What meat will we eat in the future?
This question, very current and controversial, was the subject of the event: “Meat substitutes: from worms to laboratory-grown meat”, organized on 12 June by the Free University of Bolzano, the Academic Theological Study of Bressanone and the Consumer Protection Center Users from Bolzano. The two speakers, Luciano Conti and Silke Raffeiner, covered numerous related topics, from mealworms and other edible insects to lab-grown meat.
Luciano Conti, professor at the CIBIO department of the University of Trento, has long been conducting research on stem cells and cultured meat. At the conference, Professor Conti highlighted the negative effects caused by the conventional method of producing meat through intensive farming, also demonstrating the potential inherent in the production of “cultivated” meat. According to the speaker, laboratory-grown meat could help reduce, among other things, animal suffering and the killing of animals in large numbers. Furthermore, land and water consumption would be only a fraction of that required for conventional meat production.
Stem cells are the starting material from which cultured meat is produced. These cells are taken in small quantities, via biopsy, from the muscle tissue of cattle, chickens or other live animals and multiplied in particular systems, called bioreactors, thanks to a nutrient solution with a special composition. According to Professor Conti, it is currently already possible to produce 5,000 kilos of cultured meat from a small amount of stem cells, comparable to a grain of rice. In order to achieve the same flavor and shape as a piece of butchered meat, in addition to muscle cells, fat cells and a molecular support scaffold are used in in vitro meat production. Cultured meat is not yet on the market in the EU, as it would first need to be authorized as a “novel food”. This hasn’t happened yet. However, research is ongoing in individual Member States.
The second speaker was Silke Raffeiner, nutritionist at the Consumer Protection Center in Bolzano. In her presentation, the nutritionist provided an overview of plant-based protein sources, meat substitutes and their nutritional value. His presentation ranged from protein-rich natural foods such as legumes, nuts and seeds, to traditional processed products – such as tofu, tempeh and seitan – and finished plant-based products, which aim to mimic meat products as closely as possible in terms of appearance, flavor and texture. Studies show that plant-based meat substitutes even contain, on average, slightly more protein than meat products, with lower levels of fat, saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. In terms of nutritional values, these foods can therefore undoubtedly compete with meat. Less positive aspects instead concern the ingredient lists of these products, which are sometimes very long, and some of the ingredients themselves used, such as artificial flavors and food additives.
Edible insects also constitute a valid, potential alternative to meat. Beetle larvae, caterpillars, grasshoppers and other insects have been eaten by humans for thousands of years in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia and are currently part of the diet of around 2.5 billion people. In dried form, edible insects have a very high protein content and are also rich in minerals and fiber. So far, four species of insects have been approved as novel foods in the European Union: the dried yellow larva of the miller moth (so-called “meal moth”), the migratory locust, the house cricket and the larva of the beetle (also known as “buffalo worm”). They can be offered as whole animals, frozen or dried, as well as processed into flour or pasta and used as a food ingredient in certain foods and in defined quantities. Clearly, this must be indicated in the ingredient list of a food product. Compared to raising animals for slaughter, insect farming uses much less land and water and causes fewer greenhouse gas emissions in relation to the amount of protein produced. However, mainly due to the annoyance that many people still feel towards insects, there are still many doubts as to whether or not these little animals will be able to play a significant role in our diet in the future.
In addition to Silke Raffeiner, Brigitte Foppa, local representative of the Greens, and Raffael Peer, president of the Young Farmers’ Union of Alto Adige, also participated in the subsequent round table. The audience asked the speakers numerous questions about farming and meat production in South Tyrol, as well as about some health aspects related to meat consumption.
The event was moderated by the promoters of the conference cycle “Men and animals: an ambivalent relationship”, Matthias Gauly, professor of Animal Sciences at the Free University of Bolzano, and Martin M. Lintner, professor of Theological Ethics at the Theological Study Academician from Bressanone.
Gauly said he was enthusiastic about the fundamental openness of young farmers to lab-grown meat: “It is important that the agricultural sector focuses on producing high-quality products. If all aspects, from animal welfare to sustainability, are optimised, meat will also have the right to exist in the long term and have a market.”
Lintner concluded by addressing the problem of killing such large numbers of animals: “To meet the current global demand for meat and animal products, approximately 80 billion vertebrates are killed every year, not counting fish. To achieve this goal, humanity has developed a veritable industry of animal annihilation. Thousands of people work in large slaughterhouses, even in Italy, and do nothing but kill animals for many hours a day.” Insurance companies point out that these people are exposed to an increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the constant use of animal cruelty. “So it’s not just an environmental and animal ethics issue, but also a social issue that needs to be taken into consideration when we eat meat on our plates,” says Lintner.
