Billions of land mammals, and perhaps trillions of fish and other marine life, are slaughtered every year to meet unsustainable protein needs, but innovations in the biomedical field have provided a solution in the form of lab-grown meat. buy in the next 18 to 24 months.
One of the two producers of cultured meat in South Africa, Mzansi Meat Company, said in the next few months they hope people will be able to taste lab-grown meat, and buy it from the shelves in two years.
Meat is made by replicating cells taken from animals, says Tasneem Karodia, co-founder and chief operating officer of Mzansi Meat Company.
“We take cells from animals and we give them the same conditions, so that the temperature is at 37 ° C, we give them some nutrients, amino acids, sugar and in three weeks we get processed meat,” said Karodia.
The product is then formed into patties, pork or fish fillets and is safe to eat because “only cells from animals are replicated”.
The first sample of cultured meat was released in 2013 when a professor in the Netherlands, Mark Post, presented the first hamburger patty grown in the lab, said Paul Bartels, chief executive of Mogale Meats, the second of two producers of cultured meat in South Africa.
“It’s been on the cards for at least several decades and even Winston Churchill mentioned it in the 1930s. It’s great that he saw something that at the time was clearly not thought of,” said Bartels.
Churchill published an article in Maclean’s magazine and the Strand magazine, in which he wrote: “Fifty years from now, we will escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken to eat a breast or a wing by growing these parts separately in a suitable medium.”
With meat farming, a small biopsy from a live animal can grow up to two tons of meat, Bartels said.
Halaal or kosher?
The question that arises for processed meat producers is whether their products can be considered halal or kosher.
Halal meat must be slaughtered in a certain way and the animal must be healthy when slaughtered, while the name of Allah must also be mentioned. For the meat to be kosher, the animal must be slaughtered by a shochet – a person certified by a rabbi or Jewish court to slaughter animals for food in the manner prescribed by Jewish law – and soaked before cooking.
“Whether the processed meat is halal or halal has not yet been established. Religious leaders must weigh in. There is some debate,” said Karodia.
“There are people who say that there is no slaughter and that the event is required to be kosher. There are religious figures in Israel who give their point of view about kosher and say that processed meat can be considered kosher.
Bartels said: “Religious figures involved in this discussion say that processed meat is not necessarily against their religion, but it is clear that this is a new technology that does not follow a religious process.
“But the process was designed because of conventional agriculture. We can see that there is a good reason to bleed animals as one of the requirements, but now we don’t have to do it because there is no blood. This is a challenge to the religious process.
Labeling
Another challenge ahead for producers of cultured meat may be labeling, and they may face the same hurdles as producers of plant-based “meat” alternatives following a clampdown on the sector by the agriculture department.
In a letter to producers and retailers of meat alternatives last year, the department noted that some products have been labeled “vegan nuggets”, “plant-based meatballs” and “vegan BBQ ribs”, for example. These names, according to the department, are “prescribed for processed meat”.
“The biggest regulatory hurdle is figuring out what to label. What to put on the packaging to indicate to the consumer that it’s because it comes from animals, but it’s made in a different way, so how do we show that,” asked Karodia.
He said Mzansi Meats wanted to label their products as meat and give them descriptors like “farmed”. But some consumers may not understand what cultivation means, he admitted, adding: “We are working with the regulator to understand what is in line with consumer understanding.”
In the US, Bartels noted, processed meat has met strong opposition from the National Beef Association “because they think it will affect the industry”.
“The same association may oppose the labeling of processed meat as meat. But it will take a few years before it becomes mainstream, so it is impossible to tell now,” he said.
Good for the environment
Producers of laboratory-grown meat consider it a viable solution, as industrial animal farming is the main cause of climate change, deforestation and air and water pollution.
According to the United Nations, animal agriculture accounts for approximately 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“We have a large population and people like to eat meat,” Bartels said. “The conversion to vegetarianism and veganism is not fast enough from a global perspective. It is part of our culture if we want to eat meat, the problem of eating meat is the greenhouse gas produced in the livestock industry, more than all the transportation in the world combined.
“In Africa, we are going to double our population in the next 30 years and that is why we need to at least increase our food production by the same amount and where will it come from?
“We have become a continent with less water. This is a method that uses less water and less land,” he said.
Farmed food is more sustainable because the production process produces only meat that is desired and will be eaten, he said. There is no production of horns, eyes or hides which are often thrown away when animals are slaughtered.
“If you look at the sustainable development goals of food security on land and in the sea, with processed meat, you will have greater food security,” added Bartels.