These solutions may not be suitable for everyone, however. Here is a universal answer that lies at the intersection of technology and biology: lab-grown meat. Could this be our future?

As the name indicates, lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat, is meat grown in a laboratory. Believe it or not, all animals have special cells that develop into more specific ones. These special cells are known as stem cells.

Scientists use bioreactors, machines that maintain a biologically active environment, to manipulate stem cells to achieve their goal. In the case of lab-grown meat, the stem cells are directed to develop into muscle cells. Eventually, these muscle cells congregate to mimic the animal meat we eat.

Lab-grown meat sounds like science fiction, which could be intimidating or exciting. In any case, we can’t deny that lab-grown meat is becoming a reality. Dangerous, risky or harmful may be your first impression of lab-grown meat. But couldn’t these words apply to livestock farming as well?

How do you view lab-grown meat? Is it too novel, too risky or too futuristic to accept?

While all these impressions are legitimate, what is the current situation of meat production? We are accustomed to consuming meat on our plates, but the harmful consequences of this practice – greenhouse gas emissions, disease risk, chemical exposure, ethics – may be more likened to science-fiction than we’d ever thought. So, let’s break them both down.

According to the United Nations, livestock farming accounts for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The livestock industry releases greenhouse gases including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. For instance, cattle are the main producers of methane, which is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide (“Methane: A Crucial Opportunity in the Climate Fight”, Environmental Defense Fund/EDF). With 1.4 billion heads of cattle worldwide as of 2019, the animals account for 40 percent of annual global methane emissions (Alejandra Borunda).

Although growing meat in a lab will still contribute to global emissions, it will be at a significantly lower level. The 2021 Good Food Conference estimated that lab-grown meat, beef in particular, will reduce global warming impacts by 85-92 percent (Elliot Swartz).

When it comes to “real meat”, we often fail to consider the public health impacts of slaughterhouses and factory farms. On some occasions, diseases transmit from animals to humans as zoonotic diseases. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that three out of four new infectious diseases in humans derive from animals.

The 2009 swine flu pandemic was caused by the reassortment of bird, pig and human influenza viruses that resulted in a single virus strain known as H1N1 (Trifonov, Vladimir, et al.). The H1N1 pandemic was contained by late 2010, but the virus was still present in slaughterhouses (“H1N1 Detected in Hong Kong Slaughterhouse”, The Pig Site). Other diseases, such as listeria and salmonella, can also thrive in poorly maintained slaughterhouses. Furthermore, the meat industry has also increased the chances of disease transmission through selective breeding.

Selective breeding has given us wonders, whether it was done to improve the texture of meat or increase the milk yield. However, it has also made livestock less genetically diverse. Essentially, the process involves selecting livestock with the preferred attributes and breeding them together to produce offspring with the same characteristics.

With the lack of genetic diversity, largely due to inbreeding, it’s much easier for diseases to spread among livestock. Hence, factory farms and slaughterhouses become the perfect places for an outbreak to occur. In contrast, it is almost impossible to develop cultured meat without sterile labs. Lab-grown meat could therefore reduce the emergence of more zoonotic diseases.

Lab-grown meat can also be considered more ethical in terms of environmental impacts compared to conventionally farmed meat. Livestock takes up more than 38 percent of habitable land on earth, which comprises 71 percent of all land (Jaydee Hanson). When consequentialism, the belief that right and wrong depends on an action’s impact, is taken into account, it raises the question of whether it is ethical to use this much land to breed livestock, considering its negative impacts.

The massive amount of cleared land required for livestock farming reduces biodiversity and indirectly produces carbon emissions. Though lab-grown meat still contributes to greenhouse gas emissions as previously mentioned, we can expect these emissions to decrease, along with energy usage, as production ramps up (Carrington, Damian).

However, because lab-grown meat utilizes stem cells, the process isn’t cruelty-free either. Stem cells are extracted through biopsy, the removal of tissue without killing, which has been reported to cause pain for the animal. As our technology advances, stem cells could be preserved more effectively, which would reduce the need for biopsies.

In any case, taking cell samples and causing some pain is incomparable to taking an animal’s life. We should instead consider the rate of animal slaughtering that is required to meet the current demand, and whether lab-grown meat will ever reach that rate.

Lab-grown meat also has religious implications due to its use of stem cells. When lab-grown meat enters the Indonesian market, it will most likely be halal. For lab-grown meat to be halal, stem cells must be extracted from a live, healthy animal that remains alive. Another possibility is to slaughter the animal according to a specific set of religious rules. Halal lab-grown meat cannot use blood or animal-based serums, either. Nevertheless, even if halal lab-grown meat is produced, immediate public acceptance is unlikely.

Despite the positive benefits of lab-grown meat, it comes with a price. Dutch company Mosa Meat, whose cofounders were the first to create a lab-grown meat burger, estimates that producing a hamburger patty will cost around US$10 (Rp 145.000) once production is scaled up. In other words, economies of scale must be achieved by generating public acceptance for lab-grown meat. However, a single hamburger patty at $10 is still costly.

In fact, the average salary of an Indonesian worker as of February 2021 is Rp 2,860,630, according to Statistics Indonesia. Although $10 is a lot, it is much less than the whopping initial budget of $300,000 required to produce the first batch of lab-grown meat (Laura June).

As aspiring scientists, we believe that lab-grown meat will play a pivotal role in our future diet. Despite public skepticism and fear regarding lab-grown meat, we cannot deny that lab-grown meat has positive aspects. In some sense, lab-grown meat allows us to envision a safer and healthier future. It contributes less to greenhouse gas emissions, reduces the risk of zoonotic diseases and prevents antibiotic-resistant bacteria from developing.

Lab-grown meat isn’t perfect: biopsies are painful and lab-grown meat isn’t halal. Even so, we believe it will transform the world.

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Kyra Husen and Rania Wanandi lead Bio2M, along with Chris Lee and Tushar Jha. Bio2M is a club, where middle school and high school students come together to fuel their passion for biology together. Our deep dives into topics of our own interests are showcased in published journal articles on Biotreks, and informative posts on our Instagram @bio2mswa. The club members that have contributed to this article are: Evelyn Liaw, Sherry Lee, Matthew J, Yu Ju Chao, Yeon Ju Jung, Ishan Chaurasia, and our supervisor Mr. Christopher Hayden.