Chriki, Ellies-Oury, and Hocquette (2022) on Cultured Meat

Sghaier Chriki, Marie-Pierre Ellies-Oury, and Jean-François Hocquette, “Is ‘Cultured Meat’ a Viable Alternative to Slaughtering Animals and a Good Comprise [sic] Between Animal Welfare and Human Expectations?” Animal Frontiers 12(1): 35-42, February 2022.

• This article presents a fairly negative take on cell-based meat. My view is that it is much too negative, but it is a useful corrective, as much of what you see derives from people who (understandably) adopt an excessively rosy perspective. OK, onto the bullet-point summentary.

•  “’cultured meat’ is not really meat”; and, “the start-ups have succeeded in imposing the name ‘meat’ for these cultivated muscle fibers into the everyday language [p. 36].” imposing?

• The incumbent meat industry is trying to prevent cultivated products from using the word “meat”  -- and the authors seem to think that the incumbents are right, that these "cultivated muscle fibers" don't meet various definitions of meat.  

• Cultured products that use a GMO component (or added hormones) will have trouble being approved in Europe. 

• Cultured meat seems to have less exposure to pathogens, and to antimicrobials, than meat. But who knows, maybe cultured meat will attract its own pathogens.

• Cultured meat might lack some of the characteristics or nutrients of meat, and adding nutrients might not make them equivalent.

• Cultured meat will miss out on the post-mortem aging of muscle tissue that makes meat so tasty.

• Cultured meat will use less water than meat does (though not much less?). But maybe cultivated meat will not be better environmentally, maybe the reduction of methane with (partial?) replacement by CO2 will make matters worse in the long run.

• Something like half of today’s pastureland is unsuitable for anything else(?) And we are informed of the environmental benefits of some forms of animal husbandry. Meat can be made still better for the environment through applications of agroecology.

• Some animals might still be involved in the production of cultivated meat – what about their welfare? Look at fetal bovine serum. 

• We’d lose not just meat but byproducts, such as leather…

• We could reduce food waste!