Explained: What’s ‘lab-grown’ meat, and why there are calls to ban it

As Florida’s ban on “lab-grown” meat is set to go into effect next week, one manufacturer hosted a last hurrah — at least for now — with a cultivated meat-tasting party in Miami.

California-based Upside Foods hosted dozens of guests Thursday evening at a rooftop reception in the city's Wynwood neighborhood, known for its street art, breweries, nightclubs and trendy restaurants.

“This is delicious meat,” Upside Foods CEO and founder Uma Valeti said. “And we just fundamentally believe that people should have a choice to choose what they want to put on their plate.” The U.S. approved the sale of what's now being called “cell-cultivated” or “cell-cultured” meat for the first time in June 2023, allowing Upside Foods and another California company, Good Meat, to sell cultivated chicken.

Earlier this year, Florida and Alabama banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells. Other states and federal lawmakers also are looking to restrict it, arguing the product could hurt farmers and pose a safety risk to the public.

What is lab-grown or cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat, also known as cultured meat, is genuine animal meat, which is produced by cultivating animal cells directly. This production technique eliminates the need to raise and farm animals for food. Cultivated meat is made of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same or similar structure as animal tissues, thus replicating the sensory and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.

It was Dutch scientist Mark Post who unveiled the first cultivated meat burger on live television in 2013. A couple of years later, four companies stepped into the field of cultivated meat. The industry has since grown to more than 150 companies on 6 continents as of late 2022, backed by $2.6 billion in investments, each aiming to produce cultivated meat products. Many more firms have come up to create technology solutions along the value chain.

How is lab-grown meat made?

It involves cultivating animal cells in controlled environments while eliminating the need for traditional livestock farming and slaughter.

Stem cells derived from animal sources are artificially kept alive in bioreactors, grown to a certain abundance, and then harvested and customised for human consumption.

Take a cow for instance. Scientists will use a cow’s stem cells, the building blocks of muscle and other organs, to begin the process of preparing the cultured meat. The cells are placed in petri dishes with amino acids and carbohydrates to help the muscle cells multiply and grow. Once enough muscle fibers have grown, the result is a meat that resembles ground beef.

What are the advantages of cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat is expected to have a variety of benefits over conventional animal farming on account of its more efficient production process.

A booming sector in India, traditional livestock farming poses environmental challenges like deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and high water consumption.

Cultivated meat offers the potential to bolster food security by providing a consistent and dependable nutrition source independent of weather conditions or land availability.

A study showed that cultivated meat, if produced using renewable energy, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 92% and land use by up to 90% compared to conventional beef. Over the next few decades, cultivated meat and other alternative proteins are predicted to take significant market share from the $1.7 trillion conventional meat and seafood industry. This shift will mitigate agriculture-related deforestation, biodiversity loss, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic disease outbreaks, and industrialised animal slaughter.

In India, where a large section of people follow a non-vegetarian diet, solutions will have to be found in the next few years as currently available food resources are diminishing fast.

To meet the surging demand, cultured meat is expected to offer a viable solution that is economical, slaughter-free, environmentally sustainable and safe, although the technology has yet to be applied and proven at scale.

Is cultivated meat vegan?

By definition, a vegan diet does not include consuming meat or any form of animal products. For this reason, lab-grown meat would not be considered vegan because the ingredients needed to produce the synthetic meat are all derived from animals.

This is precisely the reason as to why many vegetarians are still on the fence when it comes to cultivated meat. Lab-grown meat sort of circumvents the ethical issues of eating meat because it doesn’t require any animals to be slaughtered. However, it is still meat, which is the main concern for many vegetarians. Some say they're interested in trying the new synthetic meats, but others still find animal tissue (whether or not it's grown in a lab) unappetising enough to pass on an artificial beef burger.

Why some of the states in the US have imposed a ban on lab-grown meat?

Those advocating a ban on lab-grown or cultivated meat argue that they want to protect farmers and consumers. Cultivated meat has only been around for about a decade, they say, and they’re concerned about its safety.

“Alabamians want to know what they are eating, and we have no idea what is in this stuff or how it will affect us,” Republican state Sen. Jack Williams, the sponsor of Alabama’s bill, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “Meat comes from livestock raised by hardworking farmers and ranchers, not from a petri dish grown by scientists”

Interestingly, even those within the cultivated meat industry agree that their products must meet rigorous government safety tests before going on sale. Their nascent industry isn’t trying to replace meat, they say, but figure out ways to feed the world’s growing need for protein.

Earlier this month, both Florida and Alabama banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells. In Iowa, the governor signed a bill prohibiting schools from buying lab-grown meat. Federal lawmakers are also looking to restrict it.

The Florida law makes it “unlawful for any person to manufacture for sale, sell, hold or offer for sale, or distribute cultivated meat” in the state, with violators facing up to 60 days in jail. In Alabama, the penalty is up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.