Chicken meat that was produced in a lab was served for the first time at the Singapore restaurant 1880 on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020 – a historic milestone for its producers, hoping to reduce the carbon footprint of meat consumption on the planet.
Chicken Meat
Start-up Eat Just announced in early December that its lab-grown meat from animal cells had been approved for sale as a seed ingredient by authorities in the Southeast Asian city-state – the first country in the world to allow the practice.
A revolutionary step in the fight against climate change
The company had announced its first commercial sale of lab-made meat at 1880, a restaurant in an elegant neighborhood in Singapore. On Saturday night, the establishment served this lab meat to 14- to 18-year-olds who were invited for their commitment to the environment and how to build a better planet. This historic dinner was closed to journalists, however, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Serving this artificial meat is a “revolutionary step in fighting climate change and feeding the world’s population without harming the planet,” says the restaurant’s founder, Marc Nicholson.
For Eat Just founder Josh Tetrick, this brings us closer for the first time “to a world where not a single forest is destroyed, not a single animal habitat is displaced, and not a single drop of antibiotics is used for most of the meat we eat.
Global meat consumption is expected to increase by 70% by 2050
Global meat consumption is expected to increase by 70% by 2050, and artificial meat could soon meet some of the demand, according to the startup. Intensive farming for meat consumption is a source of the greenhouse gas methane. In some countries, such as Brazil, the sector contributes to the destruction of forests, which are natural barriers to global warming.
Demand for meat alternatives is growing, but the products currently available are plant-based. Dozens of start-up companies are working on artificial meat projects around the world, but production has remained experimental.
The very high cost of producing artificial meat is seen as a brake on development, but according to a spokesperson for the startup, Eat Just has made significant progress in reducing costs.
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