With the likely $3 Billion Eat Just IPO around the corner, and a myriad of new startups entering the space, it’s becoming clear that the industry that no one can seem to settle on a name for — cell based, cultured, cultivated meat — is about to blow up.

Its rise is also laying bare just how problematic and frankly inefficient Animal Ag is in comparison.

• Carbon Footprint — A recent study commissioned by the Good Food Institute reports that cultivated beef has 92% less global warming potential (if using renewable energy), uses up to 95% less land, and 78% less water than conventional beef.
• Supply Chain – From farm to burger, the process of raising cattle takes ~ 2 years, versus the current estimate of 6–8 weeks it takes to grow and process cultivated beef. And seafood production is a case study in how economics supersede efficiency as fish are often caught in the US, shipped to be processed overseas, then reimported back to be sold to US consumers. [NOAA]
• Animal Ag pollution – NRDC reports that the amount of animal manure is nearly 13x the waste created by the entire U.S population. And according to their research, this waste is mostly un-treated, leading to runoff that gets into our water table, creating E Coli outbreaks in our produce, pollutants in our air, and contributes to antibiotic resistance.

It would seem cultivated meat’s success is now mostly a matter of finessing the tech and ensuring that the products taste great. In fact it’s looking likely that by the end of 2022, cultured meat will be popping up in restaurants, grocery stores, and Instagram will be flooded with people taking #cellies.

A few of the companies that will likely be first to market are Aleph Farms, who are trying build the perfect cut of steak, Wildtype Foods, who have created sashimi grade Salmon, and then there are Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) & Eat Just’s Good Meat, who are both working on chicken that tastes just like …chicken.

The one thing each of these companies have in common, is that they’re all trying to build out products that attempt to look, feel, and taste exactly like their living, breathing counterparts. And while it makes sense to go this route to gain consumer’s trust, once this baseline is reached, one has to wonder if these proteins can evolve … into more creative culinary cultivations.

With that in mind, I’ve created some thought starters below that could come to fruition as chefs, marketers, and hackers dive into this brand new field. And I should say upfront, I’m in no way condoning any of these ideas, nor would I be the first in line to try much of it. But as food has flourished in recent years and created a culture of culinary consumers, it seems that at least some of the exploration mentioned here is probably inevitable.

Land of the Lost

In recent years, some have tried to ‘de-extinct’ long gone animals (like the Woolly Mammoth). While the realities of Mammoth Park have proven daunting, it seems a lot more feasible to replicate their cells in a lab to build out a cut of say – Woolly Shoulder. Or how about a Stegosaurus Sirloin? Dodo au Vin? Pan-Fried Sabertooth Salmon?

Imagine interactive dinners at the Natural History museum, or a restaurant that only serves extinct animals. Sadly, this list will most likely have many newcomers as we continue on into the 21st century.

The Structures, They Are a Changin’

Because of the sheer diversity of texture and flavor of each fish, ordering sushi can feel a bit like a mixtape — start with a super clean, light & citrusy Yellowtail, then dive into something rich and satisfying like a fatty tuna. And balance it all out with Sawara.

But what happens when we start to hack the culture medium to change the fat content of a fish, tone down or up the fishiness, make it creamier — or even vary the texture and flavor profile across the fillet in say a spiral pattern.

Sushi is a great example of a food that has an art, precision, and almost a purity to it. So using technology to go beyond its natural characteristics to create edible simulacra is sure to be a sore point for some. Though if you’re on board, you may be wondering how we could get that fine of detail, as most of the cultivated meat processes we hear about take place in big vats (like you’d use to brew beer).

But there is another technology, 3D Bio Printing, which is very much a precision-based tool. This is actually what Aleph Farms is now focusing on to help them develop the fat and marbling for their steak. And scientists in Japan recently used the tech to develop a pretty solid Wagyu-like Beef.

It’s still not clear if this technology can scale for mass distribution, but one could easily see it as a boutique offering, maybe at 3D Bio Printer Butcher Shops.

And it’s a safe bet that 3D Bio Printers will also start popping up at upscale restaurants in the near future. Once chefs get creatively involved, it will undoubtedly lead to some pretty interesting exploration. Think about chefs developing hybrid meats –like a sea fusion of Caviar, King Oysters and Ōtoro. Or how about an Ostrich and Porterhouse Blend. You could even do an all-in-one surf and turf with Fugu Foie Gras.

Chefs could go even further, infusing non-animal elements into the protein structure. Maybe Rene Redzepi (of Noma) will create a forest floor cut of meat that blends Squab with wood ear mushrooms, wild berries, wood sorrel, and a hint of dandelion — this is not an assortment of foods on a plate, but one block of protein that from inception is infused with all of these flavors on a cellular level.

Size Matters

Consider the 96’er. If you don’t know, the 96’er is a cut of meat John Candy orders in the movie The Great Outdoors. An infamous steak so large, that no one has ever eaten it themselves…that is until John Candy attempts it. And the man slays — even the grizzle.

