The Israeli company Future Meat has now opened what they claim to be the first factory in the world for commercial production of cultured meat. From the start the factory will be able to produce 500 kilos of cultured meat per day. In addition to beef, the factory will produce chicken, pork and lamb.
The meat is cultured, which means that cells from animals are grown in a nutrient solution. The nutritional solution is normally very expensive, which is why cultured meat so far has been more expensive then animal meat. But Future Meats method requires much less nutritional solution, which in turn lower the price.
Prices on cultured meat have been going down steadily and Future Meat expects prices to fall rapidly in the future. According to an article in Bloomberg, Future Meat can now produce 100 grams of chicken for US$ 4 and expects to be able to halve that price by the end of 2022.
“This facility demonstrates our proprietary media rejuvenation technology in scale, allowing us to reach production densities 10-times higher than the industrial standard. Our goal is to make cultured meat affordable for everyone, while ensuring we produce delicious food that is both healthy and sustainable, helping to secure the future of coming generations,”says Yaakov Nahmias, founder of Future Meat, in a press release.
Compared to breeding animals, this method is 20 times faster. Plus no animals need to be slaughtered. The method also requires 99 percent less land, 96 percent less water and generates 80 percent fewer greenhouse gases than traditional animal breeding.
In 2022, the company expects to be able to start selling farmed meat in stores. Future Meat also intends to build more factories around the world to increase production.
Read more about cultured meat:
💡 Optimist’s Edge: Cell-grown burgers will be cheaper than cow-grown burgers (warpnews.org)
