Is lab-grown meat really better for the environment?

Growing meat in the laboratory may do more damage to the climate in the long run than meat from cattle, according to new research. In a first-of-its-kind study from the LEAP (Livestock, Environment and People) programme at the Oxford Martin School, the climate-change impact of several production methods for lab-grown and farmed beef was assessed accounting for the differing greenhouse gases produced. The study looked at how much the gases impact temperature rises and how long they persist in the atmosphere to understand the warming impact of lab-grown and farmed beef. Their new projections reveal that replacing cattle with cultured meat may not be a simple replacement of high-impact with low-impact. Over the long term, cultured meat production methods requiring large energy inputs could increase global warming more than some types of cattle farming if energy systems remain dependent on fossil fuels. Research on better ways of producing cultured meat with less impact is a priority. Currently proposed types of lab-grown meat cannot provide a cure-all for the detrimental climate impacts of meat production without a large-scale transition to a decarbonised energy system, a new study has found.