Lab-grown meat
Lab-grown meat has been in the public consciousness for a while now, as a concept that's being crowdsourced, debated, experimented and feared! If you've been keeping up with the news, you will have seen an ABC article from June that cell-cultured or lab grown meat has now been approved for putting on plates in Australia.
This lab-grown meat is being developed in Victoria, with COO of the lab, Vow, Ms Dinsmoor, describing the process as "very similar to what you'd see in a brewery". Similar products have existed on shelves for decades, vegetarian alternatives to popular favourites, which some communities have accepted with open arms. These lab made foods were created in an attempt to reduce the burden of meat production on the planet and the welfare of animals, just as this new lab-grown meat is. The difference is that this new product is literal meat, developed from cells of animals. It is being presented by these production companies as, currently, a diversification of the food market, and eventually maybe, a solution to the global resource shortage.
There are still a lot of questions that many people, including us at Sunshine Coast Organic Meats, want answered before we open our arms wide and accept this huge leap and total transformation of meat production.
The ABC reports that FSANZ undertook a "rigorous two-and-a-half-year assessment" to ensure the product is safe. This study is pertained specifically to the quail being used in the restaurant in Melbourne, but it nevertheless sets a benchmark for the entire industry. Once this idea gets popular (and there's a process to easily scale it), companies will start producing this product faster than FSANZ can complete a comprehensive assessment. The degradation of animal farming, from natural, organic farming to conventional farming with overstocked animals, preemptive medications and chemical-filled grains, shows how far an idea can fall in pursuit of profit. In ten years, the process for curating, producing and disseminating this product may look completely different, once it's gone too far to be rigorously assessed by any governing body. Further, two-and-a-half-years is not long enough to understand the long-term effects, nor the cumulative effects of eating this lab-grown meat for multiple days or months in a row. We are not saying that this meat product will certainly have consequences for humans, but we can't ignore these concerns as we shift the goalpost of food production. Extremely long term results, we're talking thousands of years, shows that organic, locally produced meat eaten seasonally is the safest, most nutritious option for the general population.
Transparency Is Key – But Will We Get It?
One of the key tenets of our business is transparency. We believe every person has a right to an informed choice to ensure it aligns with their values and needs. Right now, the public knows very little about what goes into lab-grown meat. With industry-shaking, proprietary products like what Vow has created, there is a lot of secrecy around ingredients and processes to protect their patent. There are many concerns we have regarding this meat: what’s in the growth media?
Are antibiotics or synthetic hormones used?
Is the final product genetically modified in any way?
Consumers deserve transparency—not just vague marketing words and promises about good taste, nutrition and sustainability.
The ABC article notes that FSANZ plans to mandate clear labelling of cultured meat but we know what 'clear labelling' looks like in our processed foods. The different words for palm oil, for high fructose corn syrup, for food dyes, for seed oils, those are all clear examples of how production companies try to trick, obfuscate and confuse the public. In restaurants, where this product is being used for the first time, there is no ingredients list and no time to understand the complicated terms and processes that go into producing this kind of product.
The most unfortunate thing about all of this is, as it is presented in the ABC article, that it won't put an end to conventional farming practices. With the current scale, cost and impact (read that in the ABC article they admitted it was not environmentally sustainable, it was not cheap and it wasn't to scale to meet mass demand), this lab-grown meat is as accessible to the public as organic meat. People who care for the environment and animal welfare will begin choosing between lab-grown meat or organic meat, and the people who will suffer are family farms, who have been operating for decades if not centuries and will lose their homes, their careers and will see huge, industrial farms stay open.
What does the future of lab-grown meat look like?
We can't say what the future of lab-grown meat will look like: Vow has only just received approval for use of this product. It has been in the news for years and with it has brought a lot of questions, concerns and fears. We hope that the future of this product looks like full transparency of ingredients and production methods, including whether animal products or GMOs are used.
Clear labelling laws, so consumers are not misled in restaurants or retail.
Support for farmers, particularly those committed to regenerative, organic, or ethical practices, so they don’t get priced out by synthetic alternatives.
And most importantly: an open and honest conversation, which is participated by lab techs, doctors, farmers, consumers, ecologists, not lobbyists and scientists.
Lab-grown meat may have a role to play in our future, but not before it answers a lot of hard questions about the how, what, when and where of it all.
Read the full article here: ABC News – Lab-Grown Meat Approved for Sale in Australia