Farmers' crisis: what is synthetic meat in the government's sights?

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: BERND WEISSBROD / DPA / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE VIA AFP 3:37 p.m., February 2, 2024

While speaking this Thursday to announce new measures for farmers, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called for “clear legislation” at European level on the definition of synthetic meat which, according to him, “ does not correspond to our conception of French food.

It's an idea that has been gaining ground for several years. Develop meat without slaughtering animals and without requiring the water and energy required by intensive farming. Certain companies, mainly based in the United States, Singapore and Israel, have launched into the production of synthetic meat, designed in the laboratory and intended to be more environmentally friendly. 

However, this Thursday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called for "clear legislation" at European level on the definition of this product which he considered did not correspond "to our conception of French food". Here is everything you need to know about this product, promoted by some and criticized by others. 

“A technique which is very immature at the moment”

Created from stem cells of animal origin, this artificial meat is created in bioreactors which provide a suitable environment for the cells to multiply. “This culture medium provides nutrients, amino acids to ensure this production of proteins outside of a living organism,” adds Jean-François Hocquette, research director at Inrae (National Research Institute for Agriculture, food and the environment). “It is anticipated that this large amount of muscle could feed humanity, at least in part, in place of farmed animals,” he adds. 

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Should we then see it as a miracle solution in favor of animal welfare and against greenhouse gas emissions - methane in particular - produced by traditional livestock farming? “It is a technique which is very immature for the moment and which has not been developed on a large scale”, immediately warns Jean-François Hocquette, for whom the ecological benefits of synthetic meat are far from be established. "There was a scientific publication in 2011 which allegedly demonstrated that the manufacture of this product would emit less greenhouse gases than the manufacture of meat by breeding. But since 2011, there has been other work which have strongly qualified or even contradicted this article. 

Health and nutritional questions 

Furthermore, the very name of this product poses a problem, according to the scientist. "In reality, it's not meat, it's muscle tissue. There are as many differences between muscle and meat as there are, between grape juice and wine", illustrates Jean -François Hocquette. "We have carried out surveys in different countries and for example in Brazil, more than half of consumers do not want this product to be called 'meat'", continues the researcher. 

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Finally, important questions remain regarding the health safety of this new type of product. “The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) has identified around fifty points of vigilance in terms of health security,” points out Jean-François Hocquette. Regarding the nutritional quality of synthetic meat, “we don’t have much perspective,” argues the scientist. “While we might think that the protein composition would probably be the same as traditional meat, the work of a Belgian team indicated that this product would probably be very low in iron,” he adds. 

Last February, an article published in the newspaper

Le Monde

, and signed by around sixty scientists, highlighted the precautionary principle which, according to them, should prevail in the face of this synthetic meat, the production of which remains confidential. “Only three countries authorize synthetic meat: Singapore, the United States and Israel. And each time, it is only one or two companies,” specifies Jean-François Hocquette. A product that should therefore not be confused with plant-based meat substitutes which are indeed marketed in France.