Inside the Quest to Make Lab Grown Meat | WIRED

Summary

This video explores the innovative concept of lab-grown or clean meat, produced from cultured cells instead of animals. It highlights the potential benefits of clean meat, such as being more ethical and eco-friendly, while addressing the challenges of taste, texture, and scalability. The video features companies like Just and Finless Foods, who are working to bring clean meat to the market. Despite initial high costs and ethical dilemmas, such as the use of animal serum, clean meat could revolutionize the food industry by providing a sustainable, cruelty-free alternative to traditional meat.

Takeaways

• 😀 Clean meat is lab-grown from animal cells, offering a slaughter-free and potentially more eco-friendly alternative to traditional meat production.
• 😀 Lab-grown meat uses fewer resources like land, water, and energy, making it a more sustainable option in theory.
• 😀 Many people are initially skeptical about clean meat, associating it with being 'unnatural' or 'unnerving'.
• 😀 If clean meat can overcome its 'ick' factor and meet taste and texture expectations, it could gain widespread acceptance.
• 😀 The startup Just is one of the companies at the forefront, with plans to bring clean meat to market by the end of the year.
• 😀 Growing meat in labs involves isolating cells from animals, providing nutrients, and encouraging cells to replicate and form muscle, fat, and tissue.
• 😀 The challenge for clean meat companies is recreating the complexity of traditional meat, especially in terms of texture and taste.
• 😀 Currently, clean meat is limited to simpler forms like ground products (e.g., chorizo), with more complex forms like steak still a long way off.
• 😀 Clean meat could have a significant impact on industries like foie gras, offering a more ethical version without the animal cruelty involved.
• 😀 While lab-grown meat is not yet fully cost-effective, companies are working on cheaper alternatives to traditional animal serum, making the process more ethical and affordable.
• 😀 If successful, clean meat could revolutionize how we produce meat, reducing environmental damage and eliminating animal cruelty, but only if the products are market-ready and affordable.

Q & A

What is clean meat and how is it different from traditional meat?

Clean meat is meat grown from cells in a lab through cell culture, as opposed to being sourced from slaughtered animals. It's developed using scientific techniques that require fewer natural resources like land, water, and energy, making it potentially more eco-friendly.

Why do some people feel uncomfortable about lab-grown meat?

Many people find lab-grown meat unnatural and off-putting because it doesn't come from traditional farming practices. There’s a general discomfort with the concept of eating something created in a lab, as it challenges our natural food sources and our expectations of how meat should be produced.

What are the potential benefits of lab-grown meat?

Lab-grown meat promises to be more ethical and sustainable compared to traditional farming. It can help reduce land use, water consumption, and energy needs, while eliminating animal slaughter. It could also address concerns related to food security by providing a scalable and more humane alternative to factory farming.

What are the main challenges with growing clean meat?

One of the main challenges is replicating the texture, taste, and appearance of traditional meat. While muscle and fat cells can be grown, the complexity of different tissue types and their structure makes it difficult to recreate the full experience of eating a steak or similar cuts of meat.

What does the term 'uncanny valley' mean in relation to lab-grown meat?

The 'uncanny valley' refers to the discomfort people feel when something closely resembles a familiar object, but isn't quite perfect. In the case of clean meat, this applies when lab-grown meat almost behaves like real meat, but not entirely, causing a dissonance in expectations and unsettling the brain.

How do companies like Just grow clean meat?

Companies like Just grow clean meat by isolating cells from an animal, then providing them with the right conditions—such as warmth, oxygen, and nutrients—to replicate and grow into muscle, fat, and connective tissue. This process mimics how cells naturally grow in an animal's body.

What is the goal of clean meat startups like Finless Foods?

The goal of startups like Finless Foods is to grow fish and other types of meat in a lab, offering products without the environmental damage, animal cruelty, or health concerns (like mercury) associated with traditional fishing or meat production.

What ethical concerns exist regarding clean meat production?

One of the major ethical concerns is the use of animal-derived serum to culture the cells, as this still involves animal products. Additionally, serum is expensive, making clean meat production costly. However, companies are working to replace animal serum with plant-based alternatives to address these issues.

How does lab-grown foie gras differ from traditional foie gras?

Lab-grown foie gras is a cruelty-free version of the controversial delicacy, which traditionally involves force-feeding a bird to enlarge its liver. Lab-grown foie gras eliminates the need for animal suffering while still aiming to replicate the taste and texture of the original dish.

Why is clean meat not yet widely available to the public?

Clean meat is still in the development phase and has not been scaled up enough to be available for mass consumption. Companies like Just are working to refine the process, improve taste, reduce costs, and ensure the meat is safe and ethical, but it is not yet ready for widespread sale.