future meat, the world's first lab-grown meat industry, opens its doors in Israel. (1) It can produce 500kg of pure every day lab meat, equal to 5 thousand hamburger, without any waste. More or less the equivalent of a couple of cattle.
The new one that advances is based in Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute of Science and of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as of Future Meat Technologies (FMT).
The plant can now produce artificial meats of chicken, pork and lamb, soon also beef. With production cycles that the startup indicates to be about 20 times faster than natural ones.
Meat 'safe and healthy, delicious and cheap.' In the laboratory, however
The arguments by Rom Kshuk, CEO of Future Meat Technologies, are objectively effective. There global crisis of food security it is expressed above all in the inability to distribute proteins to the whole of humanity. FMT offers a scalable technology that already today, through cell cultivation, allows you to produce a meat:
- safe, as it is free of chemical contaminants (e.g. residues of antibiotics, hormones and other veterinary drugs) and biological (viruses and bacteria),
- safe as it is not derived from GMOs,
- nutritive,
- palatable, from an organoleptic point of view,
- economic.
USD 3,90 / kg it is the price that can already be applied to artificial chicken meat grown in a small plant. By applying an economy of scale, 'prices will continue to fall and make cultured meat accessible around the world'. LoL.
Artificial meat, sustainable technology?
The animal cell lines they grow forever without any genetic modification. FMT's proprietary technology boasts yields 10 times higher than the industrial standard, thanks to an exclusive process of 'rejuvenating' the culture media that allows to halve consumption by removing waste products. The production costs, therefore, are considerably lower than the average.
Sustainability of lab meat is expressed in an unfair but overwhelming comparison, according to which traditional animal husbandry today would absorb over 80% of cultivated land and 30% of fresh water, as well as being a cause of deforestation in Latin America. (2) The lower impact of cultured meat could thus respond to the growing demand for meat, linked to demographic factors and changes in eating habits. (3)
AltMeat, the ABC
Le AltMeat - i.e. Veg products presented as alternatives ready-to-eat to meat consumption - they are not in themselves associated with agroecology and organic production. Rather, they express a 'species leap', eating is no longer an 'agricultural act' but a 'technological act'. (4) And the resulting foods are often ultra-processed foods. (5) Technologies applied to AltMeat there are three:
a) 'meat' from vegetable proteins, often made 'unique' by genetic engineering techniques (such as GMO vegetable blood di Impossible Burger),
b) 'cultivated' meat, where cells rather than animals are grown. About 75 companies are dealing with it today, on the planet. Eat just was the first company to be licensed to sell cultured chicken meat in Singapore,
c) fermentation. A millenary technology, still used in Asia to produce the Tempeh (soybeans fermented with Rhizopus oligosporus). The fermentation of biomass (mycoproteins from filamentous fungi) is the basis of the technology developed by Quorn, in the UK. The precision fermentation, through microorganisms, in turn allows to produce specific substances (eg collagen).
Markets and investments
The market of the AltMeat, according to a recent report by Mc Kynsey, it will reach 25 billion dollars by 2039. Provided that the production costs of cultivated meats - already dropped on average by 99%, compared to the beginning - can be competitive with those of authentic meats . A near goal, expected that future meat is confident of reaching US $ 2 / kg by the end of 2022.
Il Good Food Institute - organization representing the sector AltMeat (meat alternatives) - estimates that investments in innovation related to alternative proteins have increased by 6000% in five years, from US $ 6 million in 2016 to US $ 366 million in 2020. The same future meat has raised $ 43 million in investments from giants such as Tyson Foods, the first meat producer in the US, and Archer-Daniels Midland.
Regole
Investments and technologies they also, of course, stimulate the reform of the rules. The big show on the meat sounding - in the European Parliament, on 20.10.20 - was the most unimaginable propaganda to the illusion that you have AltMeat can take the place of farms. (6) The battle of the US breeders to the financial industry had not gone better. (7) In Mexico alone, mock meat cannot be referred to as 'meat'. (8)
Legislation to be applied in the EU to most of the 'alternative' products is that on novel foods (now EU Reg. 2015/2283). That is to say that new food products and innovative ingredients must be authorized by the European Commission, in agreement with the Member States meeting in the PAFF Committee (Plants, Animals, Food and Feed), following a scientific evaluation by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority).
Nothing more and nothing less than what is required to place on the EU market a food based on insects, algae or microalgae (9,10) - in turn, sustainable sources of protein - of which there is no consumption experience in the Old Continent prior to 1997.
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Agnieszka de Sousa. Meat Grown in Israeli Bioreactors Is Coming to American Diners. Bloomberg. 23.6.21/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-23/meat-grown-in-bioreactors-is-coming-to-american-diners-next-year
(2) Dario Dongo, Susanna Cavallina. Argentina, Gran Chaco on fire for GM soybeans and beef cattle. #Buycott. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 10.8.19/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/argentina-gran-chaco-in-fiamme-per-soia-ogm-e-bovini-da-carne-buycott
(3) Dario Dongo. The world in 2050, necessary transformations. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.11.18/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/il-mondo-nel-2050-trasformazioni-necessarie
(4) Dario Dongo, Guido Cortese. Climate and antibiotic resistance. Will lab meat save us? GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.1.20/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/clima-e-antibiotico-resistenza-la-carne-di-laboratorio-ci-salverà
(5) Dario Dongo, Marta Singed. Vegetarians and vegans more exposed to harmful ultra-processed foods. Scientific study. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.8.20/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/salute/vegetariani-e-vegani-più-esposti-ai-nocivi-alimenti-ultraprocessati-studio-scientifico
(6) Dario Dongo. 'Carne vegan', meat sounding. Great show in the European Parliament. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 23.10.20/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/carne-vegana-meat-sounding-grande-spettacolo-al-parlamento-europeo
(7) Dario Dongo. Meat sounding, revolt in the USA. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.3.18/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/meat-sounding-rivolta-in-usa
(8) Dario Dongo. Milk and Meat sounding, adding water to meats. Lessons from Mexico. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 28.12.19/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/milk-e-meat-sounding-aggiunta-di-acqua-alle-carni-lezioni-dal-messico
(9) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Edible insects, EFSA green light for meal moths. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 22.1.21/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/insetti-commestibili-via-libera-di-efsa-alle-tarme-della-farina
(10) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Microalgae and insects, the search for sustainable proteins in Horizon 2020. GIFTS (Great Italian Food Trade). 27.5.20/XNUMX/XNUMX, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/innovazione/microalghe-e-insetti-la-ricerca-di-proteine-sostenibili-in-horizon-2020
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
