Can Cultured Meat Save The Planet?

Could cultured meat be the solution we’ve been waiting for?

Indianapolis, Indiana, December 17 1 pm

By Carrie Woods

Plant-based meat alternatives, also known as faux meats, are skyrocketing in popularity. with huge chains from Burger King to Panda Express offering plant-based alternatives to meat-based menu items. But, for many meat-eaters, the taste and texture is not identical to the animal products they’ve grown up eating. This is where cultured meat comes in. It is actual meat, identical in texture and flavor to traditionally produced meat. But, cultured meat, also known as clean meat, does not require the death of an animal. Instead, it is grown from cells that are collected from an animal, like a cow.

Example of cultured steak — No animal was killed to make this steak from Atelier Meats.

In an interview on UnChainedTV, Dr. Mohit Bhatia, the CSO & Co-founder of Atelier Meats, stresses that his company does not harm animals to create its meat products. “At no point are we harming the animal or the calf,” Dr. Bhatia says adding, “We just take the stem cells from the umbilical cord and the placenta of the calf and that’s how we make our product.” He explains that one sample can produce huge amounts of cultured meat through a fermentation process, noting that many traditional products, from dairy cheese to beer, are produced by fermentation.

Atelier Meat’s website proclaims that, “We provide a cleaner, more ethical approach to bringing quality meat to the dinner table,” adding, “Atelier’s science and technology eliminates disease, eliminates famine, and eliminates contamination.” In fact, Dr. Bhatia believes that the $350 billion dollar meat industry will soon want to transition to cultured meat, given the increasing difficulty of raising billions of farmed animals in a world grappling with drought, rising temperatures, extreme weather events and supply chain disruptions. “I can see a situation where these big companies that are running the beef industry are eventually going to come and participate with us in trying to make these products,” he says, “Look at the electric vehicle industry.”

You can watch UnchainedTV host Jane Velez-Mitchell’s entire interview with Dr. Bhatia below.

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Industry observers predict these products could be just months away from becoming available to American consumers. The FDA recently signaled its safety clearance of another cultured meat product. Cultured chicken was served at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt in November of 2022. A huge cultured chicken facility is set to open in 2023 in Singapore, expected to produce tens of thousands of pounds of cultured chicken per year.

With animal agriculture being a major contributor to greenhouse gases, habitat destruction for cattle grazing and wildlife extinction, water pollution and related problems, could cultured meat be the solution we’ve all been seeking to save the planet? The future will tell.

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Carrie Woods

Carrie Woods is a writer based in Indiana who comes from a family of journalists.