Lab-Grown Meat, the Right to Adequate Food, and the Climate Crisis

Meat production has contributed to -and will be impacted by -the climate crisis, necessitating the exploration of alternatives to traditional animal agriculture.A potential solution is the production of meat through the cultivation of animal cells in a controlled laboratory environment.This blog post highlights some issues lab-grown meat raises in relation to the core contents of the right to adequate food, as protected under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).As stipulated by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, food must be available, accessible, and of sufficient quality, the latter of which encompasses adherence to dietary needs, freedom from adverse substances, and acceptability to the consumer and their culture.Availability of lab-grown meat will be dictated by states' regulatory approaches, which currently range from approval for consumption by pets (UK) and humans (Singapore and Israel), to bans on its production, sale, and import (Italy).Governments may increasingly invest in lab-grown meat to strengthen national food security, drawing on lessons from