How cultured meat is joining the high-steaks green food revolution

Cultured meat is a clear investment opportunity. Credit: tilialucida / Shutterstock.com

Meat is big business. Global Data forecasts that the meat industry’s value will rise to almost $1.5 trillion by 2025, with an annual volume of more than 120 billion kilos. But our meat consumption has a huge environmental cost. In the face of the climate crisis, the industry is on the cusp of a sustainable lab-grown revolution.

One solution might well be to grow our own meat. Cultured meat is not a steak that enjoys Stravinsky, but is a hugely exciting prospect nevertheless. Grown in vitro from animal cells, lab-grown meat could cut greenhouse emissions and water pollution, avoid the need for antibiotics and chemicals, and even improve the nutritional value of our diets, all without harming any animals.

The meaty numbers behind meat emissions

The possibility of a sustainable future for international meat production looks bleak. The UN estimates that livestock contributes over 14% of man-made greenhouse emissions. The UK Committee on Climate Change notes that, although approximately 40% of global habitable land is used for livestock farming, meat delivers less than 20% of the total food supply. Therefore, cutting our meat consumption is crucial to preventing a climate catastrophe.

Cultured meat could be a vital part of this sustainable future. Compared with conventional meat, these lab-grown products require dramatically less land and water while producing much lower emissions, allowing them to provide a meaty taste without moral compromises.

How much money for meatless?

As consumers become increasingly conscious of meat’s environmental and ethical implications, consumption is falling. A 2021 Oxford University study found that, between 2008-09 and 2018-19, the proportion of meat eaters fell by 3% points while the proportion of people identifying as vegetarian or vegan rose by 3% points. Simultaneously, demand for sustainable alternatives is rapidly increasing, with the value of major meat substitutes markets growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 9% between 2017 and 2021, according to GlobalData forecasts.

With this spike in consumer interest, manufacturers have become more engaged, leading to an influx of investment into the cultured meat market and powering the development of ever more affordable products. As GlobalData reports, in contrast to the thousand-dollar products of a few years ago, today’s cultured meats are only nine or ten times more expensive than conventional meat, with the promise of prices decreasing rapidly in the future. This will help cultured meat become an affordable and environmental household staple.

Investments and developments

Cultured meat is a clear investment opportunity, with early ventures offering the chance for a substantial share in a new global market.

This year alone, GlobalData figures show that millions of dollars have been poured into cultured meat companies. In December 2021, Israel-based Future Meat Technologies secured $347 million in venture financing while in May 2022, JBS, a Brazilian meat-processing firm, acquired BioTech Foods, which develops cultured meat technologies, for $100 million. These considerable sums suggest investors are eager to secure a place in this growing market.

The future: lunch from the lab?

The world of cultured meat is fast-moving, with manufacturers finding cheaper processes and developing increasingly meat-like products. Most importantly, by substituting livestock for lab-grown meats, vast areas of land can be replaced with photosynthesising plants, carbon emissions can be slashed, and agricultural water use can be dramatically reduced. Food fresh from the farm might be our ecologically problematic present, but lunch from the lab could be our environmentally-friendly future.

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