The Future of Meat?

Diners were recently chowing down on crispy chicken and waffles and chicken bao, a traditional Chinese dish, at a restaurant in Singapore. But there was something different about this meal: The meat didn’t come from chickens on a farm. In fact, it was never part of a living, breathing organism—at least not in the way we usually think about these things. Instead, it was created in petri dishes in a lab.

It may sound like science fiction, but meat made from animal cells—called cultured meat or lab-grown meat—may soon be headed to your plate. In October, the San Francisco-based start-up Eat Just became the first company in the world to gain approval to sell a lab-grown meat product to customers. The approval came from the city-state of Singapore—where two months later, the restaurant 1880 became the first ever to serve lab-grown meat, in the form of chicken nuggets.

So far, Singapore is the only place to have approved a lab-grown meat product for sale, but cultured meat has been under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture for the past two years. And experts say it might not be long before Americans begin seeing lab-grown meat in supermarkets and restaurants.

“This is huge,” Chase Purdy, author of Billion Dollar Burger, a book on the lab-grown meat industry, says about the approval in Singapore. “It takes these moments where something goes from being science fiction to a possibility for us to actually begin the hard work of truly thinking, ‘OK, what does this technology mean?’”

Diners were recently chowing down at a restaurant in Singapore. They ate crispy chicken and waffles and chicken bao, a traditional Chinese dish. But there was something different about this meal: The meat didn’t come from chickens on a farm. In fact, it was never part of what we consider a living, breathing organism. Instead, it was created in petri dishes in a lab.

It may sound like science fiction, but meat made from animal cells may soon be headed to your plate. It’s called cultured meat or lab-grown meat. In October, a San Francisco-based start-up called Eat Just became the first company in the world to gain approval to sell a lab-grown meat product to customers. The approval came from the city-state of Singapore. Two months later, a restaurant there named 1880 became the first ever to serve lab-grown meat. The dish was served up in the form of chicken nuggets.

So far, Singapore is the only place to have approved a lab-grown meat product for sale. But cultured meat has been under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture for the past two years. And experts say it might not be long before Americans begin seeing lab-grown meat in supermarkets and restaurants.

“This is huge,” Chase Purdy, author of Billion Dollar Burger, a book on the lab-grown meat industry, says about the approval in Singapore. “It takes these moments where something goes from being science fiction to a possibility for us to actually begin the hard work of truly thinking, ‘OK, what does this technology mean?’”

Eat Just’s chief executive, Josh Tetrick, hopes it means a more humane and environmentally friendly way of producing meat. Cultured meat is made from stem cells, which can turn into different types of tissue, like muscle. The cells are collected from animals without harming them and then given nutrients to grow inside a container (see “From Lab to Table,” below).

“My hope,” he says, “is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”

Meat, which is high in protein and other nutrients, has long been a staple of the U.S. diet, and in 2018 Americans consumed more than 220 pounds of red meat and poultry on average, according to the Department of Agriculture. In many parts of the nation, livestock farming is a huge part of the economy. But there has also been a growing pushback against meat production by animal rights groups and many scientists over concerns about animal welfare and the environment.

Globally, tens of billions of land animals are killed each year to satisfy demand for meat. And animal rights advocates have accused many industrial farms of keeping livestock in inhumane, cramped spaces.

Eat Just’s chief executive, Josh Tetrick, hopes it means a more humane and environmentally friendly way of producing meat. Cultured meat is made from stem cells. These cells can turn into different types of tissue, like muscle. The cells are collected from animals without harming them. Then they’re put inside a container and given nutrients to grow (see “From Lab to Table,” below).

“My hope,” he says, “is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree.”

Meat is high in protein and other nutrients. It has been a staple of the U.S. diet for a long time. In 2018, Americans consumed more than 220 pounds of red meat and poultry on average, according to the Department of Agriculture. In many parts of the nation, livestock farming is a huge part of the economy. But there has also been a growing pushback against meat production by animal rights groups and many scientists. They’ve raised concerns about animal welfare and the environment.

Globally, tens of billions of land animals are killed each year to satisfy demand for meat. And animal rights advocates have accused many industrial farms of keeping livestock in inhumane, cramped spaces.

Scientists say meat production also takes a toll on the environment and climate. Making one quarter-pound hamburger, for instance, uses up almost 7 pounds of crop feed, 75 square feet of land, and nearly 53 gallons of water, according to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science.

