Cell based meat- an opinion piece
In recent years there has been a new form of meat production that has been gaining recognition, and that is cell-based or clean meat. Clean meat is meat made in a lab instead of meat that is taken from an animal on a farm. It’s however being questioned on if it is truly meat, or if it is any good as a whole. Many are off put by the idea of this meat due to the fact that it is grown in a lab, and that is something that we haven’t seen or heard of before. There is however many upsides of this clean meat as it helps us with things like: our health, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare. I feel like clean meat will in all honesty be in the future whether you like it or not. It is something that will be big and even if you aren’t a fan of the ideas behind it you have to acknowledge that it is truly a big thing and does have more pros than cons in the long run. In this I’ll explore why someone might be more in favor of clean meat then in regular farm grown meat.
In recent studies there has been proof of it’s positive impacts on our health one of those being from the National Library of Medicine: “...therefore without any potential contamination at slaughter, cultured muscle cells do not have the same opportunity to encounter intestinal pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella or Campylobacter…” (The Myth of Cultured Meat: A Review - PMC, Health and Safety, 1). This shows that unlike reguarly sourced meats, clean meat is less likely to give an illness that could negatively impact your health. The fact that it is less likely that people will get illness means that people with weak immune systems can still enjoy meat and have a less likely chance of getting harmed or sent to the hospital. E. coli is an illness normally found in ground beef that can cause diaherra and vomiting but also low fevers. It results in 61 deaths annually and is a common cause of kidney failure in children. Salmonella is most commonly found in poultry products and is commonly shown with symptoms like vomiting and fever with cramps. It results in 450 deaths per year in the USA. Campylobacter is an illness that has symptoms such as fatigue and fever, it resulted in 170 per year in the USA. An article from CNN shares this sentiment on how it can impact human health positively: “...cultivated meat producers don’t expect to use antibiotics — or at least large amounts — cultivated meat could also alleviate the antibiotic resistance problem among humans…” (Eating meat without slaughtering animals may be in our future | CNN, A panacea for hearth and health, 14). This resistance to antibiotics in humans has been in an all time high due how common the antibiotics are found in the meat that we eat. In a single year in the USA alone there are 2 million people who are resistant to antibiotics due to this and 99,000 die every year due to it. The amount of people who die globally due to the fact that their body now resisting antibiotics being around 4.95 million per year. The resistance to antibiotics is a global issue and clean meat might be a way to help solve it as it would include little to no antibiotics in it and since it would be as common in our food are bodies wouldn’t be able to build a resistance to it. This would help decrease the amount that people die due to antibitotic resistance which is 35,000 per year globally. It is also known that the Food and Drug administration or the FDA has deemed eating clean meat as safe, as stated in this artcicle by Food Safety Magazine: “In November 2022, the USA Food and Drug administration (FDA) ruled that cultivated chicken cells, produced by the method described in the CCC 000002, were safe for human consumption…” (Feature-Category | June/July 2023 | Food Safety Magazine ). The FDA is a government agency made back in 1906 under The Pure Food and Drug act under Theodore Roosevelt during his second term as president. It’s job is to ensure the safety of food products provided for public consumption so the fact that it green lit the consumption of clean meat shows that it truly won’t do us much harm if we ate it.
Environmental sustainability
Many worry that clean meat is more harmful on the environment then animal farming is which is a valid concern but ultimately untrue as it is actually less of a strain on the environment. In an article by FoodDive it states: “Cell-based meat could cause up to 92% less global warming, 93% less air pollution and use up to 95% less land and 78% less water compared to conventional beef production…” (Cell-based meat has huge environmental benefits and could be at price parity by 2030, reports say | Food Dive, Dive Brief, 1). This means that with the use of clean meat we can actually in ways overcome climate change. In one year a single cow will produce 220 pounds of methane which is worsening the environment. Methane is over a 20 year period 80% better at containing heat then carbon dioxide and makes up about 30% of the global warming crisis since pre industrialization and it is only been adding up since then. In terms of water production it takes about 1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. It only takes 72 gallons of water to produce one pound of clean beef which shows which of the two is most sustainable long term and easier on the environment. The positives don’t end at lessening the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted or the amount of water used it also helps the biodiversity in the ocean. In an article by foodbev.com it states: “And the benefits do not stop at meat. Growing cultured fish and seafood products could substantially help protect seas and marine wildlife.” (The impact of cell-based meat on the environment: Could it be detrimental? - FoodBev Media, Marine wildlife and sea protection, 1). This shows how it will positively impact a global crisis that is overfishing and the rapid decline in fish populations around the world. There are over 400 marine species that are critically endangered and at high risk of excintion due to overfishing, and we now have a way to enjoy the fish meat and not harm the actual fish. Most of our fishing industry is resulting in a massive problem for fish and in a few years there might not even be enough fish to fish. The fish industry produces about 50 million tons or 100,000,000,000 pounds of fish meat waste per year which shows just how much we need an alternative because we are producing so much waste and the wildlife doesn’t have enough time to regrow and replenish in order to compensate for our rapid taking. Clean meat could be that alternative because it doesn’t involve the slaughtering of fish as it uses murplication of an animals stem cells in order to produce meat. In a the good food institute article it states: “The LCA shows that cultivated meat, when produced using renewable energy, reduces the cumulative environmental impacts of conventional beef by approximately 93%, pork by 53%, and chicken by 29%. In these scenarios, the conventional products are also produced using renewable energy.” (New studies further the case for cultivated meat over conventional meat in the race to net-zero emissions, 6). The numbers for conventional harvesting of these meats are: beef; 3823.86, pork; 847.13, and chicken; 572.49. For clean meat it looks a little bit more like this, beef; 3556.19, pork; 448.98, and chicken; 166.02 all rounded to the hundredths place. While these are big numbers still this doesn’t mean that we can act as though they aren’t improvements of our current problem.
