The Battle to Save the Planet: Why We Must Resist the Livestock Lobby's War on Lab-Grown Meat in Brazil

The livestock industry is waging a war on lab-grown meat, and it's crucial that we don't let them win. This is not the first time a legacy industry has tried to obstruct a transition to a more sustainable technology. In the past, car manufacturers attempted to hinder the shift to electric vehicles, but their efforts pale in comparison to the concerted campaign by the livestock industry and its political allies to suppress the transition away from animal farming.

Animal farming is one of the most destructive industries on the planet, rivaling fossil fuel production in its environmental impact. The industry's vast greenhouse gas emissions, water and air pollution, and massive land use are all significant concerns. Land use is a critical environmental metric, as every hectare occupied by animal farming is a hectare that cannot support wild ecosystems.

Wild ecosystems are essential for the survival of most species on Earth and for maintaining Earth systems. For example, the Amazon rainforest and cerrado in South America play a crucial role in regulating weather systems. Unfortunately, these ecosystems are being destroyed primarily by cattle ranching and soy farming, driven in part by the demand for "grass-fed" beef and feed for pigs and chickens.

Feeding ourselves with animal products is an incredibly inefficient and profligate way of using land, consuming at least four times as much as all other food we grow while providing only 17% of our calories. This inefficient use of land drives the destruction of forests, wetlands, savannas, rivers, and other habitats. Weaning ourselves off animal products is just as important as weaning ourselves off oil, gas, and coal.

To achieve this, we need to produce alternative products that are indistinguishable from meat, dairy, and eggs but are cheaper and healthier. Scientists and startups around the world are working on developing these technologies, which go beyond the initial concept of "lab-grown meat" or "cell-cultured meat." These terms now encompass a wide range of new alternatives, including simpler and cheaper technologies such as brewing microbes.

These new-protein technologies are the leading threat to the global livestock industry because they could be used to replace animal sources for a vast array of products, from cheese and ice cream to sausages, burgers, eggs, fish, and steak. Some of these foods could be produced with less processing than their animal-based counterparts, and unhealthy components like saturated fats can be excluded, while healthy ones like long-chain omega-3 fatty acids can be bred in.

The transition to these new-protein sources could be as profound in its impacts as the shift from hunter-gathering to agriculture. If done correctly, it could massively reduce demand for land and farm chemicals, ensure that neither inputs nor outputs leak into ecosystems, greatly reduce demand for fresh water, and allow food to be produced in areas that can no longer feed their people.

However, the livestock industry and its political allies are working to shut down these technologies. Meat corporations and their tame politicians have banned lab-grown meat in Florida, Alabama, Italy, and Hungary, and politicians in France, Romania, and other US states are seeking to follow suit. Governments are using protectionism as a justification, claiming they are defending established industries against competition.

It's essential that we recognize self-serving corporate propaganda when we see it, confront protectionism and neophobia, and support the technologies that could be our last, best hope of averting environmental catastrophe.