One by one the justifications for lab-grown meat have fallen away. The claim that the process reduced CO2 emissions over conventional livestock farming has been comprehensively demolished: one estimate is that it increases emissions by between four times and 25 times as much as reared meat. The animal, of course, can perform its own exercise by itself, for free, while the nutrients it requires are either free or cheap. It also enhances the land on which it grazes.
The argument that lab-grown meat is more humane is rather stronger – the fetus from which the cells are extracted is going to die anyway. But the answer to that is not a new Frankenfood: but more humane farming.
Conspiracy theorists have clumped together alternative proteins, such as insects as ingredients and bioreactor cells, as part of a darker plot to attack conventional farming. The meme “I will not eat the bugs” is popular. Activists have called for taxes on conventional meat products. But it doesn’t require a sinister masterplan to see that our farmers and our food chains are undervalued and under assault from an aggressive administrative state.
In fact, no conspiracy is required to explain this giant folly: just a lot of naivety and poor judgement. During the decade-era of low interest rates, far too much money was chasing too few good ideas. Wild experiments were being advanced and funded by high net worth individuals, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. The consultant class obsequiously told them it was a fantastic idea. And the social science departments at universities then jumped into action.
There is now a bewildering array of academic papers on bioreactor meat, ranging from how to nudge the public into accepting fake meat, to novel methods and nutrients (food technology). Meanwhile Generation Z is returning to real meat again, on health grounds.
But perhaps someone should break the news to ministers. Last week the Government gave itself a pat on the back after singling out lab-grown meat as it launched its Regulatory Innovation Office, one of a dozen new quangos. It was “game changing tech”, apparently.
Taxpayers may be sympathetic to helping out strategic industries that keep our nation safe, such as the production of high-quality steel for our reactors and submarines. But I doubt they will want to rescue Silicon Valley’s VC class from one its most grotesque misadventures.