The Empty Promises of Cultured Meat

Abstract

Abstract Cultured meat is often framed in many Effective Altruist circles as a grand solution to the problem of animal agriculture and its disastrous impacts on animal well-being, human health, and the environment. Indeed, Effective Altruist–influenced organizations such as the Good Food Institute tout investment in cultured-meat companies as an essential strategy in ending industrial animal agriculture. However, recent techno-economic analyses indicate that it will not be financially or technologically feasible to produce commercial cultured products that could compete with conventional meat products at any significant scale in the next decade, suggesting that cultured meat will not be capable of displacing conventional meat fast enough to avoid the disastrous effects of accelerating climate change. This chapter argues this investment-focused strategy has misdirected financial and activist resources away from alternative strategies that could better respond to the pressing necessity of ending animal agriculture more immediately.