Is cultivated meat sustainable? – Research pathways to cleaner “clean meat”

Meat production through agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change yet it is a staple food and a major source of protein in many diets around the world. As such a protein arms race has begun to develop sustainable protein sources with plant-based, insect and lab grown alternatives emerging as top contenders. Cultivated meat, animal cells grown in vitro for consumption as food, is an emerging technology that is often seen as a more sustainable alternative to traditional meat production by virtue of the fact it avoids many of the heavily polluting agricultural processes such as enteric fermentation and fertiliser use. The first life cycle assessments (LCA) of cultivated meat shone a favourable light on the environmental impacts of cultivated meat. However, as the technology develops and more representative LCAs are conducted the environmental impact potentials are greater than originally reported due to a greater understanding of the technology. This paper examines existing LCAs of cultivated meat and identifies data gaps and potential improvements within the cultivated meat production system. This work highlights that there are still many data gaps that exist around the environmental impacts of cultivated meat. Specifically, modelling of growth factor production at suitable scale for a cultivated meat industry, the impact of cell line production and storage, production of scaffold materials, and downstream processes after removal from bioreactors are required to accurately assess the impacts of cultivated meat production. As such there needs to be further collaboration between LCA practitioners and cultivated meat producers to fully realise any environmental benefits or burdens that cultivated meat may have at commercial scale.