that are slaughtered to feed a growing population—but the impact does not stop there.
As it stands right now, the US uses over a billion acres of land for agriculture, and the food system is responsible for about 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, most of which comes from animal agriculture. These are just two statistics that could plummet in a future that invests in cultivated meat.
But what is it? Cultivated meat is real, consumable meat, without killing an animal. The process begins with harmlessly harvesting cells from live animals, not unlike a biopsy procedure on humans. These cells are then “fed” with nutrients such as amino acids and vitamins, two things that an animal would typically receive from the food it eats. This process is comparable to a brewery and yeast fermentation, just with animal cells. The cells then propagate inside of steel chambers, and can be eventually shaped to resemble familiar favorites like chicken breasts or nuggets.
Credit: UPSIDE Foods
A Better Future for Chickens
David Kaplan, a professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University, explains that only one animal is necessary for the initial biopsy, after which those cells could “essentially propagate forever.” This could alleviate the pressure on the meat industry, where over eight billion chickens are killed each year in the US.
Not only are they killed, the chickens are systematically abused. Factory farming, where 99 percent of chickens in the US are raised, prioritizes profit over the wellbeing of animals. Despite chickens being known to be intelligent, curious, even companion animals, in factory farms they live with less than a square foot of space to themselves. Because of this confinement, chickens can become aggressive and violent, and to combat this, factory farms ‘debeak’ chickens, amputating a third of their beaks when they are babies. The life of a factory farm chicken is short and painful, as the size they are bred to causes agonizing joint pain, often making it impossible to stand or move around.
Chicken that grows in steel containers, from an essentially infinite source of animals cells, could lessen American dependence on factory farms and mean an end to the abuse that has been normalized for the sake of meat.
Meet the Companies Behind Cultivated Meat
There are two companies currently approved to sell their cultivated meat, UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat. Important to note, is that these companies are not producing a vegetarian or vegan meat alternative like Beyond Meat and their plant-based products. Cultivated meat is real meat, it is simply grown. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2022 assessment report said that cultivated meat could significantly reduce global emissions from food production, because of its “lower land, water, and nutrient footprints.” For people who do not want to make the switch to a plant based diet, cultivated meat is a way to eat in an environmentally conscious way.
Cultivated Meat: Safer than the Alternatives
The cultivation process also minimizes or completely eradicates countless issues that arise with the consumption of regular meat. Animals that are raised for slaughter are given antibiotics to help them grow faster, larger, and increase survival rates. Although the rates of antibiotic use in animals plummeted after FDA intervention in 2015, they started to increase again in 2021, a concerning fact when over 35,000 people die in the US each year from antibiotic resistance.
Cultivated meat, grown within a stainless steel vessel, does not require this same dramatic use of antibiotics to be successful or efficient, which would be a game-changer for the long-term wellness of countless Americans. Not only does cultivated meat not require antibiotics, but cell-based meat is also free of risk from diseases such as E. coli and salmonella due to the lack of exposure to contaminants. So while surveys currently show some apprehension on the behalf of consumers toward eating meat grown in a lab, the truth is that it could be a whole lot safer than the meat millions of people consume on an everyday basis.
UPSIDE’s chief operating officer Amy Chen acknowledges consumer apprehension, callingit the “ick factor.” In part to combat this ‘ick factor,’ Good Meat will currently be selling its product at a loss for the sake of people getting to experience, and talk about, cultivated meat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people least bothered by lab-grown meat are Gen-Zers. 77 percent of Gen-Z is “likely to try food grown with technology.” This is the generation that is statistically most concerned about climate change, and transforming the meat industry is a tangible change that provides a beacon of hope for a better future.
The Future of Cultivated Meat
While the potential of cultivated meat is vast, that is what it is right now: potential. UPSIDE and GOOD Meat have only just been given clearance to sell their products, and only within upscale restaurants in San Francisco and Washington D.C., respectively. Within the coming weeks UPSIDE’s chicken is expected to be served at Bar Crenn, and GOOD Meat at China Chilcano, but there is still a long way to go before cultivated meat is mainstream enough for the general public.
One of the biggest challenges to scaling up cultivated meat is the cost and limits of production. As it stands now, UPSIDE’s factory can only produce 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat each year, with the the goal to grow to 400,000 pounds annually. While this would be an impressive growth percentage, the US produces about 50 billion pounds of chicken each year. This means that cultivated meat may stay niche (and expensive) for the time being.
However, if technological trends show us anything, it is that we should never underestimate the capacity for growth and innovation. The USDA and FDA approval of cultivated meat marks a historic step towards a more humane and sustainable future in the meat industry. While the access to cultivated meat is currently exclusive, there is enormous potential within the coming years. 77 percent of consumers say they are concerned with animal welfare in relation to their food choices, and yet 89 percent of Americans eat meat. Cultivated meat can be the cutting-edge answer to this paradox. This is not only investing in the future of billions of animals, but also the entire planet.
The robustness of the meat industry and the tactics used to slaughter animals is not sustainable or humane. Cultivated meat, when scaled to its potential, can revolutionize food production and achieve the UPSIDE mission of making meat a force for good in the world.
Written by Olive Deming
Olivia is currently studying Political Science and Anthropology at Columbia University. She writes and edits for the Columbia Political Review, and is the President of the Women's Wrestling Club.
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