By Andrew Williams
Imagine for a moment that the year is 2031 and you are walking down the frozen food aisle in a supermarket (probably a Wal-Mart Omni store at this point). You stop to look at a box of pre-packaged chicken nuggets and read the following label: “made with 20% chicken protein and 80% chicken stem cell protein.” Sound far-fetched? Not if you talk to Dr. Mirko Betti and Isha Datar, two Canadian food science researchers who have studied potential ways to grow animal protein in a lab for large-scale human consumption.
Referred to as in-vitro grown meat in the scientific community, this nascent technology may form an important part of our future food supply. Consisting of animal muscle stem-cells cultured using a combination of growth hormones and a nutrient serum, this biological concoction may one day make its way into your hotdogs and hamburgers. Scientists, such as Betti and Datar, believe it’s not a question of if it will happen, but when. In 2009 they co-authored a University of Alberta paper entitled “Possibilities for an in-vitro meat production system,” that explored how this idea may become a reality. It may sound like science fiction but Betti notes that science fiction has predicted many of the technologies we use today. Welcome to the world of the stem cell meat farmer
If it sounds like an industry you’d be interested in working in, you’d better start studying. Until the process is sufficiently automated, in-vitro grown meat will require a highly educated and multi-disciplinarian team of scientists to produce even the smallest amount. That means biologists, lab technicians, food scientists, bio-engineers, and a whole host of other professions will find work within this industry. There won’t be an in-vitro farmer; rather, there’ll be in vitro farming divisions and research institutes. In addition, a sophisticated industry supply chain will need to develop in order to provide the necessary nutrient serums and growth hormones to fuel the bio-reactors that grow the animal protein. This supply chain itself will also require highly educated teams synthesizing the basic components that will make in-vitro meat possible. Each pound of in-vitro meat will likely have more intellectual capital invested in it than any other food on the market.
Eventually, high-tech infrastructure will grow up around these concentrations of scientific expertise. According to the academic paper “Biofabrication: a 21st century manufacturing paradigm,” an in-vitro meat industry cluster – a geographic region with heavy concentrations of “raw materials (stem cells, cell culture media, biomaterials hydrogels), bio-fabrication tools (bio-printers, dispensers, bioreactors, software) and the proximity of potential markets” – is an essential step towards the commercialization of this process. Betti suggests that eventually, the concept of vertical farming using agricultural skyscrapers may be used to condense the entire process into one building. Where will these industry clusters first pop up? On this, Betti and Datar differ in opinion. “It’s most likely going to happen in the Netherlands” says Datar, “that’s where all the work is happening,” not to mention funding. Betti believes that as long as NASA’s plan to go to Mars goes forward, it is likely that they will be the first mover. “We already know that pretty soon we are going to Mars and we will need to produce food there. This is not that far away. NASA will probably be the first to use this technology but then it could be transferred to the rest of the world.” While minute amounts of in-vitro meat have been grown in labs in Europe and America, funding for this process comes almost exclusively from public coffers. As with many high technology concepts, private businesses are weary of investing heavily before the concept has been proven commercially viable. Whether in Europe or America, the process will mostly likely be perfected in a university rather than an office.
Apart from funding difficulties, the sector has a less well-known problem that is more than a little ironic. In-vitro meat is often held up as a way of ending the cruelty to animals by removing them from the production system. Unfortunately, in-vitro meat is currently grown using fetal bovine serum: a nutrient and growth hormone rich by-product that’s derived from cattle fetuses. By using this serum, Datar points out that the entire process is still entirely reliant on harvesting animals, just in an unconventional way. All may not be lost though; Betti notes that “you can already find synthetic serum [non-fetal bovine that is] on the market – the problem is the cost. But this is true for all technology in the beginning.”
If we fast forward past the many obstacles that currently inhibit the technology from achieving commercialization, how disruptive will this process end up being? While a definite yuck factor may generate some resistance, its introduction into our food system will be so gradual that there probably won’t be a defining moment.
“I envision this in-vitro meat coming into the market as a kind of filler: a meat by-product that is stuck in with real meat” says Datar, and “the most likely products are going to be mince-meat products.” Betti agrees on this possibility and suggests that the real thing will become a luxury product: “we have to feed animal protein to a growing population so, in my opinion, beef will become an elite food, you’ll eat it in restaurants and you’ll pay extra for the specialty. But for hamburger you don’t need the real thing, you can just grow the in-vitro meat.” Another possibility is the creation of in-vitro meat based on rare, exotic, or even extinct animals as a novelty. It is conceivable that someday in the future you could be treated to white rhino sausages with a side order of panda nuggets. If you think that’s distasteful, just wait until someone grows in-vitro human meat.
If this entire topic leaves you feeling queasy, don’t despair; it won’t be on the market for many years to come. Even when it does come, Betti believes that it’ll just be another option in the supermarket. “Nobody will say you have to eat only this, this will be an alternative” he says. Datar is a little more pessimistic when it comes to the transition: “I don’t see the common public getting into it without almost being tricked first. When you look at genetically modified foods, we only realized that we were eating them years after we started eating them.” Whatever the outcome, be sure to read your meat labels a little more closely in the future.
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I had heard about this before. It seems like an awful lot of work for a hamburger. I also wonder what it will do to vegetarians around the world- some do say the only reason they don’t eat meat is because they don’t like killing things.
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Can I Interest You In a Stem-Cell Burger? « Unlimited – Gen Y Business Culture – Work, Money, Entrepreneurs, Life, Style, Health, How-Tos…
ummmh… This is a tasty burger!