How lab-grown meat is revolutionizing what we eat

Over the last 60 years, global meat production has increased fivefold.

In Asia, home to almost 60 percent of humanity, meat production has grown 15 times during this period – far outpacing the region’s population growth.

The numbers speak for themselves: people love meat.

Unfortunately, the meat industry also contributes hugely to the climate crisis. Livestock supply chains account for an estimated 14.5 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

For every kilogram of beef we produce, more than 70 kilograms of greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. In comparison, a kilogram of rice and grains only emits around 4 kilograms.

So, with global warming now threatening to hit 3.1 degrees Celsius by 2100, does that mean we all have to go vegan?

Not quite.

Enter lab-grown meat – grown in bioreactors from animal stem cells.

Also known as cultured or cultivated meat, lab-grown meat doesn’t rely on farms or slaughterhouses. Instead, it simply involves poking an animal or an egg and extracting cells from it.

This radical new method is redefining culture, tradition, health and even meat itself. 

But before I lose you: no, this isn’t a vegan scheme, nor anti-farmer propaganda – I’ve read all the wild comments on Reddit. 

Cultivated meat isn’t even necessarily replacing meat as we know it. Instead, it could offer an important way to reduce emissions from meat production.

So, what’s the catch?

We need to make cultivated meat just as tasty and affordable as the real thing.

How to grow meat

In short, cultivated or lab-grown meat is made by taking stem cells from an animal and feeding these cells a nutrient-rich cell feed called a media, a soup of amino acids, sugars, vitamins, minerals and water. 

Over the next few weeks, these cells multiply and can then be molded into a defined shape – like a fillet or patty – or mixed with other ingredients to produce various meat dishes.

So, yes, this meat grown in a big steel bioreactor is still meat. Down to the molecular level, cultivated meat is the same as chicken, beef or any other meat you’re accustomed to eating.

(If you’re vegetarian or vegan, this probably isn’t for you – unless the reason you don’t eat meat is to reduce your impact on the planet, in which case, keep reading!)

This meat can even be made just as tasty by growing both tissue and fat cells to replicate the flavors people have grown to love. 

It can also be manipulated to absorb more omega-3 fatty acids, or leaner with less fat – opening up countless possibilities to diversify the way we eat.

There’s now an array of companies experimenting with various methods and technologies. UPSIDE Foods, one of the leading cultivated meat companies in the U.S., and the first to receive approval to sell from the USDA, is developing its first chicken fillet, made by scaffolding layers of tissue cells. 

Meanwhile, Australian company Vow is creating its luxury dishes by growing animal cells in suspension – that is, feeding cells a liquid inside bioreactors. Vow is currently the only company selling a product made primarily of cultivated meat cells.

Researchers have developed countless ways to turn globs of tissue and fat cells into palatable meat forms. These include 3D printing fillets using meat cells, using high heat and pressure to shape blobs of cells, or using meat-shaped molds and scaffolding.

Is lab-grown meat better for the planet?

It’s difficult to say – especially as lab-grown meat is still largely in the research and development phase and not yet widely available on the market.

However, some life cycle assessments show that greenhouse gas emissions from lab-grown meat can be far lower than those from conventional meat – especially if cultivated using renewable energy.

But it’s not just about emissions.

This cultivated meat uses a lot fewer input resources than conventional meat. It also avoids many of its negative impacts, including deforestation to make room for livestock grazing, methane emissions from cows and sheep, and crop production for animal feed.

Melissa Musiker, head of communications at UPSIDE Foods, says cultivated meat could appeal to ‘conflicted omnivores’ – those who want to make conscious choices for the planet but don’t necessarily want to cut meat from their diet. 

“Here is a way to actualize climate angst on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “People can vote with their votes and also with their dollars on a plate.”

What’s more, by growing only the tissue, fat or other specific cells wanted for a specific product, cultivated meat eliminates food waste and the methane emissions associated with it. No bones, skin or other animal parts need to be tossed! 

Of course, it does involve input costs, primarily the energy needed to run bioreactors and facilities.

Nicholas Chilton, head of government affairs at Vow, shares a few ‘ingredients’ for energy-efficient processes: integrating a vertical production approach to eliminate outsourcing, scaling production, and perfecting an in-house formula for their cell media, which can cost hundreds of dollars per liter if acquired commercially. 

