People tend to think that lab meat is more environmentally-friendly than beef because it consumes less land and requires a lower input of water and greenhouse gases. Lab-grown meat environmental impact, However, a life-cycle analysis from UC Davis stands the theory on its head.
What does the study say?
- According to the current practices, cultivated meat contributes four to 25 times more to global warming than meat sold in retail outlets.
- Even the top-performing beef system shows better results than cultivated meat; in the study, solutions designed to produce beef provided better results regardless of the evaluated scenario.
- As for the review, the research was first announced as preprint material in 2023 and posted in 2024.
Why does it cost so much power?
The matter is that the used cell production materials undergo serious refinements and are almost pharmaceutical-grade, which results in high energy consumption when manufacturing cultivated meat. The crucial question is whether cultivated meat will be classified as food or medicine.
How Could It Be Improved?
Because the product is produced using food-grade substances, its warming effect is between 80% less and 26% more than that of conventional beef. Researchers believe that, in order to achieve that, significant innovation would be needed to cut media costs and improve performance.
Takeaway – lab-grown meat environmental impact
Cultivated meat is not necessarily better in terms of climate. According to the authors of the study, better management of beef production could reduce carbon emissions faster in the near future.
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