If you believe everything you’ve heard in the news just since the beginning of February, someday we will be able to vacation on Mars, send our cars out to run our errands for us and eat an authentic hamburger in which no cow was killed.
It’s the latter that has the food world abuzz. With the backing of enthusiastic, futuristic venture capitalists, at least three companies are racing to sell meat “grown from animal cells in steel tanks” (WSJ). It’s called cultured meat or in vitro meat. I’ve read many descriptions, with the most thorough coming from the Feb. 1, 2016, WSJ about one of the companies, Memphis Meats: “Memphis Meats grows meat by isolating cow and pig cells that have the capacity to renew themselves, and providing the cells with oxygen and nutrients such as sugars and minerals. These cells develop inside bioreactor tanks into skeletal muscle that can be harvested in between nine and 21 days.”
The problem, so far, is that it costs a slightly steep $18,000 to produce 1 pound of Memphis Meats beef, compared to about $4 for store-bought beef (Foxnews.com). However, scientists are working like crazy to get the costs down, and meats from the stem cells harvested from pigs, chickens and cows could be available in 3-4 years. We’re talking hot dogs, sausage, burgers and meatballs.
Have I said enough? OK, why would we do this? Just because we can? Here are the marketing talking points, that so far have the media starry eyed: (I’m taking these from various sources.)
- No animals are killed in the process. (Boy, are we in for a glut of chickens, cows and pigs!)
- “While generating one calorie from beef requires 23 calories in feed, Memphis Meats plans to produce a calorie of meat from just 3 calories in inputs.” (fsrmagazine.com)
- Cultured beef could use as much as 99% less space than what is needed for current livestock farming methods. (culturedbeef.net)
- It will yield a reduction in methane greenhouse gas, thus reducing global warming.
So, with all that, will people actually go for this? Will chefs work with it? On the plus side, one of the three founders of Memphis Meats is William Clem, co-owner of several Memphis-area barbecue restaurants. He would certainly use it. The WSJ Feb. 1 article says that the global brand head of BurgerFi would consider running the meat as a special if it tastes good.
Here’s what I think. These cultured-meat companies better hire some pretty good spin-meisters, and fast, because I don’t see much difference between this and biotechnology—a term and concept known to boil blood at the mere mention of it and its co-term GMO.
I’ve read plenty of survey statistics indicating how opposed consumers are to GMOs, their insistence that offending products be labeled and how they don’t want to support brands, restaurants or stores that offer it. Consumer perception is so skewed that workers at biotech giant Monsanto, with HQ in St. Louis, widely work from unmarked buildings—because riots and other mayhem could spontaneously erupt over consumer sensitivity to biotech.
Now let’s juxtapose that consumer disdain next to how the biotech world presents itself (bio.org)
“Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet. It provides breakthrough products to combat debilitating and rare diseases, reduce our environmental footprint, feed the hungry, use less and cleaner energy…”
I think the cultured meat people would agree that this practically describes their intention. Right now, in its infancy, cultured meat sounds like a noble, sustainable and environmentally responsible proposition that millennials and investors would easily support. But how quickly that could change if the Science in the Public Interests of the world decide it isn’t such a good idea and use their muscle to oppose it employing their grassroots smear tactics.
Cultured-meat people, you’d better get your PR on—now!
Jody
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