For the Vow team, the environmental benefits are nice, but they’re not the main objective. 

“We want people who don’t give a toss about the environment to eat our product,” says Chilton. “We want to be culinary trendsetters that make delicious food in its own right to reach the most consumers.” 

That brings us to an important point: will people eat it?

Would you eat lab-grown meat? 

We posed this question to our followers on LinkedIn, X/Twitter and WhatsApp. Of the 149 people who responded, 99 said no.

Not the most encouraging response – but that does mean 44 percent of respondents were open to trying it.

Of course, this was by no means a representative sample, and we asked a sweeping question that will resonate differently across cultures and by age and socioeconomic status.

Like any new innovation, cultivated meat needs consumer buy-in before we’ll see it landing on supermarket shelves.

But then again: the use of bioreactors isn’t actually that new or radical. Pharmaceutical companies have been using bioreactors for decades to replicate cells to test new medicines and vaccines.

Cultivated meat producers could also find greater success in certain markets. Chilton believes Asian countries appear to be more open to new savvy foods, whereas Western countries are often more conservative in this regard.

Cultivating the market

UPSIDE Foods and Vow aren’t alone in making waves with cultivated meat. 

Dutch company Meatable is creating ground beef from pig cells with a technology that allows them to turn stem cells into patties in as little as 12 days. Uncommon is a British company growing pork, and Wildtype is a U.S.-based company cultivating seafood. 

The list is endless – and yet, cultivated meat hasn’t yet made it to grocery store aisles anywhere in the world.

So far, cultivated meat is only being sold in a few select restaurants and a butchery in Singapore – the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat in 2020, followed only by the U.S. in 2023 and Israel in 2024. The U.K. has approved the sale of cultivated meat in pet food by the company Meatly.

“Our first product is a demonstration of what is possible when it comes to cultivated meat,” says Musiker of UPSIDE Food’s hand-made chicken fillet, which she likens to caviar or truffles – in other words, gourmet and artisan. 

UPSIDE Food’s next product pending approval are chicken “shreds” made predominantly of cultivated chicken cells blended with plant-based proteins.

To create the shreds, cells are grown using suspension and produced using high moisture extrusion.

Musiker says this can enable wider distribution and economies of scale, leading to lower prices – a crucial factor if they want to start competing with conventional meat.

Vow’s meat is now available at a few fine dining locations in Singapore, where their quail parfait is being served as a bar snack for SGD 20 (USD 15).

While not exactly a cheap eat, it’s certainly a bargain compared to the world’s first cultivated meat hamburger, which cost a whopping USD 332,000 to produce.

But to further lower prices, companies will need large-scale investment, along with government policies that enable new innovation.

Aside from its environmental benefits, Chilton points out that cultivated meat can also address other gaps in the food system, such as addressing rising iron deficiency, as well as the ability to produce ‘meat’ from animals that can’t be industrially farmed.

“Eating four main animals just because they do well in captivity is just a drop in the ocean of possible animals that are delicious and nutritious to eat,” he says. Vow is selling ‘quailia’ made of Japanese quail, a product in line with its mission to make meat that is “deliberately different.” 

The future of lab-grown meat

There’s a growing raft of companies working to develop and to sell cultivated meats and seafood, but not without backlash. Italy and the U.S. states of Florida and Alabama have banned these meats, citing threats to farmers’ livelihoods and food heritage. 

The World Farmers’ Organisation, which represents more than a billion farmers worldwide, “firmly rejects” lab-grown meat saying that they don’t want it to replace traditional agriculture. 

Musiker and Chilton argue that cultivated meat isn’t made to undermine farmers but rather to diversify meat sources. 

With an estimated 582 million people set to be chronically undernourished by 2030, it’s no wonder cultivated meat companies have collectively received over USD 3 billion in funding to push their innovations forward.

Some research even points to ways bioreactor technology and growing cell banks could benefit the medical field.

“We believe this to be a way to create a sustainable and resilient supply chain of animal protein in a future that will be impacted by climate change, pandemics and constrained natural resources,” says Musiker. 

“To be able to uncouple our own existence and sustenance from living organisms could be a huge unlock for humanity.”