The era of artificial meat is coming – would you like to give it a try?

The high prices have not overshadowed the huge market potential of \"cultured meat,\" attracting the attention of renowned investors including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and PayPal founder Peter Thiel. In August 2017, Impossible Foods, a company dedicated to developing beef-like products using plant-based ingredients, announced that it had received $75 million in funding from investment firms and individuals such as Singapore’s Temasek, Bill Gates, and Khosla Ventures. In September of this year, Impossible Foods began operating its new factory for large-scale production, capable of manufacturing over 900,000 pounds of plant-based meat per month to supply 1,000 restaurants in the United States.

Bill Gates has shown great interest in “cultured meat”. In addition, he also invested in a “plant-based meat” company named BeyondMeat. Recently, BeyondMeat has applied to go public in the United States. According to documents disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Beyond Meat plans to raise $100 million, making it the first company in the artificial meat sector to go public. Among Beyond Meat’s individual investors are actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson, among others. The documents show that Beyond Meat’s flagship product – the plant-based burger known as the Beyond Burger, which is described as looking, cooking, and tasting just like traditional beef – has gradually gained consumer acceptance. Beyond Meat’s products are now available in major supermarkets across the United States, and have been included on the menus of many restaurants.

It should be noted that “artificial meat” is not a market gimmick, but rather a significant issue related to the future of humanity worldwide. Scientists predict that the world’s population will reach 9.6 billion. If humans continue to eat meat as they do now, it will consume excessive amounts of natural resources such as land and water, while also exacerbating climate change and species extinction. Research shows that the amount of carbon dioxide produced in manufacturing one kilogram of beef is roughly equivalent to the emissions generated by an economy car traveling 100 kilometers. The carbon dioxide produced in manufacturing one kilogram of pork or poultry meat is equivalent to the emissions generated by a car traveling about 50 kilometers. Water is also a resource that is consumed in large quantities during meat production. 3,300 liters of water are required to produce one kilogram of eggs ； 3,900 liters of water are required to produce one kilogram of chicken ； 15,500 liters of water are required to produce one kilogram of beef. Artificial meat can also greatly increase production capacity. Taking pork as an example, it takes 100 days to raise a piglet from birth to the point at which it can be slaughtered, during which time 90 jin of meat is produced; whereas in the laboratory, using cell culture, more than 5,000 tons of meat can be produced in just 60 days.

This industry can also prevent the killing of more animals. According to World Weekly, in the United States, over 95% of meat comes from industrial farms. The chicks are hatched in incubators; once they are able to stand, they are sorted, packed, and sent to large breeding farms. Growing up in a crowded environment with no sunlight throughout one’s life. The normal lifespan of free-range domestic chickens is 3-5 years, but broilers raised in farms only live for 35-49 days. Within such a short lifespan, they must grow to about 2 kilograms – a brutal rate of growth that is difficult for any organism to endure. Some chickens are unable to survive at such abnormal growth rates; their bodies are not strong enough to carry them to the feed and water troughs ； Some also died from cardiovascular diseases, and their bodies became food for their peers. These are the cruel realities hidden behind a chicken burger.

However, at present, the high price remains a significant obstacle to making artificial meat an integral part of people’s daily diets. Memphis Meat Company produces less than half a kilogram of beef, at a cost of still 2,400 dollars (approximately 16,495 yuan). This is because the serum made from animal blood used in the manufacturing process is extremely expensive; one ounce of fish serum costs 850 dollars (about 5,842 yuan). But Professor Post, the pioneer of lab-grown meat, said that if large-scale production of his lab-grown beef burgers began, he could reduce the cost to around $10 per burger. The regulatory framework established by the FDA provides more professional guidance for the industry; once price barriers are overcome, lab-grown meat will soon appear on the tables of more people around the world.

Why eat lab-grown meat? Over the past few years, the vision of growing raw meat in laboratories has been mentioned on many occasions. Predictions by the U.S. Census Bureau show that the global population will reach 9.9 billion by 2050. How to feed so many people meat with limited resources is indeed a question worth considering. Taking China as an example, with population growth, urbanization, and the rising living standards of its citizens, meat consumption is set to increase further in the next decade. According to predictions by China’s Ministry of Agriculture, domestic meat consumption in China will be 100 million tons in 2020. However, given the current domestic production capacity, total domestic production in that year will be only 90 million tons, resulting in a shortfall of 10 million tons.

“Compared to synthetic meat, real meat consumes more natural and social resources, making its cost-benefit ratio ‘unfavorable’. ”David Parry, CEO and director of American Indigo Agriculture, said that using plant proteins to produce synthetic meat can also reduce environmental pollution and resource consumption. Furthermore, threats such as E. coli and antibiotics in meat, along with society’s demand for health, are also key factors driving the development of lab-grown meat.

Is lab-grown meat tasty? In September 2016, a \"vegan meat\" burger appeared at the restaurant of Korean-American celebrity chef David Chang in the United States. In this “vegan burger” developed under the leadership of Stanford University, the “meat patty” is made from ingredients such as potatoes, wheat, and soybeans, which are combined using advanced technology to create a meat-like texture. Although it doesn’t contain real meat, it retains the flavor and texture of traditional beef burgers, while eliminating chemicals such as cholesterol, hormones, and antibiotics. According to David Parry, artificial meat is currently made primarily from soy protein, with plant-based protein products being produced as alternatives to regular meat. “Synthetic meat made from plants has become healthier and more fashionable due to its lower content of fat and cholesterol. “In fact, these days people eat meat not entirely for nutritional reasons, but often to satisfy their personal taste preferences. If the taste issue can be resolved, eating a vegetarian diet and consuming plant-based proteins is likely to become the mainstream trend in food development in the future. ”David Parry said.