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SINGAPORE – In a world first, Singapore on Wednesday (December 2) approved the sale of a meat product grown here.
The chicken bites from Californian start-up Eat Just are made by growing animal cells in bioreactors rather than raising animals on farms, and are not yet available for sale and consumption elsewhere.
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said it was allowing farmed chicken to be sold here after its evaluations determined it was safe.
The company will not rely on a timeline of when the product will be available, but the firm’s chief executive, Josh Tetrick, told The Straits Times on Thursday that it will be available soon and in a “high-end” restaurant.
The goal is to make farmed meat cheaper than conventional farmed meat, he added.
Why does it matter
Alternative proteins, such as cultured meat, could pave the way for more sustainable food production and better food security.
While a report on land use by the UN’s climate science body last year found that plant-based diets were still associated with lower environmental impact compared to meat-based ones, it may be that it is not feasible to get everyone to become a vegetarian.
Growing meat could be an alternative to raising livestock, which according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations accounts for 14.5 percent of emissions from human activity.
Culturing meat involves taking cells from an animal (often done harmlessly, such as through a biopsy) and then growing the cells in a nutrient broth inside a bioreactor.
This process has been associated with a number of environmental benefits.
One, it reduces the emissions associated with raising livestock.
There is less need to cut down forests for farms or grow crops for animal feed, and it reduces methane emissions from ruminants such as cows, which release a large amount of methane during the digestion of their food. Methane is considered a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide for shorter periods of time.
Two, beef farming can be done on a smaller land area compared to the livestock supply chain.
Three, it allows to produce meat without sacrificing. This avoids the need to confine livestock in tight spaces and reduces the possibility of disease spreading between humans and animals.
On the food security front, cultured meat could also increase the resistance of import-dependent nations like Singapore, which sources more than 90 percent of its food from abroad.
Eat Just has said its farmed chicken bites will be made in Singapore, and Tetrick told ST on Thursday that the company aims to produce enough not only for the domestic market, but also for the rest of Asia.
What awaits us
The need to feed a growing world population, which could reach nearly 10 billion by mid-century, is putting pressure on food production systems.
And the impacts of climate change, whether they are changes in rainfall patterns or more frequent extreme weather events, could put further pressure on food security.
These trends highlight the need for new ways of producing food, with a lower carbon footprint.
Critics have said that the environmental impact of growing meat, an energy-intensive process, is definitely no better than raising animals the traditional way.
Context is important. In Singapore, for example, most of the energy is generated by natural gas, a cleaner fossil fuel than coal or oil. Advances made in renewable energy systems and increased production of cultured meat could boost efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of cultured meat.
As with many new innovations, more studies are needed to assess the different impacts of farmed meat products.
SFA has done it on the food safety front. But even as environmental impact research continues, another hurdle remains: consumer receptivity to eating meat was done differently.
The impact of climate change can already be felt. Consumers can help by keeping an open mind.
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