In 2013, Professor Mark Post, from the University of Maastrich, who was working on the repair of heart tissue, led an experience that would mark a milestone: he managed to produce the first hamburger made from meat grown in a laboratory.
After two years of work and, at a cost of US $ 325,000, he thus turned a typical plot of a science fiction movie into a solid scientific reality.
Since 2010, prominent technologists and visionary entrepreneurs have embarked on the development of a new food industry based on the production of proteins in laboratories. Many smart people are dedicated to making the technology viable, with the idea that it could dominate the future of food. It will?
Since December 2020, the company Eat Just (Good Meat) has been selling laboratory-grown chicken meat in Singapore (the first country to approve the product for human consumption).
As reported by CNBC’s “make it” blog, as early as March 2021, the chicken nugget is now available at Singapore’s 1880 restaurant, retailing around $17 for a prepared meal last year.
As Upside Foods, founded in 2015 (which claims to be the world’s first dedicated cultured meat company) reports, “what makes our meat (beef and chicken) unique is how it’s grown: we take a small sample of healthy chicken cells. We put it in a nutrient-rich environment and allow it to turn into pure, clean meat, ready to cook and enjoy.”
This is a process that has been called “cellular agriculture”. And it doesn’t just reach beef or chicken.
This year, Upside Foods acquired Cultured Decadence, a cultured seafood company, achieving a record $400 million fundraising round. And the company Perfect Day, established in 2016, with offices in the USA and India, is dedicated to the production of animal-free protein from a fungus genetically programmed to create it, using the same precision fermentation technology responsible for medical insulin.
From milk to ice cream to cream cheese, Perfect Day’s milk protein is now available in over 5,000 stores across the US But instead of being made by cattle, it’s made from cow whey protein. Does not contain lactose.
Another company, Just Egg, of the Eat Just group, discovered the mung bean, a protein-rich legume commonly used in Asian cuisines. And in 2018, Just Egg was born. To date, the company has sold the equivalent of 100 million plant-based eggs at major retailers including Walmart, Whole Food Markets and Alibaba.
Arguments in favor of cellular agriculture production prominently include protection of the environment.
It is true that beef and milk are two commodities with the highest emission records in the agricultural sector (they represent 3 and 1.6 gigatons of carbon equivalent – at 2010 values – out of a total of 8.1 in the sector) according to reports the control panel of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
However, the contribution of cellular agriculture to the reduction of carbon emissions by the sector is still a matter of discussion. A study published in “Frontiers” in 2019, concludes that “cultured meat is not prima facie climatically superior to cattle; instead, its relative impact depends on the availability of decarbonized energy generation and the specific production systems that are carried out.”
The trial is open. Meanwhile, the parties will argue feverishly for and against them productive systems that compete to define the future of food in a more populous world that will demand more and more protein
