Global market for ‘cultivated meat’ is on the rise

“We just cannot take for granted that what we eat now is the gold standard,” said Dr Uma Valeti, the cardiologist who helped start the company in 2015 after he became convinced that the same medical technology used to grow stem cells to repair a human heart could also grow food.

“We are changing the paradigm,” he said. “We are detaching the meat from the animal.”

Tissue engineers and scientists in several countries are trying to find a commercially viable way to transform animal stem cells into a marbled steak, briny oysters or sushi-grade salmon.

Their work is fed by nearly $3 billion in investments from companies like Archer-Daniels-Midland and the Brazilian meat giant JBS; billionaires like Bill Gates; environmentally-minded celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio; and government agencies including the US department of agriculture and the Qatar Investment Authority.

The global market for what is most commonly known as cell-based or cultivated meat could reach $25 billion by 2030, according to consultants McKinsey. That would be a tiny slice of the projected $1.4 trillion meat market, but one that food companies see as a key player in the fast-growing category called alternative meat.