Time - USA (2021-11-08)

77

people are like me. So I wanted to make the choice for
those people easier, to be able to keep on eating meat
without all the negative externalities.”
Even as it sets out to change everything about meat
production, cellular agriculture, as the nascent industry
is called, will in theory change nothing about meat con-
sumption. This presents a tantalizing opportunity for in-
vestors, who have thrown nearly $1 billion at cultivated-
meat companies over the past six years. Participating in
the high- profile stampede to invest in the in-
dustry: Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Warren
Buffett and Leonardo DiCaprio. Plant-based
burger companies such as Impossible and Be-
yond already paved the way by proving that
the market wants meat alternatives. Cellular
agriculture promises to up that game, provid-
ing the exact same experience as meat, not a
pea- protein facsimile.
While private investment has been vital
for getting the industry off the ground, it is
not enough given the immense benefits that
the technology could provide the world were
it developed at large scale, says Friedrich of
the Good Food Institute. Cultivated- meat pro-
duction could have as much impact on the climate crisis
as solar power and wind energy, he argues. “Just like re-
newable energy and electric vehicles have been success-
ful because of government policies, we need the same
government support for cultivated meat.”
In the meantime, regulatory approval helps. In
December 2020, GOOD Meat, the cultivated- meat
division of California- based food- technology company
Eat Just Inc., was granted regulatory approval to sell

its chicken product to the public in Singapore, a global

first. Later that month, a tasting restaurant for cell-based

chicken produced by Israeli startup SuperMeat opened

in Israel. Cultivated meat could be a $25 billion global

industry by 2030, accounting for as much as 0.5% of the

global meat supply, according to a new report from con-

sulting firm McKinsey & Co. But to get there, many tech-

nological, economic and social hurdles must be tackled

before cultivated cutlets fully replace their predecessors

on supermarket shelves.

When AustriAn food-trends analyst

Hanni Rützler appeared onstage to taste Mark

Post’s burger at its public debut in London,

on Aug. 5, 2013, her biggest fear was that it

might taste so bad she would spit it out on

the live video broadcast. But once the burger

started sizzling in the pan and the familiar

scent of browning meat hit her nose, she re-

laxed. “It was closer to the original than I

even expected,” she says. At the tasting, she

pronounced it “close to meat, but not that

juicy.” That was to be expected, says Mosa

co-founder, COO and food technologist Peter

Verstrate—the burger was 100% lean meat. And without

fat, burgers don’t work. In fact, without fat, he says, you’d

be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a piece

of beef and a cut of lamb. Fat isn’t necessarily harder to

create than muscle. It’s just that as with protein cells, get-

ting the process right is time- consuming, and Verstrate

and Post prioritized protein. The technology itself is rel-

atively straightforward and has been used for years in the

pharmaceutical industry to manufacture insulin from

A half-gram

of cow muscle

could create

4.4 billion lb. of

beef—more than

Mexico’s yearly

consumption