Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 10/1/15


Cultured, or in vitro, meat production — like the product taste-tested to great fanfare in 2013 in London — could prove to be more environmentally destructive than the old-fashioned, animal-based kind, according to a new report by three researchers specializing in sustainable development and engineering.

The researchers from Arizona State and Clemson universities calculated that cultured meat would indeed require smaller quantities of feed crops and take up less land than livestock for the equivalent amount of food. However, the process of cultivating the meat in a lab or industrial setting would require more energy, likely produced by fossil fuels.

“As a result, the global warming potential for cultured meat is likely to be higher than that of poultry and pork but lower than that of beef,” Carolyn Mattick, Amy Landis and Brad Allenby wrote in an article posted on Slate.com. The article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America and Slate, exploring the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy and culture.

The conclusions are speculative, the authors note. Many factors could change the equations over time, including more efficient ways of generating energy and more efficient feeding protocols. Also, cultured meat does not also provide the byproducts, such as hides, blood and feathers, on which other products and industries rely. Recreating those products could also increase the overall energy requirements beyond those currently used in livestock production and slaughter.

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