Ten years ago, scientists came up with the world’s first lab-grown beef burger. Now, “a Dutch startup is luring a dwindling pool of investor funds with stem-cell technology that can rapidly grow slaughter-free sausages,” reports Bloomberg News:
Meatable is betting that its use of patented technology and so-called pluripotent stem cells, which can grow a pork sausage in only eight days, will give it an edge over other cultivated meat startups. The company has just raised $35 million to scale up the process and bring products like pork dumplings to the market.
The key for Meatable is the speed of cultivation, which should allow the company to expand output and cut costs, bringing prices closer to those of traditional meat. As investors get more selective after some initiatives fell short of expectations, Meatable plans to bring its products to restaurants and stores in Singapore next year, while also targeting the US, which recently approved the sale of cell-based chicken.
“We can make a lot of meat compared with other players,” Chief Executive Officer Krijn de Nood said in an interview. “That is what will drive the winner. It’s all about the speed of the process. It’s all about scale and cost reduction.”
Crunchbase reports that investors are pouring more than a billion dollars each year into startups “working on cell-cultured meat and other cell-cultured meat alternatives.”
Lab-grown beef might be better for the environment than naturally-raised beef. But that is probably not true for other meats that are more efficient to produce naturally, such as chicken. A study concluded that because of the energy consumption needed to scale up cultured meat, its carbon footprint could be several times that of conventional chicken.
Guinea pigs are a much more efficient source of protein, per acre, than cattle, generating four times as much meat per acre. Guinea pigs also generate less greenhouse gas emissions per pound of meat. Lab-grown guinea pig meat would not make sense even from an environmental perspective, because they can be raised naturally without having much impact on the environment.
