Over the past few years, Pangea’s goals for awareness about sustainability have come to largely align with veganism, a diet and lifestyle that excludes all animals, and their byproducts. Although other diets that are based on local, low-water ingredients can be equally as sustainable, in contrast to the standard Western diet, veganism takes the cake.
And whether you do or don’t follow a plant-based diet yourself, I’m sure there is someone in your life who is a keen meat-eater, maybe arguing for this choice with points about culture, biological necessity, or just because they like the taste and don’t want to be told the consequences of that decision. For this person in particular, a blossoming industry, with a strong footing in the Netherlands, comes in clutch. The field of cellular agriculture uses a muscle tissue sample from an animal, and then cultures it in the lab until a genuine piece of animal protein has been produced. Bioengineers can cultivate the meat in such a way that it is indistinguishable from meat who’s origins can be found in a slaughterhouse. Most companies that are paving this pathway are creating in vitro burgers because the texture of products like steak are more difficult to emulate. This is due to the fact that although the proteins are identical to those in an animal, these proteins must climb a biological scaffold in order to keep their shape, and these scaffolds are still in development. Cell-cultured meat is real meat, the only fundamental difference is that it does not come with the ethical or (as many) environmental concerns. I say ‘as many’ because there are still questions about the scalability of this product when it is brought to market and how accessible it will be, given the expectation of an elevated price point.
The Netherlands is a front runner in this industry. Companies like Mosa Meat (in Maastricht), Meatable (in Delft), and RESPECTfarms (in the Hague), are pioneering food technology that has the potential to revolutionize the Dutch diet. In October 2022, the Dutch Government invested 60 Million euros into education, research and upscaling of the Cellular Agricultural industry, showing that they too find this a promising area for growth.
A question I’ve been asked a lot when discussing this industry with friends or peers is whether I would eat the products that these companies create? I’ve been vegan for 6.5 years now, but my main concerns that led me towards this dietary choice were animal welfare and the catastrophic environmental consequences (water for animals and the land, deforestation for land-use, carbon emissions, etc.) that the animal agricultural industry has. But yeah, I think I would try it as a once in a while type of thing. There will always be people who consider meat to be an invaluable part of their diet, and although some may be turned away by the idea of lab-made meat (which I do find ironic considering the low-standards that many hold for where their meat products come from), for keen meat-eaters with an open mind, this will be a food of the future.
So…. that was it! Thank you for reading and catcha later.
Yours sustainably,
Freya
Treasurer
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