Why lab-grown protein might transform farming as we know it

For some time now, I have been interested in what is popularly called cultured meat, or cultivated meat, or lab-grown meat. My family and friends are mostly horrified by the idea of synthetic food, turn up their noses and think I am mad, but it really does seem to be the future, and it is about to take off. Singapore, which was the first country to express enthusiasm and regulate for cultured meat, already has cell-cultivated chicken on its supermarket shelves; Australia, Israel, Finland, the Netherlands and parts of the USA all now approve its sale; and the UK, which has already approved its use in pet foods (the first European country to do this), is moving towards doing so for human consumption. We are talking here not of the fake ‘vegetarian’ meat already being sold — bacon rashers made from pea protein and steaks made of soya and dyed red to resemble the real thing — but biologically real meat, lab-grown from cow, pig or chicken cells, which mimics, and may even improve, the flavour.

Insect cells also show potential, as they can be cultured more cheaply than livestock cells, and there is much to be said for using them as an alternative food source, as they have been in many parts of the world throughout history. But there is still a strong aversion in the West to eating insects, despite all the benefits — but that is another story.

The first synthetic hamburger was produced in 2013 and cost $250,000. Today, the cost is becoming comparable to that of those made from farmed cattle. There are already several companies — some two hundred at the last count — urgently pursuing research into ways of producing this new form of meat. The main method is to remove a few stem cells from a living animal and then grow them outside the animal in a cultivator or bioreactor. This is a large, clean stainless-steel vessel in which cells are nurtured for some weeks in a nutrient-rich liquid, in which they gradually morph into what they would have become as part of their original host: muscle and fat tissue. When harvested and shaped, they are indistinguishable from the real thing and may even taste better. This is not so very different from the ways we have been making cheese forever, where the proteins in milk are made to curdle by adding bacteria, and from winemaking, where lactic acid bacteria are used to reduce acidity.

The possibilities for it revolutionising the whole food and fishing industries are immense. There will, of course, always be ‘real’ meat and fish available, usually at a higher price, but already over 70 per cent of meat globally (99 per cent in the USA) is factory farmed, and a quarter of the global fish catch comes from bottom trawling, which causes massive damage to our oceans. With the pressure taken off the environment through less deforestation for agriculture and less maritime destruction, leading to the restoration of wild fish stocks, natural food from land and sea would grow to replace current intensive food-production methods. Indeed, as regenerative farming replaces today’s farming practices, there will be increasing amounts of meat from the cattle and pigs roaming the new woodlands and from the deer which will need to be culled to aid forestry renewal.

There are problems, of course. There always are with new technology. The meat industry is heavily subsidised, and I have been glad of that in the past, when I farmed sheep and cattle, but that is changing fast — partly because we have left the EU and partly because there is a growing movement against eating meat at all. Italy, Florida and Alabama have banned cultured meat, and people do not want to talk about factory farming, from which the vast majority of all meat consumed derives. Yet anyone who looks into the appalling conditions in which far too many factory-farmed animals are kept is likely to feel differently. Only a few do, preferring to remain in blissful ignorance. It should not be this way. As Lewis Bollard of Open Philanthropy says, “While we are the only species to inflict such massive cruelty and suffering on so many other animals, we are also the only species to protect so many animals from cruelty. Our species is both uniquely cruel and uniquely compassionate.” His dream is “beef without cows; eggs without chickens; caviar without fish”.

How to produce food without destroying nature? Protein is essential to human life. We have a hundred thousand different proteins in our own bodies — nutrients essential to life. Yet our production of them for food is hugely destructive. One third of global CO₂ emissions come from food production, half of it from farmed animals, and this is projected to increase by 50 per cent by 2050. That simply cannot be done sustainably in the current way.

Two major problems still face a lab-grown-protein future. One is that the technology will have a high energy demand (just like the AI future!), and this will contribute to the cost. But if, as most of us hope, we really are moving towards a cheap and renewable-energy future, then that cost should diminish. Secondly, there is a real danger that this new industry would, like so many in the past, end up being controlled by a few giant companies, which would control the price of food, so that we would be no better off. It is both an encouragement and a worry that the Bezos Earth Fund is investing $100 million in this technology.

But if we could replace the majority of meat and fish consumed globally with a tasty and cheaper alternative, that is surely something we should be encouraging. In Britain, we consume 2.5 billion hamburgers annually. If an equally tasty, indistinguishable and above all cheaper alternative were available today, I believe people would soon overcome their prejudice to it being ‘cultured’ and change. The same can be said of, for example, fish fingers and chicken nuggets.

People willing to pay a little more would still be able to eat pasture-fed meat or wild-caught fish, but they might well learn to favour the lab-grown varieties. There is a marvellous illustrated BBC article on this subject, in which their correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, shows a picture of a luscious lab-grown red fillet steak, which “sizzles in the pan, its juices releasing a meaty aroma… [its] texture, when cut, is indistinguishable from… regular steak”.

Today, almost ten per cent of the world’s population faces food insecurity, hunger or famine. How much easier it would be to provide food aid in nutrient-rich, easily transportable packages, like energy bars made in vats. Meanwhile, global needs for protein are increasing, and nearly half of these are animal-derived. Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of these coming from inefficient, costly and cruel factory-farming systems, they could be created without the added hormones and antibiotics all too often present in factory-farmed meat? The land could recover, the seas refresh, and climate change could be reversed. It just takes a bit of imagination and a willingness to accept change.