NEXT-GEN MEAT: Why Humanity Will Have to Reinvent It
Cave Painting of a Bison in Altamira, Spain / dolynska.city
Scientists argue that livestock farming is highly resource-intensive, harmful to the environment, and primarily responsible for climate change. At the same time, they believe that without meat in our diet, modern humans — with their developed brains, civilization, and culture — would not exist. But what should we do if giving up burgers and steaks is an insurmountable challenge for most members of our species? Science offers a compromise: to invent «new meat» that would have no negative impact.
GLOBAL RISKS OF MEAT CONSUMPTION
P
eople began considering in-vitro meat (lab-grown meat) not out of luxury but out of necessity. According to the UN, producing a 150g patty requires an average of 1,695 liters of water. Livestock farming accounts for 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions — the same amount as all cars, trains, ships, and planes combined.
Producing 1 kg of meat takes 20 times more land than producing 1 kg of vegetables. It’s no wonder that 80% of agricultural land is used for livestock, even though livestock provides only 18% of the global caloric intake. Never in its history has humanity consumed as much meat as it does now!
Between 1990 and 2017, the consumption of animal protein (meat, eggs, milk) nearly doubled — from 750 million tons to 1.3 billion tons. In 2023, people consumed 327 million tons of meat. And the consumption continues to rise. By the end of 2030, a 9.6% increase is expected, and by 2050, a 70% increase.
But will this growth help humanity overcome hunger and poverty? Not necessarily. The fact is, if people ate plants «directly,» they certainly wouldn’t go hungry. There are about 27,000 species of protein-rich plants in the world, offering vast opportunities to create a balanced diet for humans.
These arguments are substantial and deserve to be heard by representatives of all nations, religions, and races. Yet, humanity is in no hurry to give up meat. Why?
NOT ALL MEAT IS EQUALLY HEALTHY
Doctors claim that the recommended daily meat intake is up to 150–180g for men, 130–150g for women, and 50–100g for children and older people. Meat is a crucial source of vitamin B12, iron, calcium, zinc, fatty acids, and other nutrients, the deficiency of which can lead to hormonal imbalances.
However, not all meat is equally beneficial. For example, lamb contains twice as little cholesterol as beef and four times less than pork. Rabbit meat is considered the healthiest for the heart. Overall, the world’s less affluent population, which makes up the majority, prefers cheap chicken, accounting for up to 70% of the global meat market.
Humans are omnivores, but excessive consumption of any product can be harmful. The world’s leading meat consumer is the United States, where the average person consumes 250g of meat per day, followed by Israel and Australia.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is India, with an average daily consumption of 10g. About 30% of Indians do not eat meat at all, adhering strictly to a plant-based diet. But can humans do it entirely without meat? This is a complex question.
IS IT ALL ABOUT TRADITION?
Some scientists point to cultural traditions as a decisive factor in dietary choices. For example, abstaining from meat is mandatory for Jains. It is widely practiced in Hinduism and Buddhism. But what about Christianity? Vegetarian advocates often refer to the Bible when addressing meat-eating Christians.
Genesis 1:29 states, «And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you, it shall be for meat.’» Where in this commandment is there any mention of meat? Nevertheless, followers of Abrahamic religions likely consume more meat than any other tradition. The roots of these customs run incredibly deep.
Most anthropologists believe that modern humans, in their current «advanced» form, emerged 40,000–50,000 years ago. What they might have eaten was revealed by the famous Ötzi, whose mummy was discovered in an Alpine glacier. His remains preserved traces of a European diet from 5,300 years ago.
In addition to cereals and ferns, Ötzi’s stomach contained dried or smoked meat — a precursor to Parma ham, which would later become famous in these regions. However, according to the EU Smart Protein project, 51% of Europeans, led by Italians, are actively reducing their meat consumption.
The primary motivations for Europeans to give up meat are health concerns (47%), environmental concerns (29%), and compassion for animals (26%). And indeed, animals do need our empathy. Every year, 70 billion animals are killed for food and 170 million for experiments. The fur industry and entertainment sector claim the lives of hundreds of millions more of our fellow creatures.
DID MEAT TURN APES INTO HUMANS?
Meat-eating is not just a result of individual choice or culturally shaped dietary behavior. It likely played a decisive role in human evolution. Cultural philosopher Mircea Eliade once said that it was not labor, as Marxism claims, but rather the act of killing a living being that transformed an ape into a human.
Around 6–8 million years ago, primates were probably strictly herbivorous. Then, suddenly, about 2 million years ago, our ancestors, likely responding to climate changes, began incorporating meat into their diet. This shift triggered not only biological evolution but also cultural evolution.
To effectively kill animals, they invented tools, learned to hunt in groups, and, at some point, following herds, left Africa to populate the entire planet. However, some scientists believe this hypothesis is incorrect and that there was no surge in meat consumption 2 million years ago. Still, most experts associate the explosive encephalization of our species with the increased consumption of meat.
