The Royal Agricultural University’s Cultured Meat & Farmers project was a two-year study that examined the potential impact of cultured meat on UK farmers. Katherine Lewis sums up its findings and next steps.

The concept of cultured, or lab-grown, meat isn’t new. In a 1932 essay, Winston Churchill wrote “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium”.

But in the last few years, the pace of development has accelerated sharply. In Singapore, you can now buy small amounts of cultured meat in a restaurant and from a butcher. It has been approved for human consumption in the US. And here in the UK, the first application to produce meat was submitted this year.

Around the world, billions are being poured into start-ups promising to take cultured meat from science lab to the kitchen table. But at the same time, there are growing signs of push-back. It has now been banned in Italy and in some states in the US. In the latter, it is increasingly being drawn into the existing culture war, with comments such as those from Florida Governor Ron De Santis claiming “Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs”.   

One of the primary reasons given for these bans is protecting traditional farming. This hasn’t been helped by the cultured meat industry making claims that they will “end animal agriculture”. Yet, despite reams of research into what a world with cultured meat might look like, until recently, hardly anyone had asked what farmers think or how it might impact them. That’s why, at the Royal Agricultural University, we wanted to bring UK farmers into the conversation and ask what they thought of cultured meat, and what it might mean for their businesses.

After two years of studying social media and farming forums, working closely with partner farms, holding focus groups with farmers up and down the country and across all sectors, and hosting workshops with policymakers, investors, and cultured meat businesses, we have just launched our findings.

Nuanced perspectives

What we found depended largely on where we looked. The story online was polarised, with comments such as “They want lab-grown meat and processed foods that will leave our society even more unhealthy as the multi-national companies get rich off the backs of the poor.” For now though, very few farmers in the UK are talking about cultured meat publicly.

Over a four-year period, we found only 12 posts referring to cultured meat on the ‘The Farming Forum’, the largest of its kind in the UK. By comparison, in just the single week leading up to writing, there were 122 mentioning ‘rain’, and 10 mentioning ‘mental health’. This could be because few farmers are worrying about cultured meat, or because it is a complex and divisive topic that few want to charge into.

However, the discussions in groups and in person were much more nuanced. The farmers we spoke with certainly had concerns about cultured meat. But few were greatly worried it would directly compete with their business. Compared to challenges like the weather, rising costs, and market prices, the potential competition from cultured meat felt ‘slow burn’ to them.

More common concerns echoed those of the public and were more about how it might impact wider society, including: is it safe, is it natural, will it be healthy, who is in control and who benefits? The farmer focus groups also shone the light on unintended consequences that the cultured meat industry may not have considered, for example the impact on carcase balance, commodity markets and the rural economy.

When we spoke to farmers one-on-one, many considered ways they might adapt their business to take advantage of cultured meat. Some thought they might supply into the industry, potentially by adding value to products like straw or rapeseed meal.

Others, particularly those who sell direct and work to engage the public, could see that their grass-fed or organic meat might sell for a premium as ‘the real stuff’ if cultured meat cornered the cheaper end of the market. And still others could envision turning barns into ‘micro’ cultured meat units, an idea being pioneered in the Netherlands.

But both the threats and any opportunities still feel a long way off. The cultured meat industry has a lot of hurdles to jump before it might compete with traditional farming. And the likelihood is that even if it does, the two industries will coexist for decades to come. Indeed, far from wielding the power to ‘end animal agriculture’, cultured meat businesses are starting to look in a precarious position as some governments ban the technology in the name of protecting traditional farming and food systems.

Lessons to learn

Given the potential for cultured meat to become a culture war, there is much to be gained by the industry in learning the lessons of GM and working with farmers and others outside their sector. This has to mean more than just going through the motions of listening, allowing the concerns, hopes and ideas that come up to steer the technology’s development. Keeping the gate open to future opportunities could also benefit farmers. That’s why we are setting up a forum for farmers to talk directly with cultured meat businesses. We’ve also made recommendations on how to communicate without adding fuel to the fire. So far, there is encouraging signs that the industry is taking these on board.

Now that the Cultured Meat & Farmers project is wrapping up, at the Royal Agricultural University, we are continuing this line of work through our role in CARMA, the EPSRC-funded Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub. We have set up two forums to help guide research efforts within CARMA and invite scrutiny of the technology.

The first is made up of citizens, representative of the UK population, because we all have insights to share as well as a stake in the food of the future. The second, people with specialist knowledge or day jobs that could be affected by cultured meat and other kinds of cellular agriculture. There are representatives from public health, farming, government, and indeed A Bigger Conversation.

Our hope is that these diverse perspectives help shape how CARMA and the wider industry develop so that it works for us all.