What sounds like a science-fiction story has become a reality in the past few years around the globe: Scientists as well as the food industry are working on alternative meat production methods, called cultivated meat, where real animal meat is made by growing animal cells outside the animal’s body in a controlled environment, without the need to raise or slaughter animals. The first cultivated meat burger patty was shown, cooked and tasted back in 2013.

As the topic of cultivated meat is becoming more present on the public agenda, FOUR PAWS is closely monitoring the progress, and so far knows the following:

With conventional animal products globally accounting for over 85 billion1 lives of animals per year, 83% of agricultural land use2 and 16.5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions3, 'Cultivated Meat' could help us conserve our limited resources and have the potential to save billions of animals per year from being bred and kept in inhumane conditions and eventual slaughter. This is an initiative FOUR PAWS is strongly in favour of.

Although large-scale manufacturing of cultivated meat is still costly due to the price, of cell culture and skilled labour, costs are drastically decreasing which highlights the potential of making 'Cultivated Meat' available to the masses in the not-so-distant future.

We currently don’t know what the clear consequences for farmed animals and their welfare would be, but the advancement in recent years encourages optimism in the processes and the potential positive impact this meat successor would have. As this innovation is still evolving accompanied by an ever-increasing interest, we presume that a massive change in the farming of animals is then likely to happen.

Read more about 'Cultivated Meat'.

For every 100 kilocalories you feed a cow, you only get 2 kilocalories of beef back, which means, 98% is lost in the process of producing beef. For lamb, 96% is lost during conversion, for pork it’s 91% and 87% for poultry. This is why eating less meat would mean eliminating large losses of calories, thus being able to feed more people plus reducing the amount of farmland needed. This would free up billions of hectares for natural vegetation, forests and ecosystems to return.

The majority of animal-based products available in supermarkets stem from factory farming. This farming system is not built around the animals' natural needs; instead, the animals are forced to adapt to the system. As a result, their welfare is compromised in favour of maximizing economic efficiency.