As years pass, the more problematic the future of our Earth becomes. Factors such as climate change and overpopulation have incredibly detrimental effects on our Earth. Whether it’s abnormal weather, loss of biodiversity, or malnutrition, it’s no surprise that our current situation is worrisome. In this article, we will be discussing the implications in-vitro meat could have in our future.
What is in-vitro meat?
It is important to create an understanding of what in vitro-meat is to better understand its implications for our future.
In-vitro meat, also known as cultured meat, doesn’t require the slaughtering of animals for its production; instead, it is meat produced by cell culture technology which includes little to no animal involvement (Kumar et al. 635).
In-vitro/cultured meat is produced by two methods: the self-organizing technique, and scaffold-based technique.
Self-Organizing Technique
This technique uses the explant of the donor animal which will proliferate over time in a nutrient medium (Sharma et al. 7600).
Scaffold-Based Technique
In this technique, the stem cells harvested from the donor animal are proliferated on a carrier known as a scaffold with the presence of a culture medium in a bioreactor (Sharma et al. 7600-7601)
It is well-known that the meat industry faces huge amounts of ethical concerns such as animal welfare and its environmental impacts. This has led researchers to further explore alternatives to the current processes in themeat industry.
According to the United Nations (UN), the world’s population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by the year 2050. This rapid increase raises concerns about how food industries will provide enough food to sustain us and the environment. Environmentally speaking, the current meat industry is unsustainable. A review article in the journal ‘Atmosphere’ reports that livestock generates 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Keren Doplelt, a senior lecturer and the head of the Ethics Committee in the Department of Public Health at Ashkelon Academic College, and her colleagues report that livestock already takes up one-third of our world’s land and that approximately 40% of our harvested crops are used to feed livestock – if we take half of what we use to feed livestock, the problem of world hunger could be solved. Considering the detrimental effects our current meat industry has, we can expect more greenhouse gas emissions, and more land getting cleared for livestock purposes in the times to come, leading to the loss of biodiversity as their habitats are destroyed.
After grasping the idea of how the current meat industry can be harmful to our future, this begs the question: how does in-vitro meat/cultured meat affect our future?
In-vitro meat is one of the most well-known alternatives for our current meat industry due to its sustainability. An article published by the University of Oxford mentioned Hanna Tuomisto, a researcher and associate professor in sustainable food systems, in which she reported that “cultured meat could potentially be produced with up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat”. Considering the evidence Tuomisto reported, our environment could benefit significantly by converting to in-vitro meat.
Other than in-vitro meat being sustainable to the environment, it is vital to discuss its impact on animals. Animal cruelty is a huge topic that is often talked about in the meat industry. Compassion in World Farming, a campaign whose objective is to reduce the suffering of farmed animals, described that factory-farmed animals are cramped together, creating a great breeding ground for bacteria. It is easy for animals to inflict injuries on each other, which can lead to mutilating the animals to prevent injuries between them, and oftentimes, the mutilation is carried out without pain relief. They also enlighten the fact that animals develop health problems due to selective breeding and concentrated feed to make them grow faster. It is concluded that factory farms are unethical towards animals. However, it is also vital to understand how factory farms can affect us, humans, too.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) discussed the health risks of the meat industry, such as how factory farms generate extremely toxic waste that is often dumped in lagoons or sprayed on fields, intoxicating the local air and water. Poor waste management can cause illness in humans, whether from dangerous bacteria such as E. coli or salmonella, or just from an extremely unhealthy environment.
Fortunately, as mentioned before, in-vitro meat requires little to no animal involvement, decreasing animal cruelty in the meat industry which makes it more ethical.
In conclusion, considering the environmental and ethical perspectives of in-vitro meat and our current meat industry, it is proven that in-vitro meat is a much more sustainable alternative than factory farming which is unethical and extremely detrimental to our environment and can become a huge problem in the future as climate change is an extremely worrisome topic.
Despite in-vitro meat’s beneficial implications, it should be acknowledged that its cost of it makes up for its limitation. In fact, the first cultured beef burger was created by Mark Post in 2013 and costs approximately 330,000 US dollars, while Singapore’s first-lab-grown chicken is reported by Just Eat that it costs approximately 50 US dollars to create one chicken nugget. However, over time, as our technology further develops, it can be expected for the price of in-vitro meat to reduce to a more affordable price.
Works Cited
“Animal Cruelty” Compassion in World Farming, https://www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farming/animal-cruelty.
Cheng, Muxi, et al. “Climate Change and Livestock Production: A Literature Review” Atmosphere 2022 vol. 13 no. 1, 15 Jan. 2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13010140.
Dopelt, Keren, et al. “Environmental Effects of the Livestock Industry: The Relationship between Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior among Students in Israel” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health vol. 16 no. 8, 16 Apr. 2019, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081359.
Kumar, Pavan, et al. “In-vitro meat: a promising solution for sustainability of meat sector” Journal of Animal Science and Technology vol. 63 no. 4, 31 Jul. 2021, pp. 693-724, https://doi.org/10.5187/jast.2021.e85.
“Lab-grown meat would ‘cut emissions and save energy’” University of Oxford, 21 Jun. 2011, https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2011-06-21-lab-grown-meat-would-cut-emissions-and-save-energy.
“Other Health Risks of the Meat Industry” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/health-risks-meat-industry/.
Phua, Rachel. “Lab-grown chicken dishes to sell for S$23 at private members’ club 1880 next month” Channel News Asia, 21 Dec. 2020, https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/lab-grown-chicken-nuggets-1880-eat-just-price-customers-495251.
Sharma, Shruti, et al. “In vitro meat production system: why and how?” Journal of Food Science and Technology vol. 52 no. 12, 31 Jul. 2015, pp. 7599–7607, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-015-1972-3.
“World’s first lab-grown burger is eaten in London” British Broadcasting Corporation News, 5 Aug. 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23576143.
“World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100” United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100.
— Writer Khwanchanok Paka-Akaralerdkul can be reached at jiajiakhwanchanok@gmail.com. Follow her on instagram @jiajiakp and Facebook Khwanchanok Paka-Akaralerdkul.
— Edited by Culture Editor Rie Aiyama who can be reached at riai@patana.ac.th. Follow her on instagram @rieaiyama.
