How Does Lab-Grown Meat Help with Food Insecurity?
In the past 50 years, global meat production has done more than a triple increase, with more than 340 million tones of meat now being produced each year. It is projected that by 2050, more than 500 million tones of meat will be needed to serve the global demand.
Undisputedly, meat is one of the most popular sources of protein in the human diet. However, its production poses a major threat to food security. This is particularly true for current methods of meat production. More than half of the world’s farmlands are used for meat production, resulting in immense land, energy, and water use, immense greenhouse gas emissions, and consequentially, climate change. At the current projection, global meat production rates prove very unsustainable for food security – unless something is done.
Food production relies heavily on agriculture, and agriculture can only thrive on a sustainable earth. There are several activities that are contributing to the imminent climate change but meat production remains a leading cause. Besides, the world’s natural resources are finite, yet meat production is depleting them at an alarming rate. According to research, meat production takes 75 times more energy than corn production, with the production of one kilo of grain-fed beef consuming more than eight liters of gasoline and about 15,000 liters of water. In a distinct comparison, a kilo of vegetables would only require 300 liters of water for production.
The good thing though is that the world is actively waking to the consciousness of maintaining a sustainable earth and racing to combat the imminent climate change. In doing this, the solution wouldn’t be to ban the production and consumption of meat, that would be far-fetched, and you’ll agree too. A viable solution would be to identify sustainable alternatives to meat production, and this is where cultured meat comes in.
Cultivated Meat to the Rescue
Lab-grown meat poses to be a viable option to conventional meat in several ways. Predominantly, it does away with most of the sustainability excesses of conventional meat while ensuring access to healthier meat sources and eliminating animal slaughter. Cultivated meat takes lesser time to grow, and uses only a fraction of the earth's resources required to produce conventional meat of equivalent weight.
While lab-grown meat will not directly solve the world hunger crisis or eliminate food insecurity, its development as an alternative to animal farming goes a long way to improving the earth's sustainability and this will eventually help to improve agriculture. The heavy natural resources expended during animal rearing do not spell good for agriculture. A significant percentage of the world's farmlands are designated for animal farming. Moreover, the practice consumes several liters of water and a huge amount of energy, a fraction of which will serve to produce significant amounts of other agricultural products such as grains and pulses.
Mind you, remember that the global demand for meat is bound to increase over the next few decades. Unless an alternative is provided, we may just need to convert all the world's forests for animal farming production. This will not only expend natural resources but will result in massive carbon emissions that put the environment at risk of several dangers which will also impact agriculture.
Food insecurity is based on several factors: economic, governmental, agricultural, social, and so on. Therefore to fully combat it, a lot needs to be done. Lab-grown meat will not directly make food equally distributed across the world, but it does play a significant role as an alternative to meat production that helps to enhance agriculture and resourcefulness in utilizing natural resources.
