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Biotech Earth Science

Lab-Grown Meat Will Overtake Plant-Based Alternatives By 2040, Study Says (inverse.com) 288

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inverse: Cultured meat could overtake plant-based alternatives like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger as early as 2040, according to a new report. The research, from consultancy firm AT Kearney, finds that meat grown in a lab from cells will ultimately become more popular than vegetarian food that replicates the taste of animal products. By then, most of the world's burgers will be entirely meat-free. The report claims that, over the next 15 years, the market will shift toward lab-grown meat as alternatives struggle to maintain their momentum from early innovation. Consumer preferences will also drive a shift to the lab-based approach, as the researchers argue that the similarity to meat drives commercial potential and that, ultimately, lab-grown meat will still taste and feel much more like the real thing.

These products will drive down meat consumption even as the whole industry expands, but scientists are unsure whether this will be good for climate change. University of Oxford research found that, while methane-producing cows are lambasted as a major source of greenhouse gases, the methane they produce only stays in the atmosphere for around 12 years. Carbon dioxide, which a lab would in theory produce in spades to power the production of cultured meat, can last for thousands of years. However, this week's report pushes back on this notion, and finds that meat alternatives are far more resource-efficient than conventional meat. When taken as a grain-to-meat ratio, animals only operate at around 15 percent efficiency. Cultured meat only needs around 1.5 kg of crops like soy, pease and maize to produce 1 kg of beef, resulting in a 70 percent conversion rate. Plant-based products need around 1.3 kg per kilo of "meat," resulting in a 75 percent conversion rate.

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Lab-Grown Meat Will Overtake Plant-Based Alternatives By 2040, Study Says

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  • Soon we will be made of plant based meat
  • No it won't (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:02AM (#58760316) Homepage Journal

    I actually tasted one of those "Beyond Meat" burgers. I immediately shorted the stock.

    • With real beef burgers, there is a difference in taste between a fast food (or worse convince store) burger and those middle class burger fast casual restaurants, to a burger made in a fancier restaurant.

      I have no doubt that "Beyond Meat" don't taste like real Beef. However I expect it will take some time for the chefs to find ways to prepare it for it to taste much better.

      Right now it is a replacement product, like how we have ground turkey, or ground chicken.

      • Re:No it won't (Score:5, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:30AM (#58760472) Homepage Journal

        I've tried Impossible Burger, it tastes like real meat. Looks like real meat, same texture. Maybe only in burger form, i.e. it wouldn't work as a steak, but still damn impressive.

        Lab grown meat could be great. At the moment you have to pay more for better parts of the animal, and animals that are tastier and better treated while alive. Lab grown meat could provide a new level of consistently high quality meat.

        • I too have had an Impossible Burger.

          And while I've never eaten diseased spleen, I imagine that if I were to soak a diseased spleen in vegetable oil overnight and then fry it up, that it would taste pretty much like an Impossible Burger.

    • Re:No it won't (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:26AM (#58760456)

      I actually tasted one of those "Beyond Meat" burgers. I immediately shorted the stock.

      You make their point. Beyond Meat isn't "meat". Lab grown meat is essentially "meat" in all respects other than that it didn't get carved from a (hopefully non-living) animal. Personally, as a meat lover, I have no desire whatsoever to try any of the traditional meat replacements, would be marginally willing to try a Beyond Meat product, and would be perfectly willing to try a lab-grown meat stand-in.

      • No, lab grown meat has the same issue. They will never replace "real meat". But someone will take your money while trying to convince you.

        • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          No, lab grown meat has the same issue. They will never replace "real meat". But someone will take your money while trying to convince you.

          If it looks like beef, cooks like beef, and tastes like beef, it's beef. Doesn't matter if it comes from a vat in a lab or a cow on a farm. Is lab-grown meat there yet? Nope. But they are getting closer.

          • "If it looks like beef, cooks like beef, and tastes like beef, it's beef. "
             
            Correct. But it doesn't look like beef, cook lit it, or taste like it. But thanks for pointing out the obvious.

            • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

              "If it looks like beef, cooks like beef, and tastes like beef, it's beef. "

              Correct. But it doesn't look like beef, cook lit it, or taste like it. But thanks for pointing out the obvious.