So what happens when we decide that we want to go larger than a 96’er? With cultured meat, we can start putting real cuts like Tomahawk Chops to shame. We can create gigantic, Fred Flintstone-like monstrosities, that will literally be the centerpiece of the party.

All Aboard The Fortify Train

The old adage that milk is good for a growing body, most likely traces back to the early 1900’s when many children were dealing with the bone condition Rickets. To combat this, we started fortifying milk with Vitamin D, and thankfully these days, the condition is rare. Brands like Horizon Organic are now going even further, fortifying their milk with Omega 3’s. So it begs the question, if we have control over how we grow meat and what we put into it, why couldn’t we eventually fortify cultivated meat as well?

The obvious question is why – and I imagine it might mostly be a result of marketing. But one could see this working for parents who want their kids to take supplements on the sly, in a hospital setting, or potentially even for gym lovers who dig their lean chicken but for efficiency, also want their supplements in the same bite.

Or it could potentially be incorporated into fast food. It seems reasonable to assume that once cultivated meat achieves economies of scale, fast food companies will embrace the tech, to help them further vertically integrate. Not to mention, they’ve been feeling some serious Climate pressure from shareholders as of late.

And although other McDonald’s attempts to promote healthy food have failed in the past, this wouldn’t necessarily be a campaign, but an overhaul of their offerings in general. It’s not hard to imagine an ad claiming that by enjoying the Big Mac people know and love, they can now also be getting all of their essential vitamins and minerals. While this doesn’t address the core problem around food swamps, it does feel like a net-benefit if it allowed for people to get more nutrients in their diet.

Goodbye, Taboo?

I would wager you know of at least one friend who’s come back from say Iceland and told you about how they ate whale. Or someone who traveled through Ljubljana, and tried their local speciality, Colt Steak (žrebe).

In the U.S., we’ve deemed these animals improper to eat. But cultivated meat could potentially change the conversation about what’s socially acceptable. It’s doubtful this will unlock new markets of people who want to try these meats, but for certain groups who have traditionally eaten this way, cultivated meat could potentially change the acceptance of this practice. There might even be certain conservation groups who get on board with a campaign to have cultivated meat producers specifically grow cuts of endangered species, in order to help save the wild populations from being hunted to extinction.

This also brings up an interesting question around offal. Historically these organ meats (trotters, tripe, brain) were eaten out of necessity. But as America flourished and industrial meat took over, offal fell out of fashion. All things come around though and not surprisingly, there has been an offal revitalization over the past 15 years, with chefs like Chris Cosentino pioneering upscale offal dining.

But will the practice of eating Rocky Mountain Oysters persevere in a world of cultivated meat? For some cuts that have always been a delicacy like Foie Gras, a more ethical option will be eagerly embraced, and a French startup is actually working on this. But if we’re (hopefully drastically) reducing the number of animals being slaughtered, and also taking into account cultivated meat’s built-in efficiencies in which you’re only growing specific cuts of meat, one has to wonder if offal will still have relevance.

The term Carnism was coined by social psychologist Melanie Joy. It’s a belief-set that allows us to justify eating meat as natural, normal, and necessary. It claims we’ve been societally conditioned to believe we naturally crave meat because we were once hunters, that because it’s everywhere in our lives that it must be normal, and that meat has necessary nutrients to keep us healthy.

The rise of Veganism and more recently plant-based meat, has shown us the beginnings of a sea change away from Carnism. Each bite we take of a plant-based burger is a subtle kind of activism. Though there is still some debate on how to frame cultivated meat in this conversation.

Cultivated meat does not feel as much like a rebuttal against Carnism, but instead the next phase of it. Call it Conscientious Carnism. And if production can scale to what is being proposed, cultivated meat will be a cheaper, safer, and objectively better option for people, animals, and the planet. Eventually it will just be what we get on our plate when we order a burger at a restaurant. And it might be the animal version that will need a qualifier for “cow burger”.

Does this in the end matter, that we are leaving the way it was in the rear view mirror?

The paper map was a vital technology used for thousands of years, until it became outmoded overnight by a new version that fits in your pocket and includes your own location. And sure, we’ve been hunting and eating meat for millions of years, but we’ve also been shifting away from that way of life for hundreds. This technology was not schemed up by marketers or techies who just want to build stuff – it is solving a need for a growing population and the problem of a warming planet. And it’s true, as we live and interact with systems and technologies over periods of time, we inevitably build culture around them. So it can feel like evolving to the next iteration is removing a part of our identity — this is especially true for something as intrinsic as sustenance.

And hopefully this won’t go away completely for people like hunters who might feel this connection the deepest. But for most of us, in a few years, we might look back and realize meat from living animals was just a piece of cultural nostalgia we no longer need, as we progress into a more ethical and sustainable world.