I remember several years ago reading a paper laying out the issues with scaling up lab-grown meat. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but IIRC the main crux of the article was that it was actually incredibly hard to scale up because you need to maintain a very large and complex space in a completely sanitary manner, as a tiny amount of bact…
I remember several years ago reading a paper laying out the issues with scaling up lab-grown meat. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but IIRC the main crux of the article was that it was actually incredibly hard to scale up because you need to maintain a very large and complex space in a completely sanitary manner, as a tiny amount of bacteria getting in could completely ruin a batch of product, and require a large deep-clean. Though 'incredibly hard' was definitely not the same as 'impossible'. Plus, as has been pointed out, there's not really much more you could do to make real meat cheaper, whereas this sounds like a problem that can be worked on, but means that scaling up will take longer than people think.
I ultimately think that the cost of plant-based substitutes will always be cheaper, but that in a lot of cases this will suffice. Certainly in something like a Big Mac, I think a plant substitute would probably get to 'close enough' to be a viable, and cheaper, alternative to real meat. Lab grown meat would probably become a higher end product, where the higher cost can be built in to the price.
Youre right in that the impossible foods approach of working out which proteins make meat taste meaty and artificially producing those and putting them into plant based food is the technically easier approach to scale.
However lab grown meat is using some of the same technogy we'll need for lab grown human organs. So theres a potential extremely high value product that justifies investing in getting the cell culture technology right even if the food long term wouldnt necessarily justify the costs.
I think you're probably right on both counts. More plant-based switchers will be better for the climate anyway - but there's still going to be a constituency of people who want "real" meat, and those are the people lab meat companies should aim at.
In terms of difficulty, I don't doubt it's difficult - but I think if the will were there to do it, even building such complex clean environments is doable at scale. I mean, something going wrong on a plane would be catastrophic, but because of the scale and positive gains from having air travel, we've developed an incredibly rigorous system of safety mechanisms and procedures that makes flying actually a viable thing without too much risk.
I remember several years ago reading a paper laying out the issues with scaling up lab-grown meat. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but IIRC the main crux of the article was that it was actually incredibly hard to scale up because you need to maintain a very large and complex space in a completely sanitary manner, as a tiny amount of bacteria getting in could completely ruin a batch of product, and require a large deep-clean. Though 'incredibly hard' was definitely not the same as 'impossible'. Plus, as has been pointed out, there's not really much more you could do to make real meat cheaper, whereas this sounds like a problem that can be worked on, but means that scaling up will take longer than people think.
I ultimately think that the cost of plant-based substitutes will always be cheaper, but that in a lot of cases this will suffice. Certainly in something like a Big Mac, I think a plant substitute would probably get to 'close enough' to be a viable, and cheaper, alternative to real meat. Lab grown meat would probably become a higher end product, where the higher cost can be built in to the price.
Youre right in that the impossible foods approach of working out which proteins make meat taste meaty and artificially producing those and putting them into plant based food is the technically easier approach to scale.
However lab grown meat is using some of the same technogy we'll need for lab grown human organs. So theres a potential extremely high value product that justifies investing in getting the cell culture technology right even if the food long term wouldnt necessarily justify the costs.
I think you're probably right on both counts. More plant-based switchers will be better for the climate anyway - but there's still going to be a constituency of people who want "real" meat, and those are the people lab meat companies should aim at.
In terms of difficulty, I don't doubt it's difficult - but I think if the will were there to do it, even building such complex clean environments is doable at scale. I mean, something going wrong on a plane would be catastrophic, but because of the scale and positive gains from having air travel, we've developed an incredibly rigorous system of safety mechanisms and procedures that makes flying actually a viable thing without too much risk.