Hi-tech scientists look to lab-grown meat to feed the future

Global Business

Hi-tech scientists look to lab-grown meat to feed the future

Meat the Future is an Israeli startup cooking up lab grown meat in an effort to feed the masses.  Chief Scientist Shulamit Levenberg took CGTN’s Stephanie Freid into its lab to show our cameras cells being cultured, sterile hoods and incubators.

The cells the professor referred to are from cows.

Levenberg and her team are mimicking the cell’s growing environment inside bio reactors. The goal: generate tissue that ultimately forms a steak. Lab generated steak, meatless or clean meat. This say industry scientists, will be the next agricultural revolution.

“That will be, to my understanding, as big as the industrial revolution of the 19th century,” said Meat the Future CEO Didier Toubia.

“That will change the way we manage our resources, provide us with the end products which are necessary for meeting the growing demands of the consumer base and it will also make us better as humans and save the world for future generations.”

Meatless meat is an ethical, sustainable and healthy alternative to traditional meat because it cuts greenhouse emissions and land use associated with conventional cattle cultivation.

Fewer than 10 companies worldwide are working to produce lab generated meat. Three are in Israel.

This company’s target market is flexitarians, who are vegetarians who occasionally eat meat. China is another huge potential market.

The Chinese government plan to cut meat consumption in half by the year 2030 not only cuts greenhouse emissions by about a billion tons, it also presents a very attractive market to the meatless meat industry.

According to scientists, meat consumption is on the rise and set to increase by 70 percent by the year 2050. The meatless meat industry presents a potential trillion dollar market.