Take a few stem cells from a freshly laid duck egg. Place them in a cultivator, a machine that will reproduce the ideal environment for them to develop and multiply. "At the same time the same temperature but also the same nutrients (sugars, fatty acids, animated acids) that they would find in the body of a duck," explains Nicolas Morin-Forest.
Then adjust their diet so that they specialize in liver cells. Finally, increase the dose of vegetable fat in their diet - "so as to reproduce the effect of force-feeding", continues Nicolas Morin-Forest. And here you are, in your hands, fatty duck liver cells ...
Even for a flagship product of French gastronomy
In other words, foie gras ... produced without animal suffering. This is the gamble of the French start-up Gourmey, co-founded in April 2019 by Nicolas Morin-Forest and biologists Antoine Davydoff and Victor Sayous: "decline cell farming to a flagship product of French gastronomy and controversial for the animal suffering that its production generates. "
So foie gras, but also chicken nuggets, minced meat, sausages, fish ... Whatever the product, the process is basically the same. "Cell farming is inspired by what medicine does when it cultivates burnt skin cells," begins Nathalie Rolland, specialist in healthy cellular agriculture from the NGO ProVeg and co-founder of the association. Cellular agriculture France, launched last week. The idea here "is that cells no longer develop in an animal body but in a machine", summarizes Nathalie Rolland.
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Agriculture Cellulaire France association @AgCellulaire
Website: https://t.co/z3EvjFTwLv
Responding to the dead end of industrial agriculture
It then showcases the multiple advantages that cultivated meat could bring: "The more need to kill animals or to cause animal suffering, to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to livestock farming, to consume less water and less land, to no longer resort to the use of antibiotics, that again of producing custom meat ... Cholesterol free for example. "
In short, cell farming would be a key to the dead end in which industrial livestock farming is running out of steam today, and the increase in the world population which should reach 9.8 billion inhabitants. here 2050.
Science fiction? More than that. On August 5, 2013, the Dutch biologist Mark Post had struck a blow by presenting to the press a first steak from stem cell culture. A small patty of meat, a few millimeters and 142 grams only and produced for an estimated cost between 250,000 and 290,000 euros.
Vegetable protein meats to start
Six years later, alternatives to meat have made good progress. In Steak Barbare, Vegan Hold-up on the Plate [ed. Dawn], a survey published this Friday on cell farming and the associations and start-ups that promote it, the journalist Gilles Luneau lists 490 companies working on this subject around the world. A large nucleus in Silicon Valley (United States), but also in Canada, in Israel, in northern Europe.
Cellular agriculture is not their only avenue, moreover. Most (317) are working on the production of ersatz meat from vegetable proteins. "It's already on our plates," recalls Gilles Luneau. The Impossible Burger, a hamburger based on vegetable proteins which goes as far as imitating the blood of meat, is thus offered in Burger King fast foods in the United States Burger King. The Buffalo Grill chain has also been offering a meatless cheeseburger in its restaurants in France, since October. "
The catch? "Even if the taste quality of these vegetable protein-based meats has greatly improved to the point of attracting" meat eaters "and not just vegans, they will probably not be able to perfectly reproduce the texture and the taste of animal meat, ”says Nicolas Morin-Forest.
Two challenges still to be overcome for cultivated meat
This is where cell farming, and its promise of meat grown from animal protein, comes into play. A report by the American cabinet AT Kearney, published in June 2019, predicts that "35% of all the meat consumed in 2040 will come from stem cells and 25% from vegan substitutes". But it is still too early to have it on our plates. Gourmey, for example, will unveil a first prototype in the coming months (a few grams of foie gras) but does not otherwise plan to market its foie gras for three or five years. "And we will start by providing high-end restaurants," says Nicolas Morin-Forest.
Both Nathalie Rolland and Nicolas Morin-Forest identify two more obstacles to remove before the cultivated meat takes off. The first is already to change the regulatory framework so that the sale of cultivated meat becomes authorized. The second is to move from the laboratory to large-scale production, in large volume cultivators. "The challenge is to reduce production costs, the food we give cells so that they multiply and specialize is very expensive today," explains Nicolas Morin-Forest.
Convince meat eaters
A third challenge should also be added: that of preparing consumers now for the idea of eating these alternatives to meat. Cellular agriculture in France is part of this logic. The association does not yet have its stand at the agricultural fair [and is probably far from having it], but Nathalie Rolland has already participated in a first debate as co-founder of the association. Last Saturday as part of the “Let's get agriculture out of the fair” festival.
This work in the body of consumers is more insidious, according to Gilles Luneau. This is the whole purpose of his investigation: to show the connections that exist between cell farming start-ups, foundations, think-tanks and animalist associations to prepare the ground. "I wanted to understand how L214, an association defending animal rights, could have seventy employees," he said at 20 Minutes . I discovered that she had received a grant of 1.3 million euros from the Open Philantropy Project [1.14 million, specifies at 20 Minutes Brigitte Gothière, co-founder of L214 **], one of these foundations which finances animal associations and lobbies on the one hand to stir up and change the regulatory framework, and on the other hand puts money into cell farming start-ups. "
"An economic and ideological offensive"
Gilles Luneau then describes "an economic and ideological offensive" at work which aims to "change the food supply by replacing conventional meats with cultured or plant-based meats"
Worried? "At stake, there is in any case a rupture of civilization, these new modes of food production ending 10,000 years of agriculture and domestication which not only not only feed us, but also shape our landscapes", puts on guard Gilles Luneau, aware however of the current dead ends of the agro-industrial system.
Chrisitan Remesy, director of research in human nutrition at INRA, now retired and author of La nutriécologie [ed Thierry Souccar] *** which has just appeared, abounds. He sees cell farming, one more step in agribusiness and "nutritionism", "this mistake that nutritionists have made to focus on nutrients and no longer on a global food mode," he specifies. . At the risk of pushing further the standardization and sanitization of our food. And therefore to cut us a little more from what we eat. "
"Reconnect to what we eat"
Nicolas Morin-Forest calls, however, not to condemn cell farming too quickly. "No company knows how to routinely produce them today [on a large scale], he recalls. There are of course certain points to be aware of. For example, the energy used to produce cultivated meat is carbon-free "For example. Cellular farming can in any case be one of the solutions to get out of factory farming. Just like eating less meat."
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* “At the end of 2017, we received a subsidy of 1.14 million euros from the Open Philantropy Project, says Brigitte Gothière, co-founder of L214, at 20 Minutes . The foundation contacted us, explaining that it spotted the work we were doing in France to defend animals. In particular with the food industry to encourage them to improve the consideration of animal welfare. "In addition, Brigitte Gothière confides" not to be a fan of cell farming ", believing" that there are enough vegetable proteins available to feed humanity ". As for breeding, "we are clearly against the end of the killing of animals to eat them, which leaves room for forms of breeding, especially for the maintenance of our landscapes," says Brigitte Gothière .
** For Chrisitan Remesy, the only possible future for food is to eat half as much meat and, at the same time, to rethink our methods of agriculture and food so that they integrate both the need to feed humans better but also preserve the planet.
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