The lab-grown meat industry saw rapid growth over the course of the last year, with a capital investment totaling of up to $73.3 million in 2018 alone and it is still projected to rise some more in the years to come. In fact, estimates suggest these meats could reach a mass market by 2025.
This is according to the Good Food Institute, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit that advocates for both cell-based alternatives to animal products.
"These industries are accelerating rapidly, and we are about to see them take off," the institute's director of innovation Brad Barbera said in a statement.
They are hoping that this eventually will be an alternative to farmhouse slaughter which would significantly lower carbon emissions. Their report showed that using lab-grown meat as an alternative will reduce greenhouse gases by 74 to 78 percent relative to traditional beef farming method.
The industry has come quite a long way from Mark Post's lab-grown burger in 2013. back then, Post's 1 single burger actually costs $325,000 to make but last 2015, its cost has gone down to $8.15. There are several other companies diving into the market such us Memphis Foods (who's working on beef and chicken) and Finless Foods (who's working on fish). The hope is that as with most technologies, the meat culturing process will continue to grow cheaper and it may not be long before these meats reach the dinner table en masse.
Good Food Institute, senior scientist Liz Specht states "lab-grown meat will reach price parity with traditional meat once it is produced at scale and that we will have lab-grown turkey on our dinner tables by the year 2030."
But a team of researchers from the University of Oxford noted that cows produce nitrous oxide and methane whereas growing meat in a lab may produce carbon dioxide. Methane, although is a lot more destructive per tonne on the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide, unlike CO2 it dissipates after around 12 years, making its impact on the planet a more short term concern.
Besides these, there are still a lot of concerns and unanswered questions about lab-grown meat. One example is energy usage. How much energy will it utilize as the demand for the product and in turn its production increases? Will it impact add to companies and factories that are emitting large quantities of CO2? Though questions such a these will definitely be answered given the industry's rapid development.
