| Dear Dennis,
Would you want to know if the “beef” in your burger came from a lab instead of a farm? Time is running out to weigh in on whether or not food containing lab-grown “meat” should be labeled — or not!
As we say in our latest blog, we could soon be eating synthetic or lab-grown “meat” (also known as “cultured meat”) without even knowing it. It’s also possible (and, without your help, probable) that food companies could be allowed to use confusing and misleading label claims and terms — or even exactly the same label claims as they would for real meat and poultry — unless we all take action now.
THE FUTURE OF MEAT?
Lab-grown “meat” — where animal muscle tissue is artificially created in laboratory-like conditions from animal stem cells bathed in nutrients and ‘growth factors’ — is being widely hailed as the sustainable future of meat production.
But despite the hype there are huge uncertainties in the scientific community about whether it’s possible to safely produce lab-grown “meat” due to real biosecurity and contamination risks. No-one even knows if it can be produced economically at any realistic scale or what the full environmental impacts will be. But we need to all act now. |
North Carolina Small Farm Association 