Animal products created in the lab through cell multiplication

Modern Meadows, a company that specialises in biomaterials, has developed a way to create meat and leather from animal cells, without the need to sacrifice a living creature.

Andras Forgacs, chief executive of Modern Meadows, says their company is commercialising cultured leather first. Ravindranath K / The National

Andras Forgacs is the chief executive of Modern Meadows, a company that specialises in biomaterials. It has developed a way to create meat and leather from animal cells, without the need to sacrifice a living creature. Through tissue engineering, Mr Forgacs uses the cells from living animals, multiplies them into billions and then assembles them to produce meat or leather. Today we maintain a herd of 60 billion animals to provide the meat, dairy, eggs and leather goods that the world requires. By 2050, we will need 100 billion animals to keep up with demand. Mr Forgacs is in Abu Dhabi this week at the Global Forum for Innovation in Agriculture to demonstrate the technology.

What has been the reaction?

It is usually extremely positive. We’re working on both leather and meat. Some are squeamish and a little bit apprehensive but once you explain the technology a bit more, half the people I talk to say they would try it.

On the leather, the reaction is almost 100 per cent positive. People are a lot less concerned about the exact material they would wear as opposed to eat.

What sort of food are you working on?

We are working on a wide range of food products that are based on animal protein. The first product we make may not be traditional meat as you think of it, it may not be a grilled, thick steak or fresh meat product that you might buy in a frozen food aisle.

You can come up with novel food concepts using this kind of technology. You can manipulate it so it doesn’t have hormones. We’re already working on delicious products that have very low or no fat content that have really high protein. Not only are we able to control the content of fat and the type of fat, you can tune in how much omega 3 or minerals you put it. Because we make this product from the ground up, we can control its composition. That’s true for leather and meat.

Is it safe?

We would prepare it in a way that makes food safety 100 per cent assured. That is certainly not the case right now, where contamination rates in traditional meat are prevalent. On top of that, it becomes complicated to source contamination. The ground meat we have is not the product of one cow, but the meat of thousands of cows mixed together. It is done on purpose so any bad lot will be diluted.

We guarantee everything that comes out of the process from start to finish.

Could you combine cells of different animals and create a new product? Or culture human meat?

There are all kinds of possibilities. There are all kinds of animals we can work with, there’s a lot of creative possibilities but it is still early days. Technically you can culture human meat, but is it something we will pursue? Absolutely not. Our ethos is we care about animals and health and nutrition.

How long does it take to create something this way?

It takes about a month for the meat. The leather takes a month and a half.

What’s the leather like?

We can really replicate traditional leather. We can create leather with a top grain on both sides, we can also create leather that is quite different from the traditional, one that has translucency, that has drape-like quality or silk-like quality, which is not something that traditional leather is capable of doing.

When will it be ready?

Leather is what we’re commercialising first. We expect to have demonstration items in conjunction with leading fashion companies within the next couple of years or so.

How will this technology be used in the future?

In decades to come there will be the ability for people to culture their own meat in the house. We are creating the technology to be able to culture meat in a meat brewery. I imagine the steps after that would be to create smaller versions of this in urban centres around the world that can reside in a restaurant. It’s not at all difficult to imagine as this technology becomes more and more accessible. It could be a home appliance. In supermarkets decades from now you might want a meat cartridge be it crocodile, or bear or tiger and you buy these cartridges. Just as you programme a bread machine, you can programme a meat brewer. It may take a week or so, that could be a possibility in the future.

Does this spell the end of the farming industry as we know it?

The farming industry is here to stay for a long run. We need to eat, animal farming per se is not going to go away. We consume 300 million tonnes of meat around the world, the problem is that we need to double that over the course of the next 30 years. How does the current farming industry meet the doubling of demand without greenhouse gases doubling, water usage doubling? There needs to be more solutions in the supply side.

Energy production 50 years ago was mostly fossil fuel. As energy demand has increased, fossil fuel production has stayed the same, it is the alternative sources of energy that has seen most growth. The same thing needs to happen in animal protein.

Our process requires 99 per cent less land than traditional meat product, it uses 96 per cent less water and 96 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and uses about half as much energy. If you look at those numbers, that gives us a lot of confidence.

Is cultured meat ethical? Can it be suitable for vegetarians?

We weigh it on is it better nutritionally, is it more sustainable product, is it more humane? The answer to all of those things is yes. That’s why as a company we are very ethically driven. It really is our motivating factor.

The reaction from vegetarians is mostly positive. This product is not aimed at vegetarians but it is also potentially appealing to vegetarians and vegans. If it doesn’t kill an animal, then it is suitable for vegetarians.