20 1GM Thursday December 3 2020 | the times
News
“Cultured meat’ created in vats without
the slaughter of living animals is to be
made available for the first time after
the government of Singapore gave its
approval.
The meat, in the form of chicken
nuggets, has been developed by Eat
Just, a company in San Francisco that is
one of a growing number around the
world developing alternatives to meat
from slaughterhouses.
The company said that it was in talks
with US regulators and hoped that the
success in Asia would encourage
Europe and other areas of the world to
follow suit.
“Singapore’s regulatory approval of
Eat Just’s cultured chicken as food
paves the way for the product to be
served to consumers in a restaurant
setting soon,” Josh Tetrick, the chief
executive, said.
“I would imagine what will happen is
the US, western Europe and others will
see what Singapore has been able to do,
the rigours of the framework that they
put together. And I would imagine that
they will try to use it as a template.”
He said that the synthetic nuggets
would be expensive, comparable to
“premium chicken” served in a restau-
rant, but that prices would come down
as production increases. “To achieve
our mission, we’ll need to be below the
cost of conventional chicken, which we
expect to happen in the years ahead.”
Singapore generates only 10 per cent
of the food it needs to feed its 5.7 million
people. One of Eat Just’s investors is the
country’s sovereign investment fund,
Temasek, which is run by the wife of
Singapore’s prime minister. The Singa-
pore Food Agency said that it gave
regulatory approval after studying the
manufacturing process and assuring
itself of the safety of the meat, which
will be manufactured in the city state.
Cultivated meat is different from
plant-based meat substitutes such as
Quorn because it comes from the cells
of real animals. Cells are taken from a
living animal without killing it — Eat
Just has even experimented with cellsMorrisons is to stop sourcing its own
brand of corned beef from a Brazilian
meat company after it was accused of
contributing to the destruction of the
Amazon rainforest.
The supermarket chain sent staff to
inspect JBS in South America after
concerns were raised about its links to
deforestation. It has now given JBS no-
tice and will stop selling its beef under
the Morrisons brand within weeks.
However, Morrisons, Asda and
Sainsbury’s still sell Princes branded
corned beef, which is supplied by JBS.
Clearing land for cattle ranching is
the biggest contributor to Amazon
deforestation, which this year rose to its
highest level since 2008.
A campaign group has accused lead-
ing banks, including Barclays, Santan-
der and HSBC, of failing to carry out
adequate checks before servicing or
financing JBS and other Brazilian beef
traders linked to deforestation.
Global Witness said that its analysis
of satellite images, industry records and
other data had revealed illegal defores-
tation of more than 500 square miles
since 2008 on ranches supplying JBS,
Marfrig and Minerva.
Well-known banks had provided
£3 billion of finance to the companies
between 2017 and 2019, it added.
The banks “failed to do meaningful
due diligence on their exposure to this
deforestation, and continue backing
the companies today despite many
warnings of their failures”, the group
said. It also accused the auditors Grant
Thornton and DNV-GL, which carried‘Chicken’ grown in a vat
may be on the menu soon
taken from feathers. The cells are then
introduced into a 1,200-litre “bioreac-
tor”, a vat containing a culture in which
the cells grow. The resulting mush can
be combined with other products,
including plant extracts, to influence
texture and flavour.
Apart from avoiding the killing of
animals, the industrial setting elimi-
nates the need for antibiotics and the
risk of faecal disease such as E. coli,
which can proliferate in farms.
Scores of companies around the
world are developing lab-grown fish,
beef and chicken for consumption by
pets as well as humans. Barclays esti-
mated that the cultured meat market
could be worth $140 billion by the end
of the decade.
Scientists at the University of Bath
said last year that they had successfully
grown animal cells on blades of grass,
which could be developed into
cultured meat in a similar fashion to
Eat Just’s chicken. The researchers es-
timated it would take five years to scale
up their work to commercial levels.
Mr Tetrick said that “lab-chicken”
was a misnomer. “The meat we’re mak-
ing is created in large cultivators or
bioreactors that, in time, will resemble
a beer brewery,” he told The Straits
Times in Singapore. “Lab-made is a red
herring and has an inherently negative
connotation. Many of the foods we eat
and enjoy every day, including most
processed foods, start in a lab setting
and are scaled up and commercialised.”Morrisons drops beef firm
over deforestation claims
Ben Webster Environment EditorRichard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor
out assessments of the companies, of
“failing to flag a vast number of cases of
sourcing from deforested areas”.
