Lab-grown meat is supposed to save us all. Once they figured out how to make it economically scalable, then all we have to do is grow a ton of soy protein isoflavates in stainless-steel vats, and finally climate change will be averted and we'll all live in a Ferngully paradise or whatever.
Alas, as it turns out, things are not so simple:
Meat produced from cultured cells could be 25 times worse for the climate than regular beef unless scientists find ways to overhaul energy-intensive steps in its production.
I know, I know: The high-tech, super-futuristic new woke hobbyhorse turns out to probably be total bunk. What a disappointment.
Everyone is all upset now.
Honestly though, is this that surprising? What sounds more ecologically friendly to you in theory: Growing meat outside, in the fresh air, using natural means?
Or growing it inside a freakin' lab?
I mean, seriously!
The scientists came to their conclusions after conducting a "life-cycle assessment" of cultured meat:
They found that the nutrient broth used to culture the animal cells has a large carbon footprint because it contains components like sugars, growth factors, salts, amino acids and vitamins that each come with energy costs.
Of course: If you change one factor you often have to change them all. In this case, taking the animal out of the meat production equation means you have to substitute in a bunch of high-impact variables in order to get the "same" result. If you don't have a chicken putting in the energy to grow chicken meat, in other words, you're going to need to get that energy from somewhere else.
That's not at all a shock. Chickens are actually really good at growing chicken meat. It's the way God made them! Humans are not. We can give a chicken the environment and the fuel to grow the meat, but if we want to do it ourselves it's going to cost us dearly.
(And I'm not even talking about the psychological/spiritual ramifications)
It's already cost us a lot:
$2 billion has already been invested in this technology, but we don't actually know if it's going to be better for the environment.
