Discarding conventional meat production in favor of unproven factory solutions may not be the best approach. University of California.

Lab-grown meat industry, also called Cultured Industry, hailed as a promising solution for sustainable food production, has faced a significant setback due to recent scientific findingby the University of California. Earlier predictions of lab-grown meat revolutionizing the industry and saving the environment are now being challenged by concrete evidence.

It has been revealed that lab-grown meat, in its current form, has a negative environmental impact up to 25 times greater than conventional beef due to the need for “pharmaceutical-grade” production to ensure it is safe for human consumption.

Specifically, the removal of endotoxin from the cultured mix is crucial, as even tiny concentrations of this substance can significantly reduce the success rate of human IVF pregnancies.

These groundbreaking conclusions come from a group of chemists and food scientists at the University of California. They discovered that the transition from pharmaceutical production to food production poses significant technological challenges.

The main issue lies in the use of highly purified growth organisms to facilitate the multiplication of animal cells in lab meat. Despite potential savings in land, water, and greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional animal farming, the overall bio-process involved in lab meat production is found to be “orders of magnitude” more environmentally intensive.

Co-author Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, warns against viewing cultured meat as an inherently superior enviro

nmental option to conventional beef. He states,

“Our findings suggest that cultured meat is not inherently better for the environment than conventional beef. It’s not a panacea.”

The study demonstrates that even under scenarios with lower pharmaceutical standards, efficient beef production outperforms lab-grown meat by a factor ranging from four to 25. This implies that investing in more environmentally friendly beef production methods may yield greater reductions in emissions.

The pursuit of new technologies that promise substantial benefits but deliver limited results is not uncommon on the path to achieving zero environmental impact.

While some countries are pushing for the elimination of conventional animal husbandry, viable alternatives for feeding growing populations are scarce.

George Monbiot, an environmental writer, acknowledges the challenges associated with lab-grown meat, noting the complex nature of its development and expressing doubt about its feasibility.

Monbiot raises the crucial question of how to prevent mass starvation, suggesting that discarding conventional meat production in favor of unproven factory solutions may not be the best approach.

The recent California study challenges the growing hype around lab-grown meat, which has received largely positive coverage from the mainstream media thus far. The Giardian went as far as cl………