Chris Moye, of Global Witness, said
that the auditors, financiers and retail-
ers involved “cannot plead ignorance
— backing beef supply chains in the
middle of the Amazon is a predictably
high-risk business, especially when you
are dealing with companies with very
poor environmental track records”.
He added: “If your business is failing
to do proper due diligence and profiting
from these meat traders’ destructive
practices, you are part of the problem.”
JBS said that the Global Witness
investigation was flawed and it “did not
make any irregular cattle purchases”.
Minerva said that the ranches on its
database were “fully compliant with
sustainability criteria”.
Marfrig told Global Witness that the
deforestation on ranches it purchased
from had taken place before it had
made a commitment in 2009 not to
contribute to deforestation.
Sainsbury’s said it was working with
Global Witness to tackle deforestation.
HSBC said that it had set minimum
standards for cattle farming and “regu-
larly assesses its clients for commit-
ment to sustainable business practices”.
Santander said that it was committed
to tackling deforestation.
DNV-GL said that it had not certified
any of the companies as “deforestation
free”. Grant Thornton told Global
Witness that its assessment of a
deforestation commitment by Minerva
complied with the Brazilian standard.
Princes said that it took the issues
seriously.How the process works
Stem cells are
collected from a
chicken’s feather
and placed in a
nutrient-dense
liquidThe cells and
nutrient feed are
placed in a
bioreactor
where cell mass
grows and
proliferates1
2
Meat containing
fat and muscle is
produced3
T
he architect
Norman Foster
has withdrawn
his firm from
an industry
commitment on climate
change in a dispute over
his work on airports
(Ben Webster writes).
Lord Foster of Thames
Bank issued a statement
supporting aviation and
suggesting that those
calling for restrictions
because of emissions
were trying to “wind the
clock backwards”.
His firm, Foster &
Partners was one of
more than 1,000 that
signed up to
Architects Declare, a
not-for-profit
initiative launched
last year in
response to
the “twin
crises of
climate
change and
biodiversity
loss”.
Signatories
promised to
help tackle
climate
change,
including by
evaluating
“all newprojects
against the
aspiration to
contribute
positively to
mitigating
climate
breakdown”,
and
encouraging
clients to do
the same.
In July
Architects
ClimateAction Network called
on Foster & Partners to
pull out of designing a
new airport for Amaala,
a luxury resort in Saudi
Arabia, or resign as a
signatory of Architects
Declare.
In a letter to Foster &
Partners, Britain’s
largest architecture
firm, the group said that
“UK architecture
practices should not be
working to expandaviation in the midst of
this climate emergency”.
Lord Foster, 85, who
still leads the firm he
founded in 1967, said in
his statement, first
reported by Architects’
Journal, that aviation
needed sustainable
infrastructure and that
“unlike Architects
Declare we are
committed to address
that need”.
“The hallmark of ourage, and the future of
our globally connected
world, is mobility.
Mobility of people,
goods and information,”
he said. “You cannot
wind the clock
backwards.”
His design for Queen
Alia airport in Jordan
was awarded a carbon
neutrality rating in 2018,
he said, and airlines
were making progress in
cutting emissions.
“The airliners that
serve terminals such as
Queen Alia will
continue their present
trajectory of going
further, more safely and
more quietly, with
less fuel and
further
reductions in
carbon
footprint,”
he said.
“The
creation of
non-fossil
fuel
alternatives
is already a
reality.”
Architects
Declare said:
“We are
disappointed that
Foster & Partners has
chosen to withdraw
from the declarations
and we would welcome a
conversation with them.”Foster lets
fly after he
pulls out of
climate pact
Regular service
2023 Kuwait expansion
2023 Amaala, a resort in
Saudi ArabiaSTEFAN LIPPMANN/GETTY IMAGES,
more quiet
less fuel
furthe
redu
car
foo
he
“T
c
n
fu
al
is a
real
Ar
DDeclar
““““We are
ddddisappointed
Foster & Partn
2023 Kuwait expansion chosen to withNorman Foster’s practice
has designed airports all
over the world, including:
1991 Stansted
1998 Hong Kong
2008 Beijing Capital
2013 Queen Alia, Jordan
2020 Tocumen, Panama
2022 Red Sea, Saudi
ArabiaQueen Alia airport, Jordan,
and Beijing Capital airport
are among those designed
by Norman Foster, who is
working for Saudi Arabia