Lab-grown meat is different from plant-based substitutes like Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. Instead, this meat is grown by extracting a few stem cells from an animal's muscle and placing them in a nutrient-rich solution that allows the cells to multiply and develop into muscle tissue.
Also called cultured meat, it is a growing alternative to conventional beef that has been spreading the word among those who wish for a more sustainable lifestyle. If you are interested in knowing about healthy and environmentally friendly food options, read this complete article about it.
Lab-Grown Meat Main Characteristics
The entire process occurs without the need to harm or kill animals. Traditional meat production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. By offering an alternative, lab-grown meat could help reduce emissions, making it part of the fight against climate change.
There is no clear timeline for when lab-grown meat will be available in grocery stores. Joe Fassler, a Brooklyn-based writer who has extensively researched cultured meat, notes, "The technology is not in a place where it can support a billion-dollar private industry right now."
Challenges Facing Lab-Grown Meat
While the concept is promising, there are significant barriers to bringing lab-grown meat to market, like high production costs, infrastructure needs, and long-term viability. Check out the details below.
High Production Costs
Growing cells in vast quantities at an affordable price remains a major hurdle. For example, the first lab-grown burger patty cost $425,000 to produce in 2013.
Infrastructure Needs
Large bioreactors are essential for growing animal cells in the quantities needed for widespread consumption. However, reactors of the necessary size for food production are far larger than anything used in the pharmaceutical industry.
Long-Term Viability
Despite the potential, some experts caution that lab-grown meat may not be a "near-term climate solution." Fassler points out that meeting global climate targets by 2030 would be challenging, given the time it would take to scale up production.
Neil Stephens, a sociologist and associate professor at the University of Birmingham, adds, "A big problem here is that it’s being represented as a solution... which sometimes means that people don’t have to think so broadly about other solutions."
Future Prospects
Isha Datar, executive director of New Harvest, a nonprofit research institute, believes in the promise of cellular agriculture but remains cautious about timelines. She suggests that real progress may come through public research funding rather than private investment. While fully lab-grown meat may be far off, she envisions hybrid products combining plant-based ingredients with cell-cultured components as a realistic step forward.
