How Successful Will Cultured Meats Be?

Alexis Madrigal. 1/15/08. "Beef Battle: Tissue Engineered Burgers vs. Humanely Raised Cattle." Wired Science.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/beef-battle-tis/



I found this article on a website for New Harvest, a group that works to finance research for “cultured meats.” The Article was published on January 15, 2008. Two fundamental questions lie at the heart of this article: why do we go to whole foods? And what does that mean for “cultured meat”?

Why do we go to Whole Foods?

Whole Foods is the leading retailer for the Organic Industry and has more than doubled its revenue over the past five years. One major appeal of Organic food is health. Consumers are searching for foods that are pesticide and hormone-free. Some simply believe that Organic foods taste better. Others are attracted to this idea of “natural” foods that they can imagine being grown in their great-grandmother’s vegetable garden.

There is another major reason that people shop at Whole Foods: the “backstory.” The “backstory” refers to how that food came to market; specifically, whether or not the animal was treated ethically and the effect that the meat production had on the environment. Some people just don’t want to eat a steak if the cow was killed in an industrial slaughterhouse. They don’t want to eat a chicken if they believe they are indirectly killing the world’s water-supply.
It is tough to say which of these reasons predominates, but the answer has major implications for the future of “cultured meat.”

What does this mean for the future of “cultured meat”?

Put VERY simply, “Cultured Meat” is made by taking cells from an animal, and growing them in a medium containing essential nutrients. Although it will be quite some time before we are eating cultured, chicken nuggets, sausages and hamburgers, the FDA did recently approve the sale of cloned meat, probing us to ask: how successful will this enterprise be?

“Cultured Meat” will be more expensive than other meats, and will likely require a niche consumer to be successful. It is unclear whether or not “cultured meat” will be any healthier than organic meat. Therefore, if people shop at whole foods for health reasons, they may not feel any need to stop buying the organic meat. If people shop at whole foods, to buy “natural” foods, they may be put off by meat that originated from a petri dish.

If however, most people shop at whole foods for the “backstory” then “cultured meat” would likely take over the meat aisle. The production of “Cultured Meat” is completely harmless to animals, and is significantly less detrimental to the environment than the production of meat from a slaughterhouse.

IF the “backstory” is truly important to many Americans, then “Cultured Meat” could become a major food source. If it did become a major food source, it would place the science of cloning on dinner tables across America. In my opinion, this would make Americans more comfortable with the idea of cloning. This increased conformability with cloning could have major implications towards the progress of cloning in many different areas of biotech. If commercial success drives people to view “cultured meat” as ‘humane,’ then people might be more open to other uses of cloning that could also be viewed as ‘humane,’ such as stem-cell research.