What is lab-created meat or lab-grown meat? Can you make meat without killing animals? The answer is yes. Lab-created meat or cultured meat is basically the meat that grows in a lab instead of growing on an animal’s body, thanks to the scientists that are working on this technology. For the first time in human history, we will be able to eat meat without actually killing or even hurting an animal. Isn’t that cool?
Lab meat is made in the laboratory by doing in vitro cell culture of animal cells. Stem cells, which are also needed in regenerative medicine, are used here instead of normal cells. In the future, meat produced from stem cells is going to compete with traditional meat and plant-based meat for market share.
Lab-grown meat is also known by different names such as cultured meat, cell-based meat, clean meat, slaughter-free meat, and healthy meat. According to statista.com, the world’s first cultured meat product, a beef burger, was made by a Dutch startup called Mosa Meat back in 2013. The cost was around 330,000, for just a burger. In the last couple of years, the technology behind Lab-grown meat has made a lot of progress. Nowadays, it’s not as costly as it used to be.
In late 2020, Singapore became the world’s first country to approve lab-grown meat for human consumption. For the first time, it became available in a restaurant called 1880 in the form of a chicken nugget for $23, produced by a company called “Eat Just” from San Francisco.
Lab meat 2023: Plant-based meat vs lab-grown meat
No, Lab-grown meat is not the same thing as plant-based meat, which is a meat-like product made from plants and tastes, smells, and feels like meat. But plant-based meat is not real meat. It’s a substitute. On the other hand, lab-grown meat is real meat. Just the method of production is different from the traditional system, where we kill an animal for meat. Both plant-based meat and lab-grown meat are healthier than traditional meat, i.e the kind of meat we eat today.
What is lab meat made of?
Lab meat or cultured meat is made up of the same stuff traditional meat is made of, i.e animal cells. It contains things such as various amino acids.
Is lab-grown meat vegan?
This is a debatable topic. I don’t want to discuss it in detail here. But in simple words, lab-created meat is not vegan or vegetarian because it uses animal cells.
Can vegetarians use lab-grown meat? Can vegans? I frankly don’t know. It depends on why you are vegan or vegetarian in the first place. Now you might be vegetarian because you don’t like to see animals suffer, or maybe you care for the environment. But with Cultured meat, we don’t have these problems. So it’s up to you if you want to eat it or not.
Why do we need lab meat?
We need lab-grown meat because it is comparatively a better product. It has the potential to solve many problems that exist today, including environmental pollution. I think that if we humans start using lab meat or cultured meat, it will make this world a better place in many ways.
Why is lab-grown meat better than traditional meat?
So one common question almost everybody asks is, what are the benefits of lab meat? And why is it better than traditional meat? Is there any reason we should use lab-grown meat over meat that comes from the animal body directly? According to experts, there are many reasons why lab-grown meat is better compared to traditional meat. Lab-grown meat’s advantages are
Animal Welfare
If lab-grown meat becomes popular, the lives of millions of animals will also get better. Nowadays, millions of animals are grown with the sole purpose of being eaten by a human. If you are someone who cares about animals and hates the way they are being treated on factory farms, then Lab meat is something you will get excited about. So in simple terms, artificial meat has the potential to end animal suffering.
Health
Is lab meat healthy? I would say yes, at least compared to real meat. Eating meat can lead to many chronic diseases. This occurs because of the presence of bad cholesterol and high saturated fat. While producing meat in a Lab, scientists could limit the availability of harmful cholesterol and saturated fat present in the meat.
Most of the meat in today’s world is produced on factory farms. In most factory farms, the environment is very filthy and unhealthy
Most of the meat in today’s world is produced on factory farms. In most factory farms, the environment is very filthy and unhealthy. To keep animals alive in such an environment, they are given a very large dose of antibiotics. As a result, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming a big problem in many parts of the world. According to the WHO, antibiotic-resistant infections kill at least 700,000 people every year. Cultured meat or lab-grown meat can help us solve this issue. It will limit the number of future pandemics.
There are no growth hormones in lab-grown meat. Animals that grow in factory firms are given a lot of growth hormones for unnatural growth of the animal and to increase meat production. These hormones are harmful to the human body and give rise to many diseases.
Environment
All over the world factory farming is increasing. Most of the meat eaten by the western world comes from a factory firm. Factory farming leads to air and water pollution, deforestation, and ultimately climate change. According to many scientists, it is one of the major causes of climate change.
Does lab-grown meat taste the same?
I personally haven’t had the chance to taste it yet. At this point in time, there might be a slight difference in taste. But scientists are working hard to make it better. Eventually, it will taste exactly the same, and might even become better than traditional meat.
How will lab-grown meat affect farmers?
Lab-grown meat could become a threat to farmers in the future. Right now, cultured meat is a new thing, it has not yet got regulatory approval in most countries. So there is no immediate threat to farmers. It always takes time for a new product to get accepted by the public. The word “lab” in front of meat is enough for some people to look at with suspicion. And many people think something that is natural is always better for health, which is not at all true, scientifically speaking.
As lab-grown meat gets regulatory approval throughout the world and people start eating it, prices will drop. Any new scientific discovery has the potential to disrupt an existing industry. For existing, self-driving vehicles could kill all driving jobs. The same might happen with animal farming.
According to a report by American consulting firm AT Kearney, by the end of 2030, one-third of the global meat supply will consist of plant-based meat and cultured meat and by 2040, it will be 60%.
Will artificial meat replace real meat?
First of all, the term “artificial meat” is quite distracting. It depends on what you mean by artificial meat. Meat alternative like plant-based meat is not only available but already quite popular in the market. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods which sells plant-based are expanding. But, after all, it’s not real meat. Some people even call it fake meat. It is quite unlikely that plant-based meat would replace traditional meat.
By the term “artificial meat”, some people even refer to lab-grown meat or cultured meat, which is quite misleading. Yes, lab-grown meat doesn’t grow on an animal’s body, instead, it grows in a lab in a bioreactor, but it’s real cellular meat. Although still not commercially available in most of the world, I think, in the near future, this kind of meat has the potential to replace traditional meat in a big way.