Frankenburger vs farmed meat: which would you choose?

Our current food system allows us the luxury of ignorance, to some extent, when it comes to the source of our meat. The perfectly sanitised, blood-free meat products that come neatly packaged from the supermarket seem terribly far removed from the animals from which they came, and allow us distance ourselves from the animal’s death - and life - so that we can dine with a relatively clear conscience.

But the uncomfortable truth is that, as the human race has grown and with it our appetite for meat, production methods for meat animals have become less and less humane. Huge feed lots, sow stalls and tiny cages have become the standard for industrialised meat production throughout the world. With more and more awareness about meat production methods - such as increased labelling of poultry as free-range or otherwise - it’s becoming harder to ignore the fact that your dinner may have been raised under conditions that would put you off your meal.

Worldwide vegetarianism, while an admirable stand against factory farming, simply isn’t a realistic option - and may not be the answer to the environmental issues caused by factory farming. Similarly, sourcing ethically produced meat is prohibitively expensive for all but a small proportion of the population.

But there is another possible solution: cultured meat - meat produced in a laboratory from animal stem cells. The world’s first cultured meat hamburger was recently cooked - and consumed - in London, developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University and cooked by Chef Richard McGeown. It was tasted by two intrepid volunteers: Chicago author Josh Schonwald and Austrian food researcher Hanni Rützler.

Professor Post believes that cultured meat could solve the looming food crisis and simultaneously combat climate change. “What we are trying today is important because I hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces,” Professor Post said.

To produce the meat, muscle cells taken from a cow are cultured in a laboratory by placing them in a nutrient solution which creates muscle tissue. The tissue is grown by placing the cells in a ring around a hub of gel. The muscle cells grow into small strands of meat. To create one 140 g burger requires 20,000 of these strands of meat.

The burger was made of cultured beef with the usual burger ingredients, such as salt, egg powder and breadcrumbs. To give the meat colour, red beetroot juice and saffron were added.

The burger reportedly cost more than €250,000 to produce, but, as the culturedbeef.net website says, “high costs today are a small price to pay for the potential future benefits of cultured beef to all of humankind”.

Not only will cultured meat reduce the carbon emissions associated with factory farming, it could also free up valuable land for producing other types of food to feed our rapidly increasing population. University of Oxford research suggests that producing cultured meat could use up to 99% less space than current farming methods.

While cultured meat might seem to be the cure to all our food ills, encouraging consumers to eschew traditionally raised meat in favour of that created in a lab could be challenging. If, however, traditionally produced meat becomes as expensive as some are predicting, buying meat that came from a lab rather than the farm could become the more palatable option.

What do you think? Could the ‘Frankenburger’ be the solution to the looming food crisis? Or will consumers just not be able to stomach the thought of meat grown in a petri dish?