Lab-Grown Meat and FBS

by Ben Blaustein

“Minced Meat” captured by Alexas_Fotos on Pixabay

In 1931, Winston Churchill famously published 'Fifty Years Hence' in The Strand Magazine, which imagined the world in 50 years. He claimed that scientific advances of the future would allow society to "escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing" by instead "growing these parts separately under a suitable medium". While it's come 40 years after Churchill predicted, this sci-fi meat could be commercially available in 2021. Known as 'cell-based', 'clean', or 'lab-grown' meat, scientists and startups are claiming to produce an ethical alternative to traditional meat. From culinary staples like poultry and beef to specialties like French frog legs and Australian kangaroo, new-age farmers are brewing isolated sets of animal cells in giant metal vats all across the world. 

This all sounds extremely intriguing, especially to those eager to continue their carnivorous diet or perhaps questioning their vegetarian one. Growing the tasty bits saves time, space and resources. Lab-grown meat is championed as a solution which eliminates the problematic environmental consequences of our current meat industry: land and water degradation, greenhouse gas emission and mass deforestation to name a few. In large quantities and using significantly less resources, lab-grown meat could eventually be cheaper than conventional meat. These benefits aside, lab-grown meat is most commonly advertised by the industry and press as a "slaughter-free" alternative to traditional meat, claiming to eliminate the ethical dilemma of raising and slaughtering an animal in the name of BBQ. However, lab-grown meat's 'ethical superiority' quickly deteriorates after inspecting what's actually required for its production.

Firstly, lab-grown meat requires an initial sample of animal tissue. With a series of genetic tweaks, these cells can replicate into the desirably delicious dish. While GMO-meat undoubtedly has its own set of ethical dilemmas, it's far from our primary concern. The greater problem comes from the growth-promoting medium that supplies nutrients for the animal cells to develop into a sizable hunk of meat. Luckily for those looking to proliferate mutated animal cells, an all-in-one nutritious cocktail already exists, and works for practically all eukaryotic cell. The magical grow-all juice: the blood of cow fetuses.

“Fetal bovine serum cell culture medium” Contibuted by Lilly_M

Practically all lab-grown meat startups are using a secret sauce known as Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), a liquid harvested from the blood of unborn calves. After pregnant beef cattle are slaughtered, their organs are removed and inspected for sizable fetuses. If viable, the fetus and reproductive tract are separated from the organs and the fetus is removed and disinfected. Under the Humane Slaughter Act, US meat producers are required to minimize the suffering of slaughtered animals by completely sedating to the point that they are insensible to pain. This is not the case from fetuses. A needle is inserted between the ribs of the alive and un-anaesthetized fetus, puncturing the heart to extract sterile blood via vacuum pump, massage or –simply and slowly– gravity. 'Clean' meat might not be so clean after all.

After extraction, blood cells and platelets are filtered out resulting's in around 150ml-550ml of FBS. After all this, a single fetus isn't remotely enough for a burger. A single lab-grown patty require around 50 liters of FBS, 91 to 333 fetuses for one burger. The FBS industry's yearly harvest is estimated to be approximately 2 to 12 million bovine fetuses, resulting in around 800,000 liters of FBS. Each year the industry grows with demand and is expected to double in the next ten years. If this is the case, the amount of bovine fetuses harvested could be more than half the amount of beef cattle slaughtered in the US. 

Only one lab-grown meat startup has claimed to have grown meat without the use of FBS, meaning all other lab-grown meat is FBS-grown. The dependence of the lab-grown meat industry on FBS contradicts all the claimed benefits of its product. FBS production is reliant on and arguably a sector of the beef industry, one of the most environmentally destructive industries globally. Therefore, the lab-grown meat industry is fundamentally intertwined with the same industry it claims to be superior to. Furthermore, the current costs of FBS, $300 to $700 a liter, prevents FBS-grown meat from being an affordable alternative any time soon. Ultimately, at the cost of hundreds of bovine fetuses for every patty, it seems that lab-grown meat is actually far dirtier than traditional meats.

The lab-grown meat industry's reliance on FBS is not only troubling in itself, but the its deceptive advertisement to consumers is even more troubling. The only way lab-grown meat can redeem itself and be what it truly claims to be is by ditching FBS and accepting that the future isn’t as close as they claim it is.

BEN BLAUSTEIN is a food studies and bioethics student at NYU.