Future Meat, the world’s first lab-grown meat industry, opens its doors in Israel. (1) It can produce 500kg of pure lab meat every day, equal to 5 thousand hamburgers, without any waste. Roughly the equivalent of a pair of cattle.
The New Moving Forward is based in Rehovot, home to the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as Future Meat Technologies(FMT).
The plant can now produce artificial meat from chicken, pork and lamb, soon to be beef. With production cycles that the startup indicates are about 20 times faster than natural ones.
Meat ‘safe and healthy, delicious and cheap.’ Of laboratory though
The arguments of Rom Kshuk, CEO of Future Meat Technologies, are objectively effective. The global food security crisis is first and foremost expressed in the inability to distribute protein to all of humanity. FMT offers a scalable technology that already enables meat to be produced through cell cultivation:
– safe, as it is free of chemical contaminants (e.g., antibiotic residues, hormones and other veterinary drugs) and biological contaminants (viruses and bacteria),
– safe in that it is not derived from GMOs,
– nutritive,
– palatable, organoleptically speaking,
– cheap.
3.90 USD/kg is the price that can already be charged for artificial chicken meat grown in a small-scale plant. By applying an economy of scale, ‘prices will continue to fall and make cultured meat affordable worldwide.’ LoL.
Artificial meat, sustainable technology?
Animal cell lines grow forever without any genetic modification. FMT’s proprietary technology boasts yields 10 times higher than the industry standard, thanks to a unique process of ‘rejuvenating’ the culture media to cut their consumption in half by removing waste products. Production costs, as a result, are quite a bit lower than average.
https://youtu.be/8XUFrNQ7YSk
The sustainability of lab meat is expressed in an unfair but overwhelming comparison that traditional animal husbandry today absorbs more than 80 percent of cropland and 30 percent of fresh water, as well as being a cause of deforestation in Latin America. (2) The lower impact of cultured meat could thus meet the growing demand for meat, linked to demographic factors and changes in eating habits. (3)
AltMeat, the ABC’s
AltMeat-that is, Veg products presented as ready-to-eat alternatives to meat consumption-are not per se associated with agroecology and organic production. Rather, they express a ‘species jump’; eating is no longer an ‘agricultural act’ but a ‘technological act’. (4) And the resulting foods are often, in fact, ultra-processed foods. (5) There are three technologies applied to AltMeat:
(a) ‘meat’ from plant proteins, often made ‘unique’ through genetic engineering techniques (such as Impossible Burger‘s GMO plant blood ),
(b) ‘cultured’ meat, where cells are grown instead of animals. Approximately 75 companies on the planet deal with it today. Eat Just was the first enterprise to be licensed to sell cultured chicken meat, in Singapore,
(c) fermentation. A millennia-old technology still used in Asia to produce tempeh (soybeans fermented with Rhizopus oligosporus). Fermentation of biomass (mycoproteins from filamentous fungi) is the basis of the technology developed by Quorn, UK. Precision fermentation, through microorganisms, in turn enables the production of specific substances (e.g., collagen).
Markets and investment
The AltMeatmarket , according to a recent report by Mc Kynsey, will reach $25 billion by 2039. Provided that the production costs of cultured meats-already down by an average of 99 percent, compared to their beginnings-can be competitive with those of authentic meats. An upcoming goal, expected as Future Meat is confident of reaching US$2/kg by the end of 2022.
The Good Food Institute-an organization representing the AltMeat (meat alternatives) sector-estimates that investment on innovation related to alternative proteins has increased by 6000% in five years, from US$6 million in 2016 to US$366 mln in 2020. Future Me at itself has raised $43 million in investment from such giants as Tyson Foods, the leading meat producer in the U.S., and Archer-Daniels Midland.
Rules
Investment and technology also, of course, stimulate regulatory reform. The big show on meat sounding-at the European Parliament, 10/20/20-was the most unimaginable propaganda to the illusion that AltMeats can take the place of farms. (6) No better had gone the battle of U.S. farmers to the finance industry. (7) Only in Mexico can fake meat not be designated as ‘meat’. (8)
The legislation to be applied in the EU to much of the ‘alternative’ products is that on novel foods (now EU reg. 2015/2283). That is, new innovative foods and ingredients must be authorized by the European Commission, in agreement with the member states meeting in thePlants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) Committee, as a result of scientific evaluation by EFSA(European Food Safety Authority).
No more and no less than is required to place on the EU market a food made from insects, algae or microalgae (9,10) – themselves, sustainable sources of protein – of which there is no experience of consumption in the Old Continent prior to 1997.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Agnieszka de Sousa. Meat Grown in Israeli Bioreactors Is Coming to American Diners. Bloomberg. 6/23/21, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-23/meat-grown-in-bioreactors-is-coming-to-american-diners-next-year
(2) Dario Dongo, Susanna Cavallina. Argentina, Gran Chaco on fire over GMO soybeans and beef cattle. #Buycott. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 10.8.19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/argentina-gran-chaco-in-fiamme-per-soia-ogm-e-bovini-da-carne-buycott
(3) Dario Dongo. The world in 2050, transformations needed. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.11.18, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/il-mondo-nel-2050-trasformazioni-necessarie
(4) Dario Dongo, Guido Cortese. Climate and antibiotic resistance. Will lab meat save us? GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.1.20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/clima-e-antibiotico-resistenza-la-carne-di-laboratorio-ci-salverà
(5) Dario Dongo, Marta Strinati. Vegetarians and vegans more exposed to harmful ultra-processed foods. Scientific study. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.8.20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/salute/vegetariani-e-vegani-più-esposti-ai-nocivi-alimenti-ultraprocessati-studio-scientifico
(6) Dario Dongo. ‘Vegan meat’, meat sounding. Big show at the European Parliament. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 10/23/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/carne-vegana-meat-sounding-grande-spettacolo-al-parlamento-europeo
(7) Dario Dongo. Meat sounding, revolt in the USA. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 7.3.18, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/meat-sounding-rivolta-in-usa
(8) Dario Dongo. Milk and Meat sounding, addition of water to meats. Lessons from Mexico. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12/28/19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/milk-e-meat-sounding-aggiunta-di-acqua-alle-carni-lezioni-dal-messico
(9) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Edible insects, EFSA’s green light for flour moths. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 22.1.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/insetti-commestibili-via-libera-di-efsa-alle-tarme-della-farina
(10) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Microalgae and insects, the search for sustainable proteins in Horizon 2020. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 5/27/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/innovazione/microalghe-e-insetti-la-ricerca-di-proteine-sostenibili-in-horizon-2020
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