              I can't vouch for the 2nd and 3rd criteria, but looking at the images on Memphis Meats' website -and assuming the photos are of the actual product- they have the "looks like meat" criteria down for lab grown meat.

    • I actually tasted one of those "Beyond Meat" burgers. I immediately shorted the stock.

      Beyond Meat is not cultured meat. It’s one of the plant-based products.

    • Beyond meat is not lab grown meat.

      Also, smart move to short the stock, it is nearly tripled since it's IPO.

    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      That is what I hear. I did try the impossible burger and as a carnivore I have to admit I was impressed.

  • "Study" says so much lately that I have a suspicion that he or she is the reincarnation of the ancient Greek priestess who was seated on a 3-legged stool near Delphi, being so high that she sounded profound.
  • Will or Could? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ardmhacha ( 192482 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:06AM (#58760342)

    Headline

    "Lab-Grown Meat Will Overtake Plant-Based Alternatives By 2040, Study Says"

    First line of story

    "Cultured meat could overtake plant-based alternatives like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger as early as 2040"

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      To be fair the research they are basing TFA on does say "will": https://www.atkearney.com/reta... [atkearney.com]

      So it's more like "could, if you believe this report that says it will". For once TFA is actually less definitive than the report it is based on.

    • Headline: Get your attention, make you angry, scared excited. Makes you want to read the article.
      Story: The factual part of the story.

      I think Schools should put more focus on critical thinking skills, such as being able to spot marketing tricks, Determine Journalism vs Editorial.

      Science News I feel is the worse offender of bad Journalism with a heavy Editorial. For a lot of science stories, there is a lot of push on the Editorial to try to find the practical usefulness of such research. Also my biggest g

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:18AM (#58760416)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • So, we can look forward to the extinction of most domestic animal species?

    Because sure as shooting, no farmer is going to keep feeding cows/pigs/chickens that are taking up space that could be used to grow something edible and salable....

    • That will never happen. Guaranteed.

    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      So, we can look forward to the extinction of most domestic animal species?

      Because sure as shooting, no farmer is going to keep feeding cows/pigs/chickens that are taking up space that could be used to grow something edible and salable....

      They wouldn't go extinct. In fact, if lab grown meat becomes prevalent, I could see the price per lb of actual, raised meat going up quite a bit as supply is greatly reduced, becoming a high end product. Comparing farm-raised animals to lab grown meat would be like comparing a wagyu beef filet to a Wal-mart sirloin.

    • by Chozabu ( 974192 )
      Well, with a bit of luck, we would no longer be in this situation: https://xkcd.com/1338/ [xkcd.com]
  • Predictions.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SmaryJerry ( 2759091 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @08:31AM (#58760474)
    The best part about predictions 20 years away is that no one will care enough about your prediction unless it was right. So many things have been "were 10 years away from...." and none of the things we were told ever happened. Don't mean to get political but we were taught in school the late 90s and early 2000s that we would run out of fossil fuels in 20 years and we would be forced to other methods and also that Florida and other coastlines would be underwater from melting glaciers. Well that and a whole lot of other predictions just never happened.
  • "By then, most of the world's burgers will be entirely meat-free."

    Dark times are ahead.
    • Did you have a burger lately?

      I have no idea what stuff they put in there, but calling that shit "meat" is already a stretch as it is...

      • You must not have a Habit Burger [habitburger.com] nearby... About the same price as the big chains (McDonald's, Wendy's Burger King, Carl's Jr.) but a lot better quality all around. Close to 300 stores, mainly across the US. And the ones in Shanghai are actually really, REALLY close in taste and quality to the original in Santa Barbara.
  • I can't eat chicken that is grown with growth hormones, it fees like eating rubber. Not looking forward to lab grown meat.
  • Stupid, pointless claims made by "studies" are becoming more and more frequent /. topics, study says.
  • I thought the lab-grown meat was based on animal cells grown in a lab. Hence it's not meat that required sacrificing a living animal, but it was still sourced from one. This distinction could still be important for people who are following a vegetarian or vegan diet for philosophical or religious reasons.

