42 | New Scientist | 22 February 202080604020002004006001960 1990 2020 2050
SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMWORLDForecast1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010M
eat^ consumpt
io
n^
(milli
ontonnes)China Europe Rest of Asia
Central and South America North America
Africa IndiaAppetite for meat
The consumption of meat is increasing globally and this
trend is expected to continue, even if it is dropping off in
a few regions. This means there might be quite an
appetite for non-farmed alternatives“ Radical change in the food
system is going to be forced
upon us at some point”
“Cultured meat is still an abstract idea, it’s not
something we can test consumer acceptability
for,” says Laura Wellesley at independent UK
policy institute Chatham House, who co-wrote
a paper on meat alternatives for the EU. Finding
the right name for these new products will be
crucial (see “What’s in a name?”, right).
One obvious selling point is compassion,
both for animals and the planet. Cultured
meat isn’t entirely animal-free because of the
need for cell lines, but its welfare issues are
negligible in comparison with conventional
meat. One small farm could meet the global
demand for cells, says Lavon.
Cultured meat also has a reputation for
being greener. This seems a reasonable
assumption: conventional livestock farming
contributes around 15 per cent of greenhouse
gas emissions and is a voracious consumer
of land, water, energy and pesticides. Shrimp
farms are also a destroyer of coastal habitats,
especially mangroves and salt marshes.
To produce 1 calorie of edible meat, on
average, it takes 7 calories of agricultural
inputs, says Kurt Schmidinger of Austrian NGOencephalopathy (BSE). Growth medium
residues in the meat may also be problematic,
says Pałasińska, and there is zero data about
possible long-term effects.
Even if regulators clear it, will consumers
eat it? As a rule, tastings of prototypes generate
positive reviews. Liz Specht of the GFI has
tasted two cultured meat products: Memphis
Meats’ duck “breast” and salmon by a company
called Wild Type. Both were impressively
authentic, she says – although they were
prepared by professional chefs, which may
be hard to replicate at home.
And even if the final product is excellent,
that is no guarantee of acceptance. As
proponents of genetic modification found,
even demonstrably superior food can be
doomed by consumer perceptions. In a
recent survey of attitudes in the US, more than
60 per cent of people said they were willing to
try cultured meat, but about 40 per cent said
they were put off by its unnaturalness.
Until the food actually gets on to the market,
with whatever labelling is mandated, there is
no way to know how it will be received.Antibiotics are
used heavily when
animals are reared
in close quarters HANS
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