Of course this isn’t a perfect fix so we do have several issues that need to be addressed since I am singing it’s praises. One of the biggest issues with clean meat is that it could put many meat farmers out of a job. As stated by MasalaMonk: “Loss of livelihood: The rise of lab-grown meat could impact traditional farmers and the livestock industry.” (Lab-Grown Meat: Pros, Cons, and Potential Applications - Masala Monk, Cons of Lab-Grown Meat, 5). This concern is a valid one but this new field will make even more jobs and any form of expansion in one field could lead to the loss of jobs for others. People are already eating less meat as a whole because in 1975, Americans alone ate 90 pounds of meat every year but now that number is around 57 pounds per year. The fact that clean meat will be available also doesn’t mean that everybody will be eating it and it doesn’t provide things like wool. Clean meat won’t be the thing that puts animal farmers completely out of business as they could always start to grow plants and can still produce things like eggs, milk, and wool which is something that clean meat facilities can’t make. These items are still in high demand with eggs growing with the ever increasing population. Another problem with clean meat is that it costs a lot of money to make, in a post by SentientMedia it states: “Lab-grown protein is costly to scale and more funding — both government and private — is needed to create a viable industry.” (Why Do Some Critics Still Call It Lab-Grown Meat?, Why Do Some Crtics Dislike Lab-Grown Meat, 1). This is a pitiful attempt at making this new way of producing meat seem to costly as the original way was more expensive. In 2021 the meat industry received 897 billion US dollars and it is excepted to keep receiving more money as time progresses with only 100 million dollars going to clean meat production and 700 million going into cellular agriculture as a whole which is about 800 million dollars which is about 896.2 billion dollars less then the conventional meat industry.
The clean meat industry is in ways also more ethical then the convetional meat industry due to how it doesn’ t murder any animals in order to produce meat. In a FAQ by four-paws international it states: “In cultivated beef production, one single donor animal could replace 400 cattle over its lifespan20.” (FAQs about Cultivated Meat - FOUR PAWS International - Animal Welfare Organisation, What is the benefit for the animals). This shows that this new method of producing meat could help lessen the slaughter of such animals as they now only need the stems cells from one animal to make meat instead of slaughtering many animals for the same amount. In one year alone 2.81 million cows are slaughtered then 28,100 calves, 10.1 million pigs, 197,500 sheep, and 9.3 billion chickens. This adds up to about 9,313,135,600 animals per year in the USA alone. This new process of meat production could help us dramatically lessen thus amount of animals we are killing every year for meat alone. In an article made by the national health organization it states: “The main potential benefit of “cultured meat” is theoretically to produce huge amounts of muscle from a small number of animal cells, either from farm animals or from cell lines, which proliferate in giant incubators. Thus, this process is likely to use much fewer animals to produce a lot of meat.” (Is “cultured meat” a viable alternative to slaughtering animals and a good comprise between animal welfare and human expectations? - PMC, Issues regarding Animal Welfare, 1). This shows how exactly this alternative version of meat production even works as it takes a few cells and puts them through a process in which the cells are in incubators that cause them to multiply and results in them making a piece of meat.
Even though clean meat is a more recent thing in our history it could truly be a step in the right direction for all of us as it tackles many serious issues with conventional meat production. It gives us a way to deal with how much greenhouse gases that conventional meat produces while also letting us still have meat in total as it is truly meat. It also could help us lessen the amount of people getting ill from meat every year and lessen the amount antibiotic resistance. It also is able to keep animals out of the slaughter house as they no longer have to be killed in order to obtain meat. Of course it isn’t a perfect process because it could lead to problems like an influx of unemployment and it is very costly but isn’t all things worth while like that? In summary the upsides of clean meat is out weighing the cons and I can see this new way of meat production eventually being the new norm instead of conventional meat farming.
