When You Know Better, Do Better: Why Cultivated Meat Isn't the Evolution We Need

The rise of cultivated meat—also known as lab-grown or cell-based meat—is being hailed as a revolutionary solution to animal suffering and climate change. And yes, it’s a major scientific achievement. But as the conversation among food innovators and sustainability advocates increasingly shifts away from plant-based foods toward lab-grown animal flesh, we need to pause and ask: are we truly evolving—or just rebranding the same old dependency?

What Is Cultivated Meat?

Let’s start with the basics. Cultivated meat is real animal meat, but grown without slaughter. Scientists take a small sample of cells — usually muscle stem cells — from a living animal through a biopsy. These cells are then fed nutrients and grown in a controlled environment (a bioreactor), where they multiply and form muscle tissue, just as they would inside an animal [1].

Once enough tissue is produced, it’s harvested and shaped into products like burgers, nuggets, or even steaks. No factory farming, no killing — just meat, minus the animal (or so the story goes).

While the goal is animal-free production, the process still begins with a living being. Some companies even refer to donor animals as “ambassadors” [2],  a term that raises ethical questions — especially when ongoing biopsies may be required to sustain production [1].

How Eco-Friendly Is Cultivated Meat — Really?

The environmental pitch is one of cultivated meat’s biggest selling points — and compared to industrial livestock farming, it certainly looks better on paper.

But plant-based foods are still the gold standard when it comes to environmental sustainability — and that fact often gets lost in the hype.

Yes, cultivated meat looks like progress next to factory-farmed beef. Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) suggest that, when efficient energy sources are used, large-scale production could slash greenhouse-gas emissions, use only a fraction of the land, and require far less water [3]. It can also curb air-pollution impacts, with similarly strong gains projected for cultivated pork and chicken.

But when compared to plant-based proteins, cultivated meat still falls short. Products made from soy, peas, or wheat emit fewer greenhouse gases and require far less energy, land, and water to produce [4]. Even the most optimistic projections for cultivated meat can’t match the lighter environmental footprint of plant-based alternatives—and everyday staples like tofu or lentils are lighter still [5].

In other words: cultivated meat may be greener than livestock, but it’s still not as clean as plants. And if we’re serious about sustainability, our brightest efforts should go toward scaling plant-forward food systems — not engineering high-tech versions of animal products that continue to center meat.

A Transition Tool, Not a Savior

While cultivated meat may reduce harm to animals and lessen environmental impact — and may offer a step in the right direction for those unwilling to go fully plant-based — we should still be cautious about the narrative that surrounds it. Framing it as a solution, rather than a stepping stone, risks reinforcing the very mindset we need to move past — one that treats meat as essential and irreplaceable.

This is not the second coming of meat — and it shouldn’t be sold as such.

One of the most overlooked issues in the cultivated meat conversation is health. While it may sidestep some of the dangers associated with conventional meat — such as bacterial contamination and antibiotic resistance — it doesn’t address the deeper nutritional risks tied to animal-based diets. High intakes of animal protein are associated with higher cardiovascular-disease and some cancer risks [6]. These aren’t side effects of poor farming practices; they’re linked to the biological makeup of meat itself — including its saturated fat, heme iron, and pro-inflammatory compounds.

Those risks don’t disappear in a bioreactor. Whether it’s grown in a lab or raised on a feedlot, meat is still meat — and keeping it at the center of our diets reinforces the very patterns that fuel chronic disease — the ones we should be working to break.

Cultivated meat may offer a helpful transition — a temporary bridge for those still tethered to animal-based eating. But if we treat it as the final destination, we could miss the deeper transformation our food system needs.

A Cultural Step Backward

The issue isn’t just nutritional or environmental — it’s cultural. Cultivated meat may promise change, but it ultimately reinforces the very norms we should be questioning.

Rather than helping us rethink our relationship to food, cultivated meat upholds the idea that meat is essential, aspirational, and morally superior to plants. It doesn’t challenge meat’s dominance in our diets — it repackages it, preserving its prestige while stripping away the guilt.

This narrative is gaining traction even in progressive spaces. Respected plant-forward platforms like Green Queen now champion cultivated meat as “the future of protein,” echoing a broader media shift that keeps meat at the center of food innovation [7]. Their Future of Food series, for example, routinely highlights cultivated meat startups and technologies [8], lending cultural legitimacy to a product that still revolves around animal flesh.

The result? We’re spending millions to replicate a product we should be moving beyond — not because we need it, but because meat still symbolizes status, tradition, and comfort. Cultivated meat keeps meat in the spotlight, just with a cleaner image and a more palatable story.

But this doesn’t free us from old dependencies — it reinforces them. This isn’t transformation. It’s the same narrative, polished and repackaged for a new era.

Do Better by Letting Go

So where does that leave us — and what kind of food future should we really be working toward?

It shouldn't be a high-tech simulation of what we already know causes suffering. It should be better — kinder, more conscious, and less dependent on animals in any form.

We can stop glorifying meat. We can stop putting time, money, and scientific brilliance into making cruelty more efficient or more sustainable. Instead, we can reimagine food entirely — around plants, abundance, justice, and joy.

Cultivated meat may serve a purpose, but it should never be the destination. It’s a bridge — not a blueprint.

When you know better, do better. And we know better now.

References

[1] Post MJ. Cultured meat from stem cells: challenges and prospects. Meat Science. 2012;92(3):297-301. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174012001210  sciencedirect.com

[2] Sweet Farm. (2024). 50 acres to change the world (Tech-program impact report, p. 5). https://www.sweetfarm.org/s/Sweet-Farm-Booklet-31424.pdf

[3] Tuomisto HL, Teixeira de Mattos MJ. Environmental impacts of cultured meat production. Environmental Science & Technology. 2011;45(14):6117-6123. https://doi.org/10.1021/es200130u  pubs.acs.org

[4] Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science.2018;360(6392):987-992. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaq0216  science.org

[5] Smetana S, Ristic D, Pleissner D, et al. “Meat substitutes: resource demands and environmental footprints.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling. 2023;190:106831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106831

[6] Song M, Fung TT, Hu FB, et al. Association of animal and plant protein intake with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2016;176(10):1453-1463.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4182  jamanetwork.com

[7] Green Queen. 10 Reasons Why Cultivated Meat Is the Future of Protein: The Case for Lab-Grown. 16 Dec 2022. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/10-reasons-why-cultivated-meat-is-the-future-of-protein-the-case-for-lab-grown/greenqueen.com.hk

[8] Green Queen – Future Foods section (category hub for cultivated-meat coverage). https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/category/future-foods/