The Scoop on Cultured Beef

Well, the time has come. We are going to start seeing lab grown, or “cultured” beef in stores. But what is it and what does it mean for the beef producers of America? These are things that we need to educate ourselves on as we begin to see this new competition arise. 

First of all, what is it and is it safe? According to GCF Global, lab grown meat is a more sustainable and humane way of using cellular agriculture to create meat. This meat is grown completely outside the animal's body. It is made by taking stem cells from cattle. By using amino acids and carbohydrates, the cells are multiplied for an end product that looks similar to ground beef. However, it is more expensive. I did some of my own calculations, and I broke it down. One ounce is about $2.20, meaning a pound of lab grown hamburger would be $35.20. Compared to the grocery store price-at least here in Minnesota-that is a $30.61 difference.

What does it mean for the beef producers of America? Inevitably, more competition. Beef producers already compete with similar products such as “Beyond Beef”. It can mean that the price of our authentic product can go down, because demand will go down as people become more interested in lab grown beef.

How does lab grown beef compare to the real thing? According to Sentientmedia.org, lab grown beef and the real things are almost identical on a cellular level. They will never be exactly the same because a lab cannot recreate the authenticity of farm-to-table beef products. Although the farmers of America will have another contender in the field, there are benefits to this approach and it could mean more affordable alternatives in the future for people who do not have access to good quality beef. I am interested to see how these lab-grown products will fare in the American grocery stores.

If you would like to learn more about this, there are lots of neutral resources to get information from! Here are a few:

• https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nyas.12569
• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jsfa.10663
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311914608893