How Science is Making it Possible to Eat and Pet a Chicken at the Same Time
By: Phoenix Huber
Tags: Animals, Food, Creative, Technology, Climate Change

Perspective Piece

How Science is Making it Possible to Eat and Pet a Chicken at the Same Time

Photo by Daniel Tuttle on Unsplash.

At age 11, something changed. And it wasn’t that I got a Hogwarts invite from Professor McGonagall. Instead, I started feeling differently about animals.

I created a fictional land called Evergold, where all the animals were safe and happy. Here, the fields and forests abounded with meat plants.

Picture a willow, swaying in the wind, with sizzling hot bacon strips oozing from its branches. In Evergold, there were no animal farms or slaughterhouses. Even the moose and wolves could be friends, meeting up for peaceful games of tag.

Today, startups creating cultivated meat are on the cusp of a great achievement for humans and animals. By growing meat directly from cells, they’re paving a more nonviolent future. The new meat tech could also greatly reduce land and water use, and prevent pandemics.

Slaughter-free bacon is around the corner

Winston Churchill made a prediction in 1931. Cultivated meat enthusiasts love to cite his words:

We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.

80 years and many sci-fi depictions later, meat cultivation was finally taking off in 2010. Jason Matheny and Isha Datar each published influential papers that year. Then in 2013, Mark Post debuted the world’s first cultivated hamburger at a conference.

By May 2020, New Scientist estimated there are some 60 startups working on this endeavor internationally. And recently in August, 50–100 lucky applicants were chosen to sample the cultivated version of bacon!

These taste tests were done by Mission Barns, based in San Francisco, Mission Barns describes how they do bacon on their website:

Our process begins by isolating cells from an animal and placing them in a warm cultivator which mimics the animal’s body. The cells grow naturally as they do in a cow, chicken, or pig as we feed them nutrients including vitamins, sugars, and proteins. After the cells fatten the cultivation process is complete. We then harvest the meat, throw it on a pan, and enjoy.

Mark Post’s groundbreaking 2013 hamburger did use cells from a slaughtered animal. Yet he since cofounded Mosa Meat and the team gets their cells from small biopsies, where the healthy live animal is given anesthesia.

Memphis Meats, SuperMeat, Finless Foods, and JUST are just a few of the other cultivated meat companies. Their works in progress span many kinds of meat, including seafood. Two hubs for the industry are Israel, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where I once had the honor of dog-sitting for a meat cultivation scientist.

The new meat tech could prevent pandemics and feed your kitty

“Cellular agriculturalists” are the scientists making my wistful pangs for Evergold more than just a fantasy.

My vision is a world where cultured meat is on shelves, and decreases the demand for meat from animals. This would have a net positive effect on the planet. -Isha Datar

But besides the obvious perk of sparing Wilbur the pig, what other benefits does meat cultivation offer?

The nutrition of real meat, made even better?

Plant-based marvels, like the Beyond Breakfast Sausages and Impossible Burger that entered stores this year, taste almost identical to our familiar meaty favorites. However, some people wish for a slaughter-free option that’s nutritionally identical to animal flesh.

Cultivated meat is potentially even better, because scientists can adjust the nutrition. For example, Cubiq Foods has cultivated a poultry fat that’s high in EPA and DHA omega-3s.

What is it about red meat that makes it linked with higher rates of colorectal cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes? Perhaps meat cultivators and nutritional scientists of the future can collaborate on safer red meats.

Avoid contamination and pandemics

Cultivated meat reduces the need to handle huge herds of animals. This is a 3-way win for food safety.

First, making meat in a sterile setting can prevent foodborne illness and contamination.

Second, about 73% of antibiotic use is for meat. This tripled since 2000 and has added to the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The CDC states 2.8 million U.S. Americans get AR diseases annually. Growing meat from cells instead of billions of livestock would protect the efficacy of antibiotics.

Third, no longer breeding vast herds of animals will reduce the risk of pandemics. According to a 2013 United Nations report, 70% of new human diseases from recent decades had come from animals.

Feed carnivorous pets without killing other animals

There are at least two companies now cultivating pet food.

