Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown didn’t mince words when asked about the future of cell-based meat today at the Smart Kitchen Summit. “That will never be a commercial endeavor,” Brown said. “The reason has to do with the fact that it’s irreversibly expensive.”
While Brown agreed with the sentiment behind cell-based meat — removing animals from our diets — he doesn’t think the concept is a viable solution. Brown said that if companies were able to recreate muscle cells, that technology would be used first for therapeutic purposes, which would be much more lucrative than selling a facsimile of animal products.
Brown went on to create a hypothetical example. If 200 years ago, he theorized, you tried to develop new transportation by recreating the muscle cells of a horse, “you miss the real opportunities” because you’d be “stuck with limitations of animal cells.”
Brown’s fiery assertion is bound to ruffle some feathers in the cell-based meat world, which is full of companies hard at work re-creating meats in the lab. Startups in the cultured meat sector have raised a lot of money just over this past year: Memphis Meat raised $161 million in January, Integriculture raised $7.4 million in May, New Age Meats raised $4.7 million for its cell-based pork in July, and Mosa Meat raised $55 million for its cell-based burgers just last month.
In addition to raising money, cell-based meat companies are busy developing a variety of products including briskets, shrimp, yellowtail, bacon and even kangaroo.
Though Brown definitely has a plant-based horse in this race, his point is something we at The Spoon have pondered before. If plant-based meat tastes this good, do we even need to make meat in a lab? The plant-based ground beefs and pork from both Impossible and Beyond Meat are delicious. Should more resources be funneled into the cultured meat space, which, according to the companies making cell-based meat, is still years away from commercial availability at scale?
As if to erase any doubt about his position on cell-based meat, Brown said “It’s never going to be a thing. I’d put any amount of money on that.”
I love everything that Impossible and Beyond are doing, but I think people like Pat Brown forget that their products (and some of other plant-based products) contain certain ingredients that cannot be properly digested/ cause a lot of digestive problems to some consumers. I’ve met quite a few people already, even close friends, who complain about the stomach pain they get after consuming these products. I think we must not forget that even the plant based processed foods do not agree with everyone, and I do strongly believe we need to ” waste resources” on other alternatives to meat, so that we can accommodate for everyone.
Pat Brown lacks foresight when he says that lab grown muscle will first be used for therapeutic reasons.
There will be no better driver for ” therapeutic muscle” production than the demand for a basic and quickly consumed muscle food product, grown using the rudimentary methods of a new technology (and where the problems are resolved along the way).
Once lab meat techniques are streamlined these may be easily adapted to grow replacement human tissue and by which time, the legislation/regulation surrounding human tissue growth (because any human tissue grown will almost certainly be grown from the cells of the intended recipient or a genetically close family member – this involves consent, storage and disposal legislation), will have caught up to the technology.
Additionally, as a greater cash generator to further drive the industry forward, lab grown exotic meats (e.g. crocodile, zebra, panda) would be possible (I’m sure this aspect would appeal to the Chinese. (I imagine though that human tissue for consumption will be prohibited in most countries)).
Another driver may be “healthy lab grown meat” (meat tailored to specific health dietary requirements e.g. low cholesterol), to further generate income.
The time will come when “killed meat” will demand a premium because its availability will be limited and it will be surrounded by a significant amount of legislation. I hope that day comes soon.