This is a major departure from traditional methods of meat production. Cultured meat is no longer produced through livestock farming. It takes place away from the farm.
Some actors have framed it as a danger to farmers' livelihoods. The alleged threat of cultured meat to the relationship between food and land was problematic, for example. Key reasonBehind the scenes The Italian government has banned its productionLast year.
Farmers are also concerned about their inability to predict the effects of new technologies.
The UK livestock industry has been advancing for many years through innovation and technology. We must continue to work towards producing climate-friendly beef and lamb that can store carbon and provide habitat. David Barton is the Chair of the Livestock Board of the National Farmers Union UK.
The Royal Agricultural University has published a new report that examines the potential impacts of beef farming on farmers. The report shows that farmers are concerned about the impact of cultured meat on society. Many were willing to compromise and see opportunities in the industry.
What future for cultured meats?
The report says the meat industry's aggressive stance towards traditional meats, sometimes explicitly expressing its desire to replace them, has fuelled distrust among farmers who feel at risk.
The report started with the idea that if cultured meat became mainstream, it would not replace traditional meat. Instead, they would exist side by side. Companies will be able to adapt to a shift to cultured animal meat if it happens, the report said.
Do British farmers have concerns about the cultured meat industry?
RAU's Tom MacMillan said the report prioritised "depth" of knowledge over "statistical strength". This involved talking in depth to farmers to understand their views on the issues.
The report says that while consumers are generally optimistic about the benefits of meat produced in a controlled environment for society as a whole, they tend to be pessimistic about their own personal benefit. However, farmers surveyed often consider the impact on the wider community first.
Some farmers, for example, were concerned about the impact of cultured meat on their community.
Farmers highlighted the importance of agriculture to many livelihoods outside of farming. In some places, agriculture also determines whether there are schools, pubs, etc. Cultured meat is one example of a potentially disruptive new technology that could have a significant impact on this, although it is not the only one. “While many industries are being impacted by climate change, it is essential that we find better ways to help communities thrive and adapt,” RAU’s MacMillan told us.
MacMillan said this "seemed likely" but highlighted the impact it could have if such concerns were raised early in the industry's development.
Can cultured meat pose a challenge for European farmers?
Note to the European Council At the beginning of this yearDelegations from Italy, France and Austria presented their perception of the dangers that cultured meat poses to European agriculture.
They suggest that cultured meat, for example, challenges the primary farm-based approach. They said questions about sustainability, ethics, public health and economics remained unanswered. The question was whether novel food regulations were ready to address this sector.
They asked whether cultured meat could increase the price of traditional meat. The RAU report says that if cultured meat is successful, real meat can be reformulated into a higher quality product.
It is crucial to articulate these concerns as early as possible, so that investors, government officials, and advocates can influence the development of the technology. There are many economic and technological pressures for consolidation, but there are also investment conditions, governance structures, and policy interventions that can help mitigate them.
Farmers were also concerned about the lack of information in this sector. Commercial confidentiality hides a lot of vital information. MacMillan stressed that companies are not expected to be completely transparent in a new sector, as their value depends on innovative intellectual property. However, he suggested that greater transparency could help farmers build trust.
You can never expect people to trust your promises about your product's environmental and economic performance unless you share enough information to allow others to examine your assumptions.
Are farmers worried about their future?
Farmers are concerned about the impact cultured meat would have on them.
If the meat market is more interested in breeding high or low quality meat, then it will face competition in that market.
Farmers stressed that it was not economically viable to raise cows solely for the purpose of producing steaks.
Farmers also feared that cultured meat would devalue their animals, which are their most valuable asset. Much of the capital farmers have is invested in buildings and land.
MacMillan says cultured meat won't reduce the value of livestock overnight. Livestock housing and equipment may still be around for decades and are more likely to be stranded. Cultured meat producers should work with farmers to find a "creative solution" to this problem.
Farms have their own challenges and opportunities.
The report asked individual farmers whether the growth of meat produced from livestock would be more beneficial or less beneficial to their farms than continuing operations as normal.
A strawberry farm was assessed and found to be underperforming under the status quo model due to a labour shortage. They could produce cultured beef using their existing manufacturing equipment and waste from their crop. A large barn on an English arable farm could be converted to produce cultured meat.
Not all farms were open to change, however. One Irish sheep farm decided the status quo was best for it. It was skeptical about the potential for cultured meat to give too much control to big business. A company that sells meat from regeneratively raised animals is concerned about the potential for direct competition from other farms if they have to compete with similar products because of the growth of cultured meat.
Some farmers were unsure whether cultured meat was a good thing or not.
What opportunities do farmers have to grow cultured meats?
Despite these concerns, British farmers saw many opportunities in the cultured meat industry and how to adapt their lives in this brave new world. The report highlights that farmers are used to unpredictable situations.
The report suggests that farmers can make money by selling key ingredients to companies that produce cultured meat. Key components of the growth medium, such as amino acids and glucose, can come from animal and agricultural by-products. In the structure of cultured meat, ingredients such as cellulose and pectin can be used. Farmers could also use animal cells to produce cultured meat.
The report says they could replace pharmaceutical-grade ingredients. It's not yet clear whether this will actually result in cost savings.
MacMillan explained that the actual savings depended on a variety of factors, including how well growth media made with those ingredients performed in experiments.
The researchers compared the environmental and financial impacts of using agricultural-grade ingredients to produce cell culture media versus pharmaceutical-grade ingredients. The researchers assumed that other basic growth media ingredients, such as bovine blood meal, canola, and hoof and horn meal, would be available at prices comparable to pharmaceutical, food, or feed products.
MacMillan explained that while it was difficult to hypothesize about the effects of the ingredients in the growth media due to the lack of relevant experimental research, their success on paper suggests that further study is warranted.
Farmers could produce their own cultured meat, MacMillan said, despite the report suggesting that this method would be 30% more expensive than factory production while still allowing farmers to make money.
It is not surprising that the cost of producing beef in large factories or on farms is higher than that of small, decentralized production on a farm scale. Our analysis showed that it would cost only 30 % more. When considering other options, such as the possibility of using excess energy or selling premium products directly, on-farm production is plausible.
Most farmers, however, said they would not make meat production their sole activity because they find it difficult to stop caring for the animals they love.
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