Lab-Grown Meat: A Promising Future or Dystopian Fate?

Written by Vance Voetberg on April 28, 2023. Posted in Current News

In late March, Italy became one of the first countries to take a decisive stance on lab-grown meat. The proposed bill is clear: Italy seeks to ban lab-grown meat production, sale, and use

If the bill is passed in Parliament, a violation of the law could result in a $65,000 fine.

Francesco Lollobrigida, Italy’s Minister for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, said lab-grown foods “do not guarantee quality, well-being, and the protection of our culture, our tradition.”

The bill marks an unequivocal concern about lab-grown meat’s uncertainties and potential dangers. In contrast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of lab-grown meat in November 2022.

What Is Lab-Grown Meat?

Akin to the push to create various versions of plant-based meat, scientists have been propelled to develop lab-grown meat to provide an alternative to conventionally raised meat.

To create meat, scientists combine animal cells from live animals with various nutrients like amino acids and carbohydrates. Then, under the right conditions, the cells replicate and produce “cultured meat.”

While this process sounds as straightforward as whipping up your favorite cookie recipe, producing lab-grown meat requires cutting-edge technology and exceptional scientific precision.

Dr. Greg Potter, a bioprocess and fermentation scientist, explained that the process could be compared to the technically demanding production of vaccines. “In cultured meat production, you need to grow large quantities of cells from terrestrial animals or seafood species in bioreactors, and the same thing is done in vaccine production,” he told The Epoch Times.

Dozens of food companies and biotech firms have invested billions into the research and development of lab-grown meat. So far, this ostensibly far-fetched idea of growing meat in a lab has been “proven by numerous groups around the world in the laboratory,” Potter said.

However, the feasibility of producing lab-grown meat to scale summons a significant challenge. “The growth media currently used has expensive inputs that need to be replaced with more economical options for commercial-scale production,” Potter explained.

According to one report, one kilogram of lab-grown meat is estimated to cost $8,500 to $36,000. In comparison, one kilogram of wholesale chicken costs $3.11 per kilogram.

Though this price comparison is beyond significant, for many food companies and financiers, lab-grown meat is still considered the future of food.

The Nutritional Shortcomings and Unknown Risks

Proponents of lab-grown meat believe it provides an equal alternative to conventionally raised meat. However, researchers have yet to create a form of lab-grown meat that contains the numerous essential nutrients that conventionally raised meat provides.

“Meat is so complex you can never create the equivalence,” said Dr. Joseph Mercola, a functional health care doctor and nutrition expert.

“Even if you add synthetic vitamins to the matrix, there is no possibility of creating nutritional equivalence,” he said.

With 92 percent of Americans facing some sort of nutritional deficiency, replacing current versions of meat containing essential nutrients with lab-grown versions would fail to resolve the nutritional deficit.

According to Mercola, science and technology aren’t the route to secure nutrition.

“Most people realize that ancestral, organically grown whole foods and meats are the most desirable for optimal health and longevity,” he said.

In addition, research regarding lab-grown meat’s influence on health is lacking.

How many studies have examined how consuming lab-grown meat could alter our health? Zero.

But lab-grown meat companies’ primary marketing tools seem to be based less on nutritional values and more built on the ethical and environmental issues surrounding meat eating.

The Ethical Argument for Lab-Grown Meat

The Humane League, an animal rights organization, promotes that lab-grown meat “could hold the key” to fixing the “broken food system.” They contend that “no animals would need to be bred, confined, or slaughtered to create these real meat products.”

However, this assertion lacks the whole truth regarding the production of lab-grown meat.

For instance, fetal bovine blood is used to produce many types of lab-grown meats. When producers do not use fetal bovine blood, animals are still essential to create lab-grown meat. Though to a lesser extent than conventionally raised meat, breeding and confinement are also necessary.

Is Lab-Grown Meat Sustainable?

Pioneers of the movement attest that switching to lab-grown meat will mitigate the environmental impact of the meat industry. Companies such as Good Meat—whose lab-grown chicken was recently approved by the FDA—maintain that they provide meat without “tearing down a forest or taking a life.”

To ‘restore our environment’, companies like Good Meat say lab-grown meat is the answer, and that it’s the more sustainable option.

These claims, however, are estimated by data that aren’t yet fully known. While some data point to lab-grown meat production emitting fewer greenhouse gases than conventional livestock farming, as one report notes, these findings come with “high uncertainty.”

Diana Rodgers, a dietician and executive director of the Global Food Justice Alliance, expressed that lab-grown meat “is a high-energy process that uses vast amounts of mono-crop agriculture, which is chemically intensive,” she said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Given that mono-crop agriculture relies on environmentally harmful pesticides and herbicides, some researchers contend that it is the driving force behind the changing nature of our environment.

“I don’t see how this [lab-grown meat] is better from a sustainability perspective as opposed to ‘educating’ more farmers on better grazing practices,” Rodgers expressed.

Rodgers, a spearheader of the regenerative agriculture movement, conveyed that though conventional farming practice needs improvement, lab-grown meat isn’t the solution. “Our money needs to be invested in more regenerative grazing practices, not lab-grown meats,” she said.

Regenerative agriculture, which is practiced worldwide, involves managing livestock in a natural way, similar to how wild herds move across the land. “Wild animals must keep on the move because of predator pressure and [their being] in search of new water and fresh grass,” she said.

The Financial Incentives of Lab-Grown Meat

Because it is a product of nature, companies cannot make an intellectual property claim on meat. Nobody invented meat. But when meat is created in a lab, companies can claim it as a product or design they own.

As explained by Mercola, “There are dozens of patents in every bite. Food companies dream about monopolizing industrial-processed and patented food for the masses,” he said.

With a pulse on how conventional farming practices are scrutinized by powerful environmental agencies, some food companies likely believe the emergence of lab-grown meat provides an opportunity to gain greater control over the food industry.

As expressed by Rodgers, this picture of food production is a “dystopian fallacy that only exists to make profits and further disconnect us from food producers” that will “further destroy rural communities by centralizing the food supply when we need a more decentralized, regional food system.”

Italy’s main agricultural association, Coldiretti, echoed Rodgers’ sentiment, saying the proposed bill will protect Italian agriculture “from the attacks of multinational companies.”

Quality Vs. ‘Safe and Lawful’

Italy’s proposed bill is based on “precautionary principles” because “there are no scientific studies yet on the effects of synthetic foods,” Italy’s health minister, Orazio Schillaci, said during a press conference.

While the bill is said to be designed to protect Italy’s culture of growing and selling quality food, here in the United States, the FDA claims it is ready to work with firms to make lab-grown meat “safe and lawful.”

Unsurprised by the FDA’s approval of lab-grown meat, Mercola said we shouldn’t define what is healthy based on the government’s standards.

He added that people who “understand the basic principles of wholesome foods” are unlikely to be convinced that “these fake meats being presented as healthy or sustainable” are what they appear.

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