Developing clean meat involves growing meat in the cell culture rather than in the inside of an animal. This type of meat has various benefits such as sustainability, environmental benefits, animal welfare, food safety, and a novel food source. Firstly, developing clean meat promotes suitability since a few samples of stem cells drawn from cows can produce sufficient meat that can even feed the entire world. Additionally, environmental benefits that are associated with the production of clean meat (Van der Gucht, 2018). For instance, the technology used to produce clean meat is friendlier to the environment compared to rearing livestock since livestock contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, developing clean meat promotes animals’ welfare since there is no need to keep a large number of animals in cramped conditions only for them slaughtered. Another advantage of clean meat is that there is food safety in the product. According to experts, clean meat is safer since pathogens can be found in the intestinal tract of animals that can get into the meat during the animal’s slaughtering. Finally, clean meat is a novel source of food since, according to research, altering the cell culture conditions leads to more healthful meat production. On the other hand, companies producing clean meat have substituted cell culture media with plant-based media. Plant-based media has fetal bovine serum whose composition is poorly defined. Furthermore, the cost of developing clean meat is very high due to the use of synthetic media, which is the growth factor for the meat. Due to the high production cost of clean meat, people can not afford to purchase the food since it is expensive. There are also ethical concerns due to clean meat production, just like in the case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (Mengistie, 2020). Consumer acceptance is a challenge for developing clean meat since some people say that they do not like the meat’s taste.
- Do you think people will be willing to eat clean meat? Can you think of other products or services that faced similar adoption challenges? (2 marks)
In my opinion, some people will accept clean meat while others will not consume it. Every person has their personal opinion concerning what they would want to consume. Some people who believe that meat from farms is problematic prefer plant-based meat (Bryant, & Barnett, 2018). Furthermore, some people argue that clean meat is unnatural. Many people in the world believe that natural food is better than unnatural food. Thus, they cannot consume clean meat since it is not natural. Additionally, other products, such as GMOs, have faced similar adoption challenges. GMOs are living organisms that are produced in the laboratory through artificially manipulating their genetic material. Foods such as sugar beet, corn, and animal products were among the first products to be introduced as genetically modified. Many people who resisted the use of GMOs argued that there was a potential health impact on human health, such as getting allergenic genes causing dangerous reactions in Individuals with certain types of allergies (Scott, Inbar & Rozin, 2018). Moreover, people argue that producing GMOs tampers with Mother Nature since nature has its own way of producing organisms. Consuming GMOs also can cause diseases that are resistant to antibiotics among people. Similarly, human cloning has faced similar adoption challenges with clean meat. Biologists proposed human cloning as a way to improve the genetic endowment of people. They proposed cloning persons with great achievements in activities such as sports, arts, music, and science. People who were against human cloning argued that it interfered with the natural way of reproduction (Häyry, 2018). Cloning was also said to have various impacts on the health that could endanger people’s lives. However, scientists argued that through therapeutic cloning, people would get treated for injured nerve cells. Human cloning has brought serious debates in countries around the world, and some nations have put legislation to ban and limit human cloning.