Since scientists in the Netherlands cooked up the world’s first burger grown from stem cells in a lab in 2013, what once seemed like a stunt has since evolved into a thriving industry.
Startups like Mosa Meat in Europe and Upside Foods in the United States now grow real animal meat in bioreactors, feeding cells with nutrient broth until they form edible tissue.
In 2020, Singapore became the first country to approve the sale of lab-grown chicken in restaurants, and by 2023, the US followed suit with limited approvals.
The motivation for cultured meat is twofold: environmental sustainability and animal welfare. Conventional livestock farming contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and requires vast amounts of land and water.
Growing meat directly from cells could significantly reduce those costs while sparing billions of animals. Nevertheless, the technology faces some challenges in terms of scale, and lab-grown burgers still cost far more than supermarket beef, with wider consumer acceptance also being uncertain.
