‘Green’ chicken, lab-grown duck may soon be on your menu

In another example of a staple of science fiction becoming an everyday reality, San Francisco startup Memphis Meats wants to completely reinvent meat production by bringing it off the farm and into the lab.

The company, founded by three scientists, wants to be the first to sell meat grown from stem cells. They have already grown small amounts using cells harvested from cows, pigs, and chickens, and they expect their products will be ready to enter the market within the next five years.

And Memphis is not alone. Competitors, such as Mosa Meat and Modern Meadow Inc, also want to bring lab-grown meat to market within the next few years, notes the Wall Street Journal.

On 14 March, Memphis Meats invited a handful of taste-testers to their kitchen to try their lab-grown meat. And according to the company, they said it tastes just like chicken.

"It is thrilling to introduce the first chicken and duck that didn't require raising animals. This is a historic moment for the clean meat movement," Memphis Meats cofounder and chief executive Uma Valeti, MD, said in a press release.

Valeti told Fortune he is confident that this is the future of meat. A cardiologist, he calls this the "second domestication"-the first occurred 10,000-20,000 years ago, and Valeti strongly believes it's time for an update. But instead of domesticating animals to produce meat, Memphis Meats is domesticating cells to farm the meat directly.

In February 2016, the company said it had produced lab-grown meatballs, made by cultivating cow muscle tissue in a sterile environment.

In addition to chicken, Memphis Meats announced in the press release that it has cultivated lab-grown duck as well. The team said it expects to reduce production costs over the next few years, and start offering its products to the public in 2021.

"Conventional meat production is inherently inefficient," Valeti said. It takes 23 calories of feed to produce one calorie of beef; Memphis Meats says it has reduced that ratio to 3 to 1, making it that much more economical and sustainable. The company also says its lab-grown meat consumes 90 per cent less water and land, and 50 per cent less energy.

A 2011 study highlighted that lab-grown meats would  require 7-45% less energy to produce than the same volume of pork, sheep or beef. It would require more energy to produce than poultry but only a fraction of the land area and water needed to rear chickens (See: Lab-grown meat would 'cut emissions and save energy'). The global population and demand for meat are quickly growing, and Memphis Meats argues the meat industry won't be able to sustain that with conventional methods.

Consumers want to know where their food comes from and what's in it, which is partly why more food industry giants have been moving towards animal-friendly practices. Memphis Meats notes animals aren't involved in the process after the cells are harvested. It also claims that its meat could be healthier since the company can add as little fat as it wants, and only use the types that are favourable for heart health.

"I have not walked out of a room after showing our science without having an incredibly supportive, jaw-dropping response," Valeti told Fortune. The company has already found some support and is closing a $2-million seed round, and will be presenting to investors this week at IndieBio to seek more funding.

Others in the race
Memphis Meats is one of many startups aiming to cut down on our reliance on traditional meat. Dr Mark Post, researcher in Maastricht, Netherlands, made a lab-grown burger in 2013 and subsequently launched a company called Mosa Meats to further his work. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat sell plant-based beef and chicken that taste eerily similar to the real thing.

They're all hoping to disrupt America's $200-billion meat industry (and $48 billion poultry industry) by offering foods that mimic meat but are more environmentally friendly.

Meat production is harsh on the planet. Globally, traditional livestock farming accounts for about 18 per cent of greenhouse emissions, uses 47,000 square miles of land annually, and exhausts 70 per cent of the world's water.

Memphis Meats says it can produce beef and poultry much more efficiently (indoors and without killing animals). However, as Business Insider has previously reported, lab-grown meat still requires foetal serum, which comes from unborn calves and chicks, to start the cultivation process.   Memphis Meats told The Wall Street Journal in 2016 that it expects to replace the serum with something plant-based soon.

It also estimates its current technology can yield 1 pound of chicken meat for less than $9,000- which is half of what it cost the startup to make 1 pound of its beef meatballs about a year ago.

That said, $9,000 is still incredibly expensive, and lab-grown meat's costly production is one of the reasons why Memphis Meat has not been able to go to market yet. For comparison, boneless chicken breast costs about $3.22 per pound to produce in the US. 

Chicken is the most popular protein in the US, and probably around the world. The average American ate about 90 pounds of poultry in 2016, according to the USDA. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that  chicken will come the world's most-consumed meat by 2020. Pork currently holds that title.