Because Animals and Bond Pet Foods have established themselves with plant-based treats and supplements; meanwhile, they’re mastering cultivated products and preparing to introduce them to the market. “Be the first to buy cultured meat pet food,” beckons Because Animals’ homepage.

Imagine a world where both the staunchest human carnivores, and creatures like our cats, can be fed animal-based meat without slaughtering other innocent beings.

Will cultivated meat help with the climate crisis?

Environmental benefits are perhaps the most touted hope of cultivated meat. Hanna Tuomisto at Oxford headed an impact assessment in 2011 to estimate the potential. Depending on the type of meat product compared, cultivated meat involved:

78–96% fewer greenhouse gas emissions

99% less land

82–96% less water

7–45% less energy (except for poultry, which had lower energy use)

This report sparked further studies by Tuomisto and others that were more inconclusive about climate. In 2019, Oxford projected 1,000-year climate impacts. They compared 4 different cultivated meat scenarios and 3 conventional beef scenarios.

The study suggested cultivated meat would be vastly better for at least the next 100 years, as you can see on the graph. 3 of the 4 cell-based scenarios outperform cattle-rearing impacts for at least 800 years.

However, given how the different emissions of each system behave, cultivated meat’s worst-case scenario would be worse than the cattle systems after about 150–400 years.

The Good Food Institute, a nonprofit leading alternative meat, gave a response to the 2019 study. They suggested that since cell-based meat uses 99% less land, the extra land could be used for clean energy production and carbon sequestration, thus increasing the difference for climate. As the new tech improves, they believe its advantages over traditional meat will increase.

14 scientists were awarded $3 million last year for alternative meat research. At this point, cultivated meat looks very promising for land and water use. We’ll see if upcoming analyses clarify the energy and climate factors.

What are some challenges facing cultivated meat tech?

One hilarious challenge of cultivated meat? What to call it. There are at least 5 terms in common use that all begin with C:

cultivated meat

cultured meat

cell-cultured meat

cell-based meat

clean meat

Cultured meat seems the most common, being the title of Wikipedia’s page on the subject. Cell-based meat is nice because it neatly contrasts with “plant-based meat,” the preferred term for brands like Beyond Meat.

The Good Food Institute published research in September 2019 that advocated for cultivated meat. This term appeared to land the best with collaborators and consumers.

Speaking of consumer acceptance, GFI’s 2018 survey showed 66% of US Americans were willing to try cultivated meat. Survey results have varied depending on how the concept was framed.

Economy

The most obvious obstacle of cultivated meat is economy. Quartz reported the following timeline of cost reduction:

2013: $1,200,000 per pound. (Mark Post’s original beef patty.)

2017: $9,000 per pound. (Memphis Meat’s chicken.)

2018: $1,000 per pound. (Memphis Meats again.)

2019: $100 per pound. (Aleph Farms’ beef patty.)

Now that the technology has scaled up, it may be a matter of time before it gets competitive with conventional meat.

Safety and consumer acceptance

Two of the elements that lower cell-based meat’s cost also raise eyebrows.

Growth factors are used. This parallels the use of hormones for livestock. In addition to hormone-free, many people want non-GMO. But cells are genetically altered so they grow indefinitely. This is called immortalization.

IntegriCulture’s CulNet System offers a solution. They better mimic the whole body of an animal in which cells grow, making the process more economical without needing growth factor.

Whatever production methods win out among the various startups, regulation is underway. In March 2019, the USDA and FDA announced they would oversee cultivated meat in the United States.

It’s been tremendously exciting to watch this new meat tech take off, and to think where it will be in 5–10 years…

How to pet and eat a chicken at the same time

Cultivated meat could be a dream for:

animals who don’t want to be slaughtered

people concerned about them, but hooked on meat

future generations we hope will live on a sustainable planet

Time and research will tell. To give us a sneak peek, JUST, Inc. filmed an “out-of-body” taste-test of their chicken nuggets.

The nuggets were grown from a single feather shed by Ian. Ian the rooster.

As people sat outside eating, there was Ian right beside them. Alive and well, waddling around the picnic table.

Surreal.

That’s how you eat an alive-and-well chicken and pet them at the same time. ❤