Overview

A company called Upside Foods has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its laboratory-grown meat. This revolutionary food advancement could address issues like animal welfare, climate change, and food insecurity.

The science and other stuff to know

Lab-grown meat or cultured meat is when stem cells of an animal are taken and grown in a controlled environment to make cultured animal cell food instead of using traditional practices. Many companies in the food industry such as Upside Foods are betting on this approach of making meat more environmentally sustainable. And Upside Foods has received a safety stamp approval for its cultured chicken meat.

“The firm will use animal cell culture technology to take living cells from chickens and grow the cells in a controlled environment to make the cultured animal cell food,” the FDA said in a statement.

Upside Foods later responded to the FDA’s notice, writing, “Today we are one step closer to your dining tables as Upside Foods becomes the first company in the world to receive the USFDA greenlight. That means the FDA has evaluated our production process and accepts our conclusion that our cultivated chicken is safe to eat.”

The company estimates that upon approval from the Agriculture Department, it’ll take mere months to bring its product to the market.

So what?

According to the United Nations, our planet is home to more than 8 billion people. Producing enough food to feed this staggering and ever-growing population is taking a toll on the environment. But with lab grown-meat, we can give the Earth time to recover and possibly tackle climate change.

For instance, according to a study by Oxford scientists, lab-grown meat could cut down greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent and save energy.

Also, livestock farming takes up more space than any other form of agriculture, accounting for more than 80 percent of global agricultural land. Switching to cultured meat could save farm space and mitigate the climate crisis impacted by livestock farming.

So, to put it simply, lab-grown meat is a potentially much more efficient and environmentally friendly way of putting meat on the table.

What’s next?

Lab-grown meat has already seen approvals in other countries such as Singapore. Whether consumers in the U.S. will embrace this new form of meat remains a question.