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In a 1931 essay, Winston Churchill predicted a future where scientists could grow meat products from nothing more than a petri dish. A synthesis of flesh that would spare the life of an animal and potentially save the planet. It proved to be a remarkably prescient call, with cultivated meats imminently coming for our plates.
At the end of 2024, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) approved synthetic beef, chicken and even foie gras to enter a safety trial “sandbox”, meaning we could see these products approved in two years.
"Our priority is ensuring any products that reach the UK public meet our high safety standards, regardless of decisions made elsewhere,” says Dr Joshua Ravenhill, Head of Cell-Cultivated Product Sandbox Programme from the FSA. “We’re currently running a two-year research programme to understand and answer exactly these kinds of questions – including looking at potential risks, allergens and nutritional content.”
But due to current high prices of the process of cultivation, we should expect to wait until the end of the decade before they line our shopping aisles. “It’s all about the price of the product,” says Ernst von Orsouw, CEO of Roslin Technologies, one of the companies partaking in the FSA’s programme. “And at the moment, it still costs hundreds of pounds to make, which is too expensive for the consumer.”
It’s no secret that the meat industry is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to the climate crisis, with the livestock sector contributing 14.5 per cent of all global carbon emissions.
“By 2050, the demand for meat is expected to double,” says Annie Conde, chief of staff for Hoxton Farms, which is also part of the FSA programme. “And with 75 per cent of arable land used to feed animals for the meat industry, there’s literally not enough land to feed everyone.”
Lab-grown meat is also great news for those worried about the ethical concerns of eating animals. Elisa Allen, vice president of programmes for animal rights activist group Peta, is excited by the prospect of cultivated meat.
“In vitro meat has the potential to spare billions of animals the cruelty of factory farming,” says Allen. “And unlike meat from those filthy places, its production doesn’t pollute rivers and streams, deplete groundwater resources, or cause deforestation.”
Cultivated meat is created from living animals’ stem cells which multiply when placed in a bioreactor. After this stage, scientists adjust the conditions to balance the ratio between the fat cells and muscle cells, depending on how they want the meat to turn out.
However, it is not all plain sailing for an industry that’s estimated to be worth £5.1bn by 2030. For some, these synthetic products are yet another ultra processed food on the market — foods with additives or preservatives and the 21st-century pariah of the plate.
Conde wants to ease people’s concerns on the matter: “I think there’s a lot of consumer education that needs to happen around UPFs. Yoghurt technically counts as an ultra processed food. So I think there needs to be a distinction between processing and health.”
The industry finds itself in an interesting cultural moment too, with trends in protein-heavy, meat-forward diets regaining popularity and alternative meat option sales nosediving (Beyond Meat lost 95 per cent in market cap from 2019 to 2025).
These trends dovetail with wider political sentiments around the climate crisis, led by Donald Trump, which has seen countries rescind on commitments, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement. “In 2021 everyone in venture capital was looking for sustainable businesses,” says Von Orsouw. “Now funding has dried up.”
So in this post-woke market, is there still space for lab-grown meats? “When I go to the grocery store, my two priorities are taste and affordability. If that option is also good for the planet then that’s a bonus,” says Conde. “Alternative meat products in the past were just simply not good enough.”
Whether Churchill’s vision ends up as supermarket reality, or just another failed food fad, may have less to do with science, and more to do with culture, politics and price.
