Cultured Meat: A Kinder, Greener Way to Produce the Burgers and Steaks We Love

Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown meat or clean meat, refers to meat that is produced by culturing animal cells in a growth medium outside of the animal. It is meant to provide an alternative to conventional meat produced by slaughtering animals.

Some key things to know about cultured meat:

• It aims to mimic the taste, texture, appearance and nutritional profile of conventional meat. Cells are taken from an animal through a biopsy and grown in a culturing environment.
• It does not require raising and slaughtering animals, so proponents say it reduces animal suffering, is better for the environment, and avoids health risks associated with some conventional meat.
• It is not yet commercially available, but several companies have been working on developing and scaling up production methods. It remains a very expensive process.
• It is still a new technology with ongoing research. Questions remain about taste, cost, scaling, and regulation before it can become mainstream.
• Some see it as a promising innovation that could transform the meat industry, while others are skeptical of its technical and economic feasibility.
• Its sustainability depends on factors like production methods, energy use, and nutrition. More life cycle analyses are needed.

Cultured meat has potential advantages but still faces challenges. There are open debates about its benefits and drawbacks compared to conventional meat. Its role in the future food system remains to be seen. My role is to provide perspective on the key considerations rather than make a judgment. What are your thoughts on cultured meat?

In a recent interview Josh Tetrick, the founder of East Just, laid out the advantages and the future of cultured food.

• Tetrick started Eat Just to find a better way to produce meat without harming animals or the environment.
• Eat Just makes plant-based egg substitutes from mung beans and cultivated meat grown from animal cells. Their cultured chicken was the first approved for sale in Singapore in 2020.
• Tetrick believes consumers will switch to cultured meat if it tastes better, makes them feel good and costs the same or less than conventional meat.
• Scaling up cultured meat requires bioreactors that can produce large volumes cost-effectively. Eat Just is designing a new 200,000-liter bioreactor since none exist yet at that size.
• Tetrick aims to make Eat Just meat ubiquitous so it becomes part of people's daily habits rather than a niche product for special occasions.

Consumers today increasingly face a dilemma when deciding what to eat. They want food that tastes delicious, makes them feel good and is affordable. Yet much of the meat that dominates diets worldwide comes from processes that raise ethical concerns around animal welfare and environmental sustainability.

Josh Tetrick, CEO and co-founder of food technology company Eat Just, sees a solution: cultured meat grown directly from animal cells, without the need to raise and slaughter animals. After over a decade of building his company, Tetrick may be on the cusp of making this alternative meat go mainstream.

A More Humane, Sustainable Way to Make Meat

The revelations that set Tetrick on his current path trace back over 15 years. A conversation with a college friend first opened his eyes to the immense scale of animal agriculture. Tetrick learned that feeding the world's demand for meat uses over a third of the planet's land to grow livestock feed. Billions of animals are confined in crowded conditions before being processed into the chicken breasts, hamburgers and other products lining grocery store coolers.

The model seemed unsustainable, but Tetrick kept eating conventionally produced meat. His perspective shifted during subsequent nonprofit work in sub-Saharan Africa. Seeing firsthand the challenges of poverty and food insecurity, he became determined to use business to drive positive change on a global level.

Tetrick envisioned a world where meat could be made without needing to clear rainforests for livestock feed, pump animals full of antibiotics or subject them to inhumane treatment. He co-founded Eat Just in 2011 to commercialize meat made by culturing animal cells. The process starts with a sample of cells from a chicken or cow. The cells are fed nutrients to proliferate rapidly, while sensors and computer controls recreate conditions like those inside an animal.

Cultured meat, also called cultivated meat or cell-based meat, offers advantages beyond animal welfare. The process promises to use far less water, emit fewer greenhouse gases and avoid the foodborne illnesses originating from slaughterhouses. Products can be customized for enhanced nutrition, such as lower saturated fat.

Early Traction Shows Promise

Eat Just initially focused on plant-based egg substitutes, launching the mung bean-based JUST Egg in 2018. Now sold in stores nationwide, JUST Egg was the fastest growing egg brand in the U.S. as of 2020. The success showed mainstream demand for alternatives aligned with changing consumer values.

In 2020, Eat Just gained the first regulatory approval to sell cultured meat, debuting cultured chicken bites in a Singapore restaurant. Early feedback has Tetrick bullish on adoption once production scales up. In Singapore consumer surveys, more than 80% of diners said they would substitute cultured meat in place of conventional in their diets. Adoption seems quickest with younger generations who care more about sustainability.

Tetrick believes cultured meat hits the three factors that matter most to consumers: taste, how eating it makes them feel, and cost. Singapore diners considered the taste on par with conventional chicken. The sustainable production method evokes positive emotions. And Eat Just aims to eventually match or undercut traditional meat prices after scaling production.

Scaling Cultured Meat with Custom Bioreactors

Producing cultured meat affordably requires bioreactors to grow cells—stainless steel vats providing nutrients and ideal growing conditions. But the industry's need for massive 200,000-liter bioreactors outstrips supply, since units this large are not used in pharmaceutical or other applications.

Eat Just is partnering with an engineering firm to design these custom bioreactors. They aim to drive down the cultured meat production cost from its 2020 level of about $50 per pound. Tetrick notes how the first flat screen TVs cost over $10,000 before prices rapidly fell. He expects similar trends as more players enter the cultured meat market and production technology improves.

Affordability unlocks the full potential, as plant-based alternatives have shown. While early veggie burgers appealed mostly to vegans and vegetarians, mass-market brands like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods now try to match the taste, texture and juiciness of beef. Their products have gained shelf space in thousands of grocery stores and fast food restaurants, tapping into a much larger pool of meat-eating customers.

Cultured Dairy and Seafood Coming Soon

Beyond cultured meat, Eat Just develops animal-free foods across other categories. Last year the company released JUST Egg Folded, an omelette-style product. More variations on egg alternatives are in the pipeline, along with cultured versions of dairy milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese. Eat Just also works on cultured seafood, starting with fish maw made from cells harvested from yellow croaker fish.

While vegetarians welcome more choices, Tetrick stresses the bigger opportunity to convert meat eaters. He envisions a day when the meat aisles in stores and menus in restaurants contain mostly or entirely cultured options. People will view slaughtering animals to make meat as antiquated and unethical as medical treatments from centuries ago like bloodletting.

To reach that future, Eat Just focuses on commercialization and scale. "The single biggest thing that we need to do in order to make this happen is to design and engineer a stainless-steel bioreactor that can handle 200,000 liters," Tetrick explains. He compares today's small-volume production to the early days of electric vehicles before ramping up manufacturing lowered costs.

Affordable pricing will drive consumer adoption beyond early adopters concerned about sustainability. Tetrick aims to make cultured meat "ubiquitous so it becomes part of people's daily habits rather than a niche product for special occasions." Replacing a significant portion of conventional meat with kinder and greener alternatives would transform the global food system.