Writing in Strand magazine in 1931 in an essay entitled Fifty Years Hence, Winston Churchill made the following prediction about the culinary future:
“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.”
While 50 years turned out to be too optimistic, his prediction could come true sooner than most people might think.
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Cultured, or in vitro, meat, which is produced in a cell culture, is already a scientific reality in laboratories around the world, including a government-funded project in The Netherlands.
Proponents say that within a decade it could also become a reality on grocery store shelves.
The process involves taking cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient-rich environment.
After the cells are multiplied, they are soaked in more nutrients and manipulated to increase their size and protein content.
The resulting product can then be harvested, cooked and eaten as boneless, processed meat, such as hamburger, sausage or chicken nuggets.
Proponents say it will be more nutritious, safer, more environmentally friendly, more humane and more economically efficient than farm produced meat.
However, they acknowledge its taste, texture and appearance remain works in progress.
Jason Methany of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, is a director of New Harvest, a non-profit research organization made up of scientists in biology, agriculture, medicine and public health who are working to develop meat substitutes, including cultured meat.
He said in vitro meat will become a commercial reality within the next five to 10 years.
“Venture capital firms have shown an interest, as has the meat processing industry,” he said in an e-mail interview from England, where he was travelling last week.
“I think in the next several years the technology could be mature enough to be scaled up and commercialized.”
It’s not yet possible to produce a steak or pork chop, but cultured meat products would be similar to existing processed meat.
It would still be considered meat because it consists of meat cells.
Methany said that may be an issue for vegetarians but it doesn’t detract from numerous other advantages:
n Cultured meat won’t be subject to the health risks associated with farms, slaughterhouses and meat packing plants.
n Fat and nutrition content can be more easily controlled. For example, a company could produce a hamburger high in omega 3 that reduces heart disease.
n Inedible animal parts need not be produced, and there would be less waste.
n A study at Oxford University indicated that cultured meat would reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent and land and water use by 90 percent, compared with farm production.
Methany said he thinks consumers who may be initially put off by the idea of manufactured meat will ultimately change their minds.
“If they can have a meat that tastes and costs the same as conventional meat but is significantly healthier and safer for their families, I think they’ll buy it,” he said.
As for criticisms that the cultured meat is unnatural, he said that’s no more the case than for products like bread, cheese, yogurt and wine.
