76 Time November 8/November 15, 2021
companies have allowed journalists in for fear of risks
to intellectual property. Mosa Meat granted TIME ex-
clusive access to its labs and scientists so the process can
be better understood by the general public.
Livestock raised for food directly contributes 5.8% of
the world’s annual greenhouse- gas emissions, and up to
14.5% if feed production, processing and transportation
are included, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization. Industrial animal agriculture, particularly
for beef, drives deforestation, and cows emit methane
during digestion and nitrous oxide with their manure,
greenhouse gases 25 and 298 times more potent than
carbon dioxide, respectively, over a 100-year period.
In 2019, the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate
Change issued a special report calling for a reduction
in global meat consumption. The report found that re-
ducing the use of fossil fuels alone would not be enough
to keep planetary temperature averages from going be-
yond 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, at which point the
floods, droughts and forest fires we are already starting
to see will negatively impact agriculture, reducing arable
land while driving up costs. Yet global demand for meat
is set to nearly double by 2050, according to the World
Resources Institute (WRI), as growing economies in de-
veloping nations usher the poor into the meat- eating
middle class.
Growing meat in a bioreactor may seem like an ex-
pensive overcorrection when just reducing beef intake
in high- consuming nations by 1.5 hamburgers per week,
per person, could achieve significant climate gains, ac-
cording to the WRI. But denying pleasure, even in the
pursuit of a global good, is rarely an effective way to
drive change. Earlier this year the U.N. published the
largest ever opinion poll on climate change, canvassing
1.2 million residents of 50 countries. Nearly two-thirds
of the respondents view the issue as a “global emer-
gency.” Nonetheless, few favored plant-based diets as
a solution. “For 50 years, climate activists, global health
experts and animal- welfare groups have been begging
people to eat less meat, but per capita consumption is
higher than ever,” says Bruce Friedrich, head of the Good
Food Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting meat
alternatives. The reason? It tastes too good, he says. “Our
bodies are programmed to crave the dense calories. Un-
fortunately, current production methods are devastat-
ing for our climate and biodiversity, so it’s a steep price
we’re paying for these cravings.” The best solution, says
Friedrich, is meat alternatives that cost the same or less,
and taste the same or better. Melke and her fellow sci-
entists at Mosa say they are getting very close.
According to Mark Post, the Dutch scientist who
midwifed the first lab-grown hamburger into exis-
tence, and who co-founded Mosa Meat in 2015, one
half-gram biopsy of cow muscle could in theory create
up to 4.4 billion lb. of beef—more than what Mexico con-
sumes in a year. For the moment, however, Mosa Meat
is aiming for 15,000 lb., or 80,000 hamburgers, per bi-
opsy. Even by those modest metrics, Farmer John’s little
herd could supply about 10% of the Netherlands’ annual
beef consumption. Eventually, says Post, we would need
only some 30,000 to 40,000 cows worldwide, instead
of the 300 million we slaughter every year, without the
environmental and moral consequences of large-scale
intensive cattle farming. “I admire vegetarians and veg-
ans who are disciplined enough to take action on their
principles,” says Post. “But I can’t give up meat, and mostC S G
Mosa Meat
has recruited
a global
team of lab
technicians
and biologists
to develop,
build and run
its scaled-up
operations.
From left:
Rui Hueber,
Laura
Jackisch
and Josias
Tenkamdjo
Mouafo