While the average Australopithecus brain weighs 400 grams, ours weighs up to 1.5 kilograms. It was the meat-fed brain that created civilization — social structures, writing, computers, spacecraft, and quantum mechanics. On the other hand, the vegetarian Australopithecus became an evolutionary dead end and eventually disappeared. But to «fuel» a large and complex brain, humans needed an amount of energy that no plant-based diet could provide.
Today, of course, we can «extract» energy in concentrated forms like sugar. But since we evolved as meat-eaters, a sugar-based diet leads to dental caries, diabetes, ischemia, and other diseases.
OMNIVOROUSNESS AND WORLDVIEW
Even the Neolithic Revolution couldn’t change humanity’s love for meat. The first bread, resembling modern lavash or pita in taste and appearance, was baked 14,000 years ago in what is now Jordan — 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.
Isotope studies have shown that the first farmers still consumed a lot of meat, and bread was more of a delicacy than a staple in their daily diet. However, in terms of quality of life, they still fared worse than hunter-gatherers.
Firstly, uncivilized meat-eaters worked much less, as confirmed by modern comparative ethnography of African tribes. Imagine how much free time you would have if you didn’t need to plow and sow, repair tools, tend, and guard supplies and livestock.
Secondly, «savages» were more culturally advanced: Their folklore was richer, their tattoos more impressive, and their jewelry more sophisticated. What a person eats is directly linked to their experience and worldview.
By engaging with the world through the widest possible range of tastes, people begin to better understand both the world and themselves. Omnivorousness as a mode of interacting with the world forms a conceptually different understanding of reality compared to the limited diet of a sedentary farming community.
MEAT NO LONGER SAVES OUR BRAINS?
No matter what role meat played in the history of civilization, it’s now more than clear: the planet’s resources can no longer sustain humanity’s demand for beef. Moreover, a meat-based diet is no longer capable of further «enhancing» our brains. Today, our brains are, on average, 13% smaller than those of Homo sapiens who lived 100,000 years ago. The trend toward brain reduction, which began somewhere between 25,000 and 3,000 years ago, is quite persistent.
The reason lies in the fact that modern humans live in a level of abundance unimaginable to ancient people. Cooperation and the division of labor no longer require universal cognitive skills from individuals. As a result, we are getting smarter collectively but not necessarily on an individual level. We observe that the boom in robotics and AI, designed to compensate for our weaknesses, goes hand in hand with the development of food technologies.
The growing consumption of meat is devastating the planet’s ecosystem. Therefore, humanity is actively searching for alternatives that can match meat in terms of caloric value. Over time, a change in diet might alter our biology, possibly requiring adjustments in our digestive systems and endocrine functions.
For now, new dietary patterns are emerging before our eyes. In 2013, the first hamburger with a lab-grown meat patty cost $330,000. But today, reservations at Bistro Invitro, a restaurant set to open in 2028, are already booked two years in advance.
Futurist Kurt van Mensvoort, who is also an industrial designer and the head of the Next Nature scientific group, doesn’t find this surprising. Once, people obtained meat by hunting in the forest, not by purchasing it from a supermarket shelf. Similarly, organic meat will eventually become a niche product for gourmets, much like game meat is today.
STEAK FROM A BIOREACTOR
Cellular technologies are the future of the food industry. In an article for Wired magazine, venture capitalist Joi Ito argues that lab-grown meat will be tastier and healthier than vegan meat substitutes because it allows for the creation of new products with unique nutritional profiles.
According to Ito, the transition to artificial food will occur in six stages. The first stage involves plant-based proteins that mimic meat. The second stage includes products derived from bacterial fermentation, creating dishes indistinguishable from real meat in taste, appearance, and smell.
The third level is the production of «meat» from plant ingredients with the addition of cultured animal cells. The fourth stage involves artificially created animal cells based on embryonic serum, which do not have the texture of meat.
At this point, pharmaceutical technologies come into play. The fifth stage involves the complete imitation of chicken thighs or pork steaks, which is technologically still unattainable but resembles methods used in transplanting artificially grown organs. Finally, the sixth stage is the development of next-generation «meat» bioreactors, capable of transforming virtually anything — algae, mushrooms, insects — into meat.
BEEF AS REAL AS IT GETS
Of course, science is still far from the fantastical bioreactor. However, the journal Nature recently mentioned that scientists have successfully grown meat in a lab from animal muscle cells that are indistinguishable from natural beef in color, taste, and smell. Producing this kind of meat doesn’t require killing animals and doesn’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
But in achieving environmental and ethical goals, it’s even more critical that lab-grown meat meets the expectations of potential consumers — that is, it possesses the qualities of regular beef. When conventional meat is cooked at high temperatures, it undergoes the Maillard reaction, where its amino acids and sugars interact to give the meat its characteristic aroma and flavor. Cultivated meat, however, reacts differently to heat due to its unique amino acid profile.
To address this shortcoming, scientists have developed a compound that, when added to cultivated meat, recreates the natural flavor profile similar to that produced by the Maillard reaction. This compound not only integrates well with the cultivated meat, preventing it from breaking down during cooking but also releases the desired flavor when heated to 150°C.
Currently, the laboratory is producing small batches, but they hope to scale up the new technology in the future and replicate the dominant flavor compounds for other products as well.
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