Like It Or Not, Clean Meat Is Coming

With the environment and food security being issues of particular urgency in our increasingly crowded world, clean meat is coming to the rescue

- Sim Ee Waun

There’s nothing like a good piece of steak. Served with a glass of good red wine, it is one of the most classic delights in the world of gastronomy, worthy of long hours of discussion and debate among gourmands, who would ruminate over their details: grass- or grain-fed, the marbling, the pedigree of the cattle, their farms, their brands, the cut, the style and skill of cooking.

But as we hurtle towards a world population of 9.8 billion in 2050, the question of producing enough to feed the world is a real one. And to do so sustainably without first killing off the environment (and in turn, ourselves).

Of all the foods produced, industrial meat production is the most resource intensive. Water, land and feed are needed for rearing the animals we eat; and their waste—huge amounts of it when you think of massive industrial farms—leads to run-off into the environment. What does this cost the earth? Consider these statistics: 33 per cent of the world’s arable land is used to grow feed crop for livestock and 26 per cent is used for grazing. The amount of land and feed given to livestock rearing is a growing concern among experts in food security. According to studies, the total supply of crops being fed to animals can actually feed at least four billion people. Livestock rearing generates more greenhouse gases than transport does, and consumes a shocking amount of water. In South America, 70 per cent of previously forested land in the Amazon is now used mainly for rearing cattle. The list goes on. Our beloved steak is a particular culprit, sucking in more resources than any other meat: beef requires 28 times more land, 11 times more water and gives off five times more gas emissions than pork or chicken. Compared to vegetables like potatoes, wheat and rice, the impact is even more pronounced: each calorie of beef requires 160 times more land and produces 11 times more greenhouse gases.