Livestock also accounts for about 14.5 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations (U.N.). A big reason is that as the animals digest food, they belch up methane—a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

Farmers and ranchers have been working for years to make beef production more efficient. And the U.S. now produces more beef while raising fewer cattle than it did 45 years ago.

Still, according to a recent U.N. report, if more people worldwide were to reduce their meat consumption, it would go a long way to protecting the planet (see “Diet & Climate,” below). Recently, many people have started turning to meatless alternatives. Burger King, for example, now partners with Impossible Foods to sell a plant-based “hamburger,” and Dunkin’ Donuts has teamed up with Beyond Meat to offer a meatless “sausage” breakfast sandwich. (The meat industry has objected to calling them hamburgers and sausages.)

But some have wondered whether we could still eat meat without having to raise and kill so many animals. Enter cultured meat. It was first introduced in 2013, when a lab-grown burger was cooked and served onstage at a demonstration in London. Now dozens of companies around the globe are racing to get their cultured meat products on the market.

Scientists say meat production also takes a toll on the environment and climate. For instance, making one quarter-pound hamburger uses up almost 7 pounds of crop feed, 75 square feet of land, and nearly 53 gallons of water, according to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science.

Livestock also accounts for about 14.5 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations (U.N.). A big reason is that as the animals digest food, they belch up methane. This potent greenhouse gas traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

Farmers and ranchers have been working for years to make beef production more efficient. And the U.S. now produces more beef while raising fewer cattle than it did 45 years ago.

Still, according to a recent U.N. report, if more people worldwide were to reduce their meat consumption, it would go a long way to protecting the planet (see “Diet & Climate,” below). Recently, many people have started turning to meatless alternatives. For example, Burger King now partners with Impossible Foods to sell a plant-based “hamburger.” And Dunkin’ Donuts has teamed up with Beyond Meat to offer a meatless “sausage” breakfast sandwich. The meat industry has objected to calling them hamburgers and sausages.

But some have wondered whether we could still eat meat without having to raise and kill so many animals. Enter cultured meat. It was first introduced in 2013. That year, a lab-grown burger was cooked and served onstage at a demonstration in London. Now dozens of companies around the globe are racing to get their cultured meat products on the market.

Not everyone thinks lab-grown meat is the answer. Producing meat in labs requires a lot of heat and electricity, which is often generated by burning fossil fuels.

“I’m not convinced that the only way to address these problems is through a technological fix,” says Christy Spackman, a chemist and expert on food science. “To me, the solution is really embedded in social change.”

She suggests that people cut down their meat consumption by working plant-based forms of protein, like beans and lentils, into their diets and participating in “Meatless Mondays.”

Many other questions still remain about lab-grown meat. For one, experts say, we don’t yet know if consuming it will have any negative health effects in the long term.

And even if federal regulators determine that it’s safe, there’s the question of whether people will actually eat it. That may come down to two factors, says Purdy, the author. The first is price. Eat Just says its chicken will be available at the same price as “premium chicken you’d enjoy at a restaurant.”

But ultimately, the biggest determining factor might be taste. So how does it taste?

“Exactly like the meat you would expect it to taste like,” says Purdy, who has tried lab-grown chicken, beef, and duck. Like any piece of meat, he says, “it’s clear that it would taste a lot better if it was spiced with something.”

Not everyone thinks lab-grown meat is the answer. Producing meat in labs requires a lot of heat and electricity. Those energy sources are often generated by burning fossil fuels.

“I’m not convinced that the only way to address these problems is through a technological fix,” says Christy Spackman, a chemist and expert on food science. “To me, the solution is really embedded in social change.”

She suggests that people cut down their meat consumption by working plant-based forms of protein, like beans and lentils, into their diets and participating in “Meatless Mondays.”

Many other questions still remain about lab-grown meat. For one, experts say, we don’t yet know if consuming it will have any negative health effects in the long term.

And even if federal regulators determine that it’s safe, there’s the question of whether people will actually eat it. That may come down to two factors, says Purdy, the author. The first is price. Eat Just says its chicken will be available at the same price as “premium chicken you’d enjoy at a restaurant.”

But ultimately, the biggest deciding factor might be taste. So how does it taste?

“Exactly like the meat you would expect it to taste like,” says Purdy, who has tried lab-grown chicken, beef, and duck. Like any piece of meat, he says, “it’s clear that it would taste a lot better if it was spiced with something.”