Is Lab-Grown Meat The Answer To Our Meat Eating Problems?

Is Lab-Grown Meat The Answer To Our Meat Eating Problems?

Gene Editing & CRISPR: How Far Should We Go?

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**What is lab-grown meat and how is it made?**
Instead of growing the entire animal, lab-grown meat allows you to only grow what you're going to eat, and that happens with cells. You grab some cells from the animal through a tissue biopsy, and then you can isolate and separate out the specific cells that you want. Then, you immerse those cells in a nutrient broth and that gives them all the nourishment that they need to grow and survive. And they’re housed in what’s called the bioreactor. The bioreactor controls all of the environmental conditions to facilitate and promote their growth. So as the cells grow in the bioreactor, they get to larger and larger numbers, and you can achieve almost an infinite number of cells from this process. Then, you separate the cells from the broth and form into a 3D shape that looks similar to a cut of meat, and that is what you eat on your plate.

**What’s the point of growing meat in a lab**
We have a meat problem. We raise BILLIONS of animals every year, and for many of them, the conditions are pretty terrible. AND the whole process is a big contributor to climate change in 3 big ways. Number 1 is land use and carbon dioxide.The earth’s surface is mostly water, and only a fraction of the land can be used to grow food. And most of THAT land is either grazing land for animals or land used to grow food to FEED the animals. We’re actually cutting down forests to make MORE space so we can eat MORE meat. And that’s a problem, because trees capture CO2, which you probably know is a BIG contributor to climate change. So, the more we eat meat, the fewer trees grow, and more CO2 escapes into the atmosphere.

Number 2 is fresh water. Raising animals for meat takes a LOT of fresh water – and that’s a finite resource. That means we can run out. Pound-for-pound, raising meat takes a lot more water to grow than a non-meat source of protein like soy.

Number 3 is greenhouse gasses coming from the animals themselves. They’re constantly emitting carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, both of which contribute to climate change. Cattle are the WORST, because, well, cow burps! Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane, which doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as CO2, but is WAY WORSE when it comes to warming the atmosphere.

SOURCES
6 Pressing Questions About Beef and Climate Change, Answered

Breakdown of global land use today

Fact check: How bad is eating meat for the climate?

Cultivated meat: Out of the lab, into the frying pan

Per capita red meat and poultry consumption

Beef: The “King” of the Big Water Footprints

Cows and climate change

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:56 How Lab-Grown Meat Is Made
3:27 Cooking Lab-Grown Chicken
4:04 The State Of Lab-Grown Meat
4:47 How Traditional Meat Hurts The Environment
7:22 Lab-Grown Meat Isn't Perfect

[AboveTheNoise]

Would you eat lab-grown meat? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below!

[brandongillette]

One thing you could make clearer is that vat meat is not a meat substitute. It's meat. It looks and tastes like chicken because it IS chicken. It's the same stuff a chicken's body produces via the laws of nature, it's just that the lab uses those same laws of nature to make the stuff without the rest of the chicken.

[juliegolick]

Though not a big consideration for most people, my understanding is that lab-grown meat will not only be kosher, but also not count as "meat" for the purpose of the laws of kashrut (kosher food). Finally, we Jews will be able to enjoy cheeseburgers! 😆

[SenoritaConejita]

I'm vegan and adopted a vegan lifestyle because of the cruel animal industry and negative effects on the planet (as pointed out in this video, thank you!). While I do miss some meat (pepperoni pizza!), I don't think I'll be jumping on the lab grown meat, as the smell and texture of meat grosses me out now. But I think this is great for getting folks to transition to a more sustainable and less resource draining diet! Plus, the surplus of soy and other plant based alternatives will hopefully bring about new "mock" meats (seitan is currently my favorite, and you can make it absolutely protein rich!).

[safaiaryu]

Super interesting! I would absolutely eat lab grown meat. I'm in a similar position where I love eating meat, but hate the animal cruelty in the industry. I actually tried to give up red meat recently and within like three months, I was anemic... sigh. It's tough. Lab grown meat could be an awesome alternative.

[frederickoftheartic]

I don't care if it's lab grown or not, all I care is if they can make lab grown bones too.

[Garbimba]

Yes, I'd love to eat lab grown meat. Very good analysis, guys!! You spoke about the energy needs which is something not many have touched on!

[tipoima]

I can't imagine that these bioreactors would be less efficient than a bunch of animals who constantly need to walk around, digest things, and grow various non-meat things.
Although I am a bit concerned if lab meat would have the same nutrition as normal meat. I wouldn't want to buy a meat equivalent of a watermelon because the manufacturer wanted to save money on growth liquid.

[ForumArcade]

Artificial meat production will use orders of magnitude less land and water, which will be crucial resources as time goes on, especially since much of the cattle industry in the US is located in the Midwest and relies on groundwater resources for irrigation.

The real resource bottleneck is energy. Right now the energy costs are very high, but the outlook is good that those costs will decrease with time.

Combine the resource considerations with the more favourable ethics, and I think it's inevitable that lab grown meat will become the de facto source of consumer meat products in the developed world at some point in the future. But there will be a significant amount of resistance to overcome, even after the energy problem is resolved. Even now special interest groups are lobbying on behalf of the big cattle ranchers to stop artificial meat from being sold as "meat", or sold at all if they can help it.

[badgerspecialtycoatingscon]

220 lbs of meat per person, per year. That's 2-1/2 quarter pounders a day.

Just curious: Does that statistic take into account the population number of people who do not eat meat and extract that from the total population number?

[anakimluke]

Thanks for the video! Though I wish you had gone over two points you only barely mentioned: 1. Even assuming labmean always uses fetal bovine serum, how/how much death and suffering is it compared to traditional meat production? 2. Comparison on energy consumption and CO2 emissions from labmeat and traditional meat production?

[HaarmannE]

8:50 Easy, Theres going to be thousands of livestock feedlots around the country not being used. build the tanks there, add a single wind turbine and some solar panels.

[studentofsmith]

I would eat lab grown meat even if it was a little more expensive provided it tasted okay.

[hazz]

I would definitely eat it but my concern right now is about the zero immune system of this meat (saw it on another video, don't know if is true though).
Could you please tell us what you felt was different when tasting it ?

[thomasr.jackson]

More good stuff. I am open, but unenthused, about it. Maybe the industry will change my mind. But like most things, at best it is a component. We shouldn’t lose site of farming as Expod describes in his comment. Larger scale but non-industrial farming is possible. It might not be a global solution to hunger, but neither is vat meat. We should welcome the innovations, but also look for lower tech, non industrial, sustainable solutions that are deployable around the world, not just shiny toys of tech companies.

[rosimunoz]

I absolutely would eat lab-grown meat—as long as it didn’t use FBS and wasn’t more environmentally harmful than regular animal meat. Lab meat may not taste exactly the same as the real thing, but that’s ok. I’ve barely consumed any cows milk in years (lactose intolerant) and at this point, almond milk tastes like regular milk to me because I’m used to it. They’re different, but serve the same purpose and taste good, so ultimately it’s fine. My hope is that as a society we’ll get to the same place with meat.

[GymGirl]

I don't eat beef, but you can pry chicken out of my cold dead hands 😅. Though I'm down for lab chicken

[CL-rwcd]

Is it safe, is there any side affects later down the line and how can you tell the difference

[claudeflorentine]

Would I eat lab grown meat? 100%. In a heartbeat. No problem. Bring it on. We need it. Earth needs it.

[Willow-Eversong]

yeah im cool with lab meat. even if it costs a bit more.