Cultured meat, known variously as cultivated meat, lab-grown meat, synthetic meat, and slaughter-free meat, is meat from animal cells that is grown in a lab, and it might be the next big thing in consumables. It promises to be the answer to the environmental devastation associated with factory farming and its serious contribution to human-made climate change and offers an alternative to factory-farmed meat.

It is genuine meat, and even organ meats and seafood can be cultivated. Since the first cultured meat burger patty, pioneered by Dutch scientist Mark Post, was debuted on live television in 2013, interest in the technology has snowballed and today there are cultured meat companies on every continent and hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in making it cost effective within the next decade.

How Is Meat Grown?

The process starts when stem cells from an animal, say a cow, are extracted and stored in a laboratory environment. The stem cells are placed inside giant cultivation vats (sometimes called bioreactors) and ‘fed’ a nutrient-rich diet of amino acids, glucose, proteins, growth hormones, salts, and minerals (not unlike the growth process inside the cow’s body) to produce large volumes of the cells.

Less sophisticated iterations of the technology, such as Post’s prototype patty, were only capable of cultivating the meat cells, without the fats and connective tissues we associate with many meat cuts. Thus, pioneering meat cultivation companies were only able to offer highly processed meat products to compete with factory-farmed competitors: patties, nuggets, and the like – all of which are easy to snack on when playing games or claiming an online casino welcome bonus.

In recent years, cultivated meat producers have begun experimenting with the shape, texture and form of the meat cultured, by adding organic meat in bone, tendon, and fat ‘scaffolding’ around or between which the meat may be grown, or molded around the scaffolding into a recognizable shape after the fact. While cultured meat is a viable alternative to factory farming, at this stage it still requires a living animal subject to harvest cultures from and is therefore not an entirely animal-free process.

How Do People Feel About It?

Most people’s gut response to the prospect of eating meat they perceive as ‘fake’ is a firm rejection. But qualitative research from Europe and North America suggests that this initial response is not a firm one; two-thirds of respondents admitted to changing their minds after having considered the ethical implications of slaughter-free meat, the sophistication of the technology, and the chance to reduce their own carbon footprint without a significant lifestyle change.

What’s In A Name?

With cultured meat, as with everything else, perception is key. The same research as mentioned above noted that people had markedly different responses to different descriptions of the production.

Clinical names like ‘in-vitro meat’, ‘lab-grown meat’ and ‘artificial meat’, which emphasise the ‘synthetic nature of the product, were met with markedly less enthusiasm than terms that highlight the ethical advantages of cultured meat, such as ‘clean meat’ and ‘slaughter-free meat’.