    I for one look forward to seeing massive scale-up of lab grown meat for burgers and such applications. I love a tasty burger and would love to see us reach a way to produce it with lower ecological i
    • Just imagine the beautiful future. We'll have a long production line. At one end you have the live cells which you feed with nutrients. As the cells grow and divide they stretch down a trough where the matured cells are cured. Then finally at the end it is sliced thick and laid on a griddle to cook. A never ending stream of perfect bacon flowing forth! We might even see the end of meat grading since it could all be custom grown to be like the perfect Wagyu. I imagine there would still be different brands an

    • Not sure how it would impact their philosophical reasons. Generally it's based on not harming another living creature, and lab-grown probably doesn't meet the definition of living.

  • I imagine a future where kids will irk the natural steaks because they "all have different sizes and are a bit tasteless" instead of the identical steaks with build in salt and flavoring they're used to.

  • "The research, from consultancy firm AT Kearney, finds that meat grown in a lab from cells will ultimately become more popular than vegetarian food that replicates the taste of animal products."

    At least I want to smoke what they smoked before doing this prediction.

    • They still need the fats to make the meat taste good.

      Try making a burger with nearly fat free steak tartar, no cheese or mayo, and be repared not for the greatest burger you ever had, but the worst.

  • "When taken as a grain-to-meat ratio" well yeah, but most cow which I see in my region are mostly grass fed, with barely grain supplement in summer (mostly stuff like Mais which would be thrown out to the trash otherwise). While it is true industrial farm fed cow are fed grain, There is far more grazing than you would think (source : check foir "feed" https://ec.europa.eu/agricultu... [europa.eu]

    Beef and sheepmeat/goatmeat production tends to be based on grazing or grass feeding , though there are examples of more

  • of course it will. Growing meat is an incredibly wasteful process. Lab grown meat would be orders of magnitude cheaper. No bones, organs, etc that need to support the muscle fiber everyone actually wants to eat.

    After all, I don't see a lot of folks lining up to eat eyeball steaks outside of the occasional joke festival or the really, really poor.
    • The bones and marrow are important for some recipes. Even if we just grow them for those specific uses though that would be a lot less waste than what we currently get.

  • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @09:02AM (#58760696)
    After the Dust Bowl [wikipedia.org] in the 1930s destroyed farmland and lead to food shortages, the U.S. implemented policies to prevent it from ever happening again. That's why we pay some farmers not to grow anything - so their farmland is held in reserve, and can immediately put into use if blight or another dust bowl destroys a significant fraction of our crops. It's also the rationale behind our farm subsidies. The government encourages over-production of crops so there's a safety margin in our food supply. Even if some crops fail, we still have enough food to feed everyone.

    If left to market forces, overproduction would cause the price to drop. So much that farms would go out of business, until there are only enough farms remaining to just barely feed the population. That's where the government subsidies come in. Rather than selling crops on the open market, the government buys all of them at a guaranteed, fixed price. This price is deliberately set high to encourage the overproduction of food. So even if there's a crop failure, we'll still have enough of a cushion so there's plenty of food to go around. The government then sells the food for consumption (at a lower price than they bought it - hence the subsidies).

    The subsidies take care of the economic imbalance. But we're still left with a quantity imbalance - more food is produced than is consumed. We've come up with a variety of uses for this excess food. A lot of it is given away as foreign aid. Some is converted into high fructose corn syrup to reduce our dependence on imported cane sugar. Some of it is made into corn ethanol. Since the cost to grow the crop was already paid, it's a sunk cost [wikipedia.org]. So even though ethanol is more expensive than the gasoline it's supposed to replace, it's still worth doing because the corn would otherwise go to waste. (The same reasoning does not work for corn grown specifically to convert into ethanol - that's an economic boondoggle.)

    And some of the excess crops are sold as cattle feed, since Americans love beef. So when you tally up the carbon footprint of beef, much of the CO2 attributed to it (due to growing the feed) won't actually be eliminated by eliminating meat consumption. Even if meat consumption ends, those crops will still be grown since they represent our food supply's safety margin. They will just be re-purposed into other uses, resulting in little to no net CO2 reduction.
  • There's a vegetarian faction that says this is still bad because eating meat in and of itself contributes not just to meanness to animals but to violence.

  • You can have my meat when you wrest it from my cold dead hands.

  • That is universal answer to any extrapolation to the distant future. 10 years IS distant future.

  • I likely will not survive to see the disgusting vats of of sinew in the refrigerator.

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