The Truth About Lab-Grown Meat

Credits:
Narrator/Writer: Stephanie Sammann

Imagery courtesy of Getty Images

References:

[pwolfamv]

So... You and Brian are basically telling me this morning that I wont be eating a lab grown steak on a supersonic flight to Europe on my modest government salary any time soon.

[erictaylor]

New technologies are almost always prohibitively expensive. And it will continue to be quite expensive for some time.
The first microwave ovens, in the late 1940's cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and were only ever sold for massive food processing projects.
By the late 50's the price got low enough for restaurants to afford, then by the 80's microwaves got cheap enough that families could use them.
The price of lab grown meat will come down.

[jklep]

I have over 30 yrs of experience in pharma mammalian cell culture. This is a pretty good summary of the situation. We recently performed a cost-benefit analysis for a client and reported a similar summation. However, the other major factor that is not covered here is the volumes of purified water needed to run the bioreactors. The water use will be even higher per Kg than animal husbandry which is already a strain on global ecological systems. Purified water is surprisingly expensive to produce and can only be done in geographic regions with the resources available; that is, it’s not happening in the desert southwest of the US or in Saharan Africa. Water resources are increasingly valuable around the globe for basic human needs, diverting those resources to manufacture synthetic meat just moves an already intractable problem from one place to another.

[bigfriki]

00:41 It wasn't meat that changed the digestive process but rather _cooked_ food in general, as opposed to raw food.

[Devil-Made]

14:16 “And while I don’t agree entirely with putting the onus on the consumer…”

THANK YOU! This is an argument that is RARELY - if ever - acknowledged when talking about climate change and our role in slowing it down. I fully expected this video to end with something like, “So what can YOU do to reduce the impact of meat production on the planet?…”

People often forget that we aren’t the biggest problem. It doesn’t matter how much any of us do, when confronted with the actions of giant mega-corporations we are meaningless as individuals (as far as reducing any kind of impact on the planet). I really appreciate that you added this little note in your video and hope it forces more people to consider just how much affect we can have when faced with the behemoths of Amazon and YumYum.

I totally agree with the moral imperative, but as far as making people believe it’s OUR fault, and it’s OUR responsibility…that’s just gaslighting and manipulation on the part of the mega-corps that run the world.

[sirBrouwer]

I always assumed that the biggest asset with growing lab based meat. Was not meat for consumption. But to develop it even further so the technology would be come so good that you could grow a complete new organ.
Like if Mike needed a new kidney. the technology would be so good that they could use some of his cells to change it in to a new kidney made from his own DNA.

the lab grown meat for food is just a stepping stone.

[XxBloodyMary]

The part about FBS is especially interesting and exactly what I hoped to learn more about in this video. Great video!

[theprofessionalfence-sitter]

If it is so expensive to produce, wouldn't it make more sense to start by growing more exotic meats at first and marketing them to the rich? I'm sure you'll find someone willing to spend a lot of money on something they couldn't otherwise get. Generally, it seems weird to me that, if you have the technology to produce artificial meat, you would use it, first, to produce those meats that are pretty much the cheapest to obtain the "normal" way, rather than trying to produce meat of animals that couldn't normally be eaten.

[CallforMrBlue]

No one is really looking as FBS as a base anymore, there are a billion alternatives and that was merely 1 thing people looked at.

Cost for a product currently not released is something that will be dealt with before the shit can even come out and is currently the biggest issue, but it isnt as dramatic as this channel made it out to be.

New Harvest has a non FBS recipe. It's public it's designed for beef.

If that doesn't refute it. I don't know what does.

[indietraveller]

Any cultivated meat company that's serious about scaling up is not using FBS. It's a useful shortcut in the research/lab phase but obviously not what will be used for any cultivated meat that ends up on store shelves in the future. It's a pity that your video could make people needlessly worried about this very promising technology.

[Scipiworld]

Great video. For anyone who would like to try a decent meat alternative, I found out a while back that king oyster mushrooms with their fibery texture can be used as a template for making custom meats if cut into strips. Other ingredients can be added to tune to flavour, like tomato purée for a savoury flavour, or maple syrup and paprika for a smokey maple flavour. Cook the flavoured mushrooms until they start drying out, (at this point, they will be reddish brown and look a heck of a lot like meat). The end taste isn't beef, chicken, or pork, but still identifiable as a meat. I've made bacon, taco meat, and stir fry this way and it always impresses guests.

[astroch]

I dont understand, why do we want a universal serum if we can only grow pure meat. Just use the specific serum for every type of meat, and when we can, we will grow whole wings or ribs. Every production line is different, i dont expect to use the same substances to produce paper and cardboard.

[Gorczy]

Awesome video as always Stephanie and team!

I noticed one small mistake with units around 10:30. You list 5, 000 litres as around the size of the "biggest beer fermenter that exists." The largest ones I know of are 6, 000 BBLs or 704, 000+ litres. I think units got swapped there.

Any mid sized craft brewery in your region will likely have 10-15 tanks in the 100-150 BBL range, or 2-3x the volume needed for the bioreactor.

[annefoley]

My uncle works in the FBS industry and the Thanksgiving table stories he tells are ~wild~

[lukash.]

Tissue engineering is so fascinating but also so elaborate and expensive. When I started studying I was so hyped for lab meat but as more as I learned about it, my hopes kinda alleviated.
I hope that one day lab meat will actually be a thing and I’m still alive to experience it.

[nathanly]

I've worked in the cell cultured meat industry. We're moving past FBS. There's several alternatives, look up Okara. Also regarding scale, a company recently opened up a factory. Their prospective output is lbs of meat. And not just ground meat, breast and thigh are getting close to market.

[HexproofAnarchist]

I have been vegan for over 5 years now and my quality of life has only improved because of the change in lifestyle. Go Vegan! There's so many reasons to do so. 🙏🌍🌎🌏🦌🐂🐃🐄🐖🐑🐐🦃🐓🐣🐤🐥🦆🐟🐡🦈🐙🦄

[ReaperUnreal]

10:53 Just a quick fact check. 5000L in roughly 42bbl, which while large for a craft brewery is TINY for macro breweries. The Milwaulkee MillerCoors plant has several 6000bbl fermeters, or about 700, 000L. 5000L is FAR from the largest fermenters.

[patrybc]

"We shall scape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken to eat the breast or the wing" That really is absurd. From the chicken we eat it all. The breast, the drumsticks, the quarters, the thighs, the wings and we can even make a broth with the bones

[Feynman]

I live in the mountains. Openly speaking, I prefer the meat of cows, sheep and goats living in our area than anything industrially processed.

They live a good life, have tons of good natural food. They are better for the ecosystem than some artificial factories.