The rise of synthetic meats: are they the future?

The concept of alternative meats has existed for nearly a century, but it isn't until 2013 that the first example of lab-grown meat was made a reality when a beef burger was served up at a conference in London.

by Ash Jones

Since then, the industry has come a long way, with a recent report from Polaris Market Research forecasting the entire sector could be worth nearly $500 million by 2030, offering a number of key benefits over its livestock-based alternatives.

Meat alternatives tend to come in two flavours: cultured meats, which are created in a lab by taking cells from animals by using tissue engineering typically seen in regenerative medicine, and plant-based meats, which have existed far longer and are often the key point for discussion when looking into the subject.

Both offer significant advantages, but primarily that they both offer alternatives to the rearing of livestock, which is currently a massive source of greenhouse gas emissions, most notably methane. The goal for many activists for decades has been not to eliminate meat consumption entirely, but to encourage people to cut down.

Since the first $300,000 patty hit plates a decade ago, the process has since been applied to other types of meat, ranging from fish to chicken to pork sausages.

Those in the industry also believe it could be scaled up, which would also allow it to become more affordable for the average person.

Looking at the subject empirically, there is no doubt that the meat and dairy industries are actively contributing to climate change in a significant way. 90% of the food and beverage industry's greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock and many large companies in the sector are looking to reduce the amount of livestock across their supply chains.

Some studies have also suggested the industry could rival oil giants in terms of raw emissions.

It is also commonly accepted that certain meats, such as red meat and processed meats, are linked with the ongoing obesity crisis.

Cultured meats take a slightly different approach from their plant-based alternatives in that they are real meat, but instead of slaughtering animals, they are grown in a test tube. The technology is still relatively rudimentary, but it is expected that, as tissue engineering comes more sophisticated, the disparity between meat from livestock and its lab-grown cousin will continue to shrink.

Plant-based meats, on the other hand, are far more sophisticated and include seitan, a high-protein meat alternative made from wheat gluten, jackfruit, soy (which comes with its own environmental issues) and others that attempt to mimic the texture and flavour of meat.

UK readers may be familiar with Quorn, a famously high-in-salt meat substitute that has been available since 1985, and the industry is continuing to grow.

According to The Guardian, large meat producers are looking at getting into this

burgeoning market by "gobbling up" producers of plant-based alternatives.

Impossible Foods, which could be considered one of the true pioneers of this type of cuisine's slogan is "Eat meat. Save the planet", which is quite open about how, while consumption habits should change, our pallets do not need to be radically altered in order to be more sustainable.

It claims altering your diet can be "better than getting solar panels, driving an electric car, or avoiding plastic straws", claiming its products use 87% less water, lead to 89% less greenhouse gas emissions and use 96% less land than livestock.

A big advantage to meat alternatives is a significant reduction in deforestation. 70% of all deforestation is to make way for agriculture to grow palm oil, soy, rear livestock or for the commercial timber industry.

More trees mean more carbon dioxide absorption, which can make the scale-up of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies far easier. One study from last year concluded the Amazon rainforest - the place with the heaviest deforestation - now emits more CO2 than it absorbs, and this is a problem.

People may not realise it, but many environmental issues are often interlinked, and tackling one often has benefits outside of its immediate industry.

The question this article has to answer though, is: are meat alternatives the future?

Statista estimates there are around 1 billion cattle in the world as of 2022, seeing a population rise of 4 million since 2021. Livestock alone accounts for around 14% of global emissions. Much of this is methane, which is denser and more pollutant than carbon dioxide.

Many people would have you believe these alternatives are the future, and significant reductions in livestock populations would have obvious environmental effects. But what do people themselves think?

Industry Europe spoke with Kevin McGeough, the CEO of Canadian plantbased foods firm, More Than Protein (MTP), which is hoping to specialise in localised food supply chains in its home country, reportedly seeing a 90% emissions reduction compared to beef.

He feels that as the human population continues to grow, meat alternatives, and more specifically, protein alternatives will be more necessary in order to alleviate potential food shortages.

"I think the answer is pretty simple: we need more sustainable protein for global food security. We've seen this throughout the coronavirus and with the recent RussiaUkraine situation", he said. "Land use is also a huge issue for the industry, as is raw labour costs, particularly for the meat and dairy sector. Here in Canada, for instance, a large meat processing plant will require 3,000 people to operate, and pandemics or natural disasters and other crises will only make operations more difficult. "Disruptions can make manufacturing more inefficient, which can also have an impact on the environmental impact of a business".

However, it's not just a matter of public health or security, it's also about logistics.

More Than Protein's founder believes food chains should be localised, something Industry Europe recently quizzed Intel Energy Manager Mike Bates about regarding the future of urban farming.

Many believe it to also be to the benefit of food security and minimising supply chain disruptions as well as other passive benefits such as reducing transport emissions.

However, outside of increasing how bad the meat and dairy sector is for the environment, McGeough also believes that it is inevitable that plant-based firms such as his will break into the market. "[Meat alternatives] clearly are the future and they should happen sooner rather than later before issues were seeing come into the foreground now get too out of hand or we face another crisis on the scale of the pandemic", he added.

But people are not going to switch to the alternatives if the product is nothing like the original. And plant-based meat firms know this.

Impossible Foods prides itself on its fake chicken nuggets, which it recently launched in the UK - selected specifically for its love of fried chicken joints such as KFC. It claims there is "little difference" between plantbased meat and the real thing.

Meat alternatives have to compete gram for gram with the protein found in traditional chicken nuggets. For reference, Impossible Food's nuggets contain around 13g of protein, compared to 16g from McDonald's. However, the alternatives are made using non-battery farmed chickens and contain no cholesterol.

This means the environmental impact is lower, no animals are being mistreated, and it's better for your personal health.

Alternative meat firms work hard on ensuring their product is comparable to the real thing. "A big part of the project is looking into what makes our product better than the real thing - and there are issues that constantly crop up in industry: what does it taste like? what's its texture like? What colour is it? How can the plant be used? What will it substitute?", McGeough adds, affirming that his company spend a good year working with engineers and scientists to come up with good substitutes. "It's come a long way since the first soy alternatives. We need to think about what I call 'Protein 3.0' - or how these can directly compete with or surpass the meat and dairy industry".

Because these ingredients are often being built from the ground up, the people behind them can also control what does and doesn't get in - control you cannot get with traditional meat - which could make them even healthier. This could also apply somewhat to cultured meats.

The entire plant-based meat market is expected to reach $8.3 billion by the year 2025, and it will only grow from there as consumers continue to become more sustainably focused, such as we've seen since the pandemic, despite the rising cost of living.

But if that isn't enough, there's also another angle to think about. A simple equation. Sustainable living versus effort input. Simply put, if consumers do not have to alter their eating habits exponentially because future substitutes could taste nearly identical while also helping out the environment, then it's a win-win.

So, are meat alternatives the future? In many ways, yes. They're better for the environment, better for you, and better for your local community. That being said, it is unlikely to entirely replace the meat and dairy industry. People are, often, slow to change.

However, as the tech behind cultured meats becomes more advanced, sees scale-up, and eventually becomes affordable, and with quality plant-based alternatives also on the horizon, many people may have the option to cut down. n