As global demand for meat grows, a soaring number of bio-start-ups reckon they have the solution, and it comes from a lab.
Multiple companies are now producing meat from cells, which removes the need to kill animals
Brian Spears, CEO of New Age Meats in San Francisco, says: “People want meat, they don’t want slaughter.”
Labs are already producing duck, beef meatballs and pork and Finless Foods is producing fish and seafood on land, with a focus on blue fin tuna, which has been overfished to the edge of collapse.
The industry faces huge challenges. They still have to win Government regulatory approval, and bring down costs, which are still prohibitively high.
Livestock producers are also fighting to ban the process, by demanding changes to the law on what can be labelled as meat.
Perhaps the toughest task ahead though, may be convincing consumers.