How Will Lab-Grown Meat Affect Farmers?

The advent of lab-grown meat is set to change a lot of things in the protein industry, from the value chain to the distribution channels, and the market outlook as a whole. Every sector that is involved in the conventional production of meat protein is expected to experience some influence, whether positive or negative from the global embrace of lab-grown meat.

Farmers are the bedrock of the meat industry or any other agriculture-based industry at that. How will the shift from outdoor fields and animal houses to indoor laboratories and food plants affect them? What exactly is the fate of farmers and what should they expect to change in how they raise animals for food? Questions like these, and more, are what this post seeks to address.

Understanding the Budding Lab-Grown Meat Industry

Lab-grown meat, also known as cultivated meat, cell-based meat, or cultured meat is meat that is grown in the laboratory instead of being collected from an animal after slaughter.

Lab-grown meat is not to be confused with alternative proteins such as plant-based meat since they are in the real sense grown from the cells of animals.

The only thing that distinguishes them from conventional meat is that the cells were retrieved from a live animal and then prepared to grow independent of the animal in a laboratory or food plant.

The lab-grown meat industry arose due to several reasons, but three things do stand out: environmental sustainability, less animal cruelty, and convenience.

The process involved in the production of cultivated meat does better at sustaining the environment than that of conventional meat production. Less energy and water are consumed, less carbon is emitted, and land use is kept to its minimum.

Cell-based meat also provides an ethical justification to consume meat as it is without animal slaughter or any major cruelty to animal life. Lastly, the new method of manufacturing meat is convenient, technology-friendly, and would become cost-effective in the long run.

How Lab-Grown Meat Will Affect Farmers

As lab-grown meat increases in acceptability across countries, farmers are bound to be affected in one way or the other, positively and negatively.

The Hard Truth: We Might Be Needing Less Animal Farmers

This is perhaps, going to be the hardest of all effects to take in. because the largest suppliers of animal meat are farmers who run small-scale local farms, a greater percentage of them would lose their source of income as consumers shift from natural meat consumption to purchasing cultured meat.

This is one role most major technological innovations play. They are bound to shift if not totally displace persons in the industry who are employing traditional methods unless, of course, they are able to adapt to the technological shift.

Considering how intensive cultivated meat production is currently, it would be quite hard for small-scale farmers to upscale to its standards without some financial and structural backup. This is not a doom talk, but a significant percentage of animal farmers would lose their jobs.

The Good Part: Natural Meat Will Become Highly Valued and so Will Animal Farmers

Over time, natural meat from the slaughter would become a luxury that only a privileged few can afford and lab-grown meat would become the new normal. As natural meats become scarce, they would become more expensive because there would be the few consumers that attach ethical or religious values to consuming them.

This would be an advantage for livestock farmers that are able to maintain their space in the meat protein industry. While they will not have a large share of the meat-consuming population to themselves, the few meat consumers that stay true to them will be highly sentimental about natural meat and be willing to purchase it at any price.

Fewer Expenses to be Spent on Livestock Maintenance

Generally, livestock farmers would be spending less on livestock maintenance since cultivated meat requires fewer animal populations. With proper care, a small herd of livestock animals possesses the potential to grow meat enough to field a major city.

From time to time, meat producers only need to retrieve a tiny chunk of flesh from an animal, extract the required cells and grow substantial meat from those few cells. Usually, the cell extraction process is not overbearing on the animal and would not affect the animal’s major activities like feeding and reproduction.

Ultimately, cultured meat production allows livestock farmers to focus on a select few herd of animals and give them the adequate maintenance they need while reaping lots of profit from them by cultivating their cells into consumable meat.

Unavoidably, Farmers Would Need to Adopt a Different Approach

The earlier livestock farmers understand this, the better for them. In the coming years, as cultivated meat production becomes prevalent, the focus in livestock farming will shift from large herds, or even hormone bloated animals to a select few that are disease-free, genetically pure, drug-free, and fit to manufacture laboratory meat that is safe for human consumption.

Besides as conscious consumerism becomes more pronounced, only farmers who are able to maintain ethical and environmental friendly standards of raising animals will be able to build a wide customer base.

Whether supplying meat directly to natural meat lovers or companies who grow meat in food plants, livestock farmers must take up the next trendy approach to agriculture if they must continue to thrive in the meat industry.

Conclusion

The world keeps revolutionizing and presenting us with methods that may not have been considered feasible a couple of years before. These methods tend to cause huge shifts, displacing old faces and embracing new ones.

In the case of the protein industry shifting from natural to laboratory meat production, farmers stand at the highest risk of displacement. However, this is not going to be a total displacement – for as long as real meat is being sourced from animal cells. Farmers would only need to focus on one thing: building their standards to meet the constantly evolving demands for meat and other food products.