Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
YOU GREW THAT BURGER... IN A LAB?
Did you know that meat can now be made in a lab? Say goodbye to farms and hello to stem cells. Many proponents suggest cellular agriculture is the future, and it’s hard to disagree that the impact and innovation behind cultivated meat seems limitless. Thanks to advances in biotechnology, companies are popping up all around the world that are committed to making safer and more sustainable meat. We spoke to Brett Thompson, CEO of Mzansi Meat Co, Africa’s first cultivated meat company.
Popular Mechanics: What is cultivated meat?
Brett Thompson: Cultivated meat, also known as cultured meat, gets its name from how the meat is produced. Traditional meat production requires animal husbandry and subsequent slaughter to produce what we know as ‘meat’. Cultivated meat production, on the other hand, requires isolating a small number of cells and cultivating them in a controlled environment.
PM: We’ve read that with one sesame-seed-sized sample of cells a lab can make tens of thousands of burgers. Is this true?
BT: There are around 8 billion cells in every gram of meat that we cultivate … so to produce products at any sort of viable scale certain novel techniques will have to be explored, and we’re working on these.
In theory, we’re able to take a tiny collection of cells and grow them over time to produce stacks of burgers. This is because cells have the natural ability to grow and divide over time. So we can take several samples – about 10 000 cells each – and grow them into 8 trillion cells, to give us around 1 kg of meat.
PM: Where do you get the cells from?
BT: Our donor animals live their harm-free life at an animal sanctuary. It’s here that we gently take a few of their cells, which are then fed into a bioreactor to grow. The animal continues its days in peace while we harvest the tissue, and then dinner is served!
PM: What’s the difference between what your company does and, for example, Beyond Burger?
BT: Beyond Burger patties are made from plants – pea-proteins to be exact. This means they’re plant-based or vegan. For many people cutting back on animal products, meat alternatives such as Beyond Burger products are fantastic. We aren’t making an alternative though – we’re making actual meat. We’re using cells from animals without the need to do any harm. It’s real meat made lekker.
PM: Is cultivated meat the future of food?
BT: When we look at the data, it’s clear that conventional meat as an industry and as a protein source has peaked, in terms of efficiency and output. Cultivated meat has the potential to lighten the load, and by using science, we can achieve that same great taste we all love. We’re harvesting a few cells and growing meat while using considerably less land and water, ultimately making production less costly.
Consumers will make the final decision on whether cultivated meat is the future
– we plan to make our meat widely available and costcompetitive; that’s how we ensure it’s the future of meat. PM: Is cultivated meat better for the environment?
BT: Animal agriculture utilises more than 80 per cent of the world’s habitable land, 30 per cent of our freshwater supply, and is a major contributor of deforestation. Cultivated-meat production will use a tiny fraction of the land required by livestock, and that freed-up land could be used for clean energy production and carbon sequestration. By freeing up so much land, cultivated-meat production should certainly be a significant net positive for climate change.
PM: What does lab-grown meat taste like?
BT: Meat! Cultivated meat is made up of the muscle and fat that is found in conventional meat. If you live in Singapore, you can already order cultivated chicken at home, and yes, it tastes like chicken. We’re going to great lengths to ensure that familiar textures and flavour profiles are identical. So get ready for cultivated beef in South Africa pretty soon.