Lee Recht, PhD, the head of sustainability at Aleph Farms, the nascent cell-cultured meat company based in Israel, has taken a different tack from most of the other live animal, plant-based and cell-cultured “meat” companies regarding coexistence. Dr. Recht proposes in his white paper of July 2021, “An Inclusive Transition to a Sustainable and Resilient Meat Sector,” that to meet the growing market demand for meat, a transformational innovation system that includes meat analogues of cell-cultured and plant-based meat need to coexist and complement the current production capacity of sustainable livestock farming methods.

I must admit I was initially skeptical of any alternative “meat” company proposing a system that espouses cooperation amongst animal agriculture meat production and the meat analogues composed of plant-based faux meat and cell-cultured meat. How could these two diametrically opposed systems — live animal versus lab-produced meats — coexist? Doesn’t one owe its existence to the other?

Dr. Recht proposes that they can coexist with some fundamental meat production changes. He brings a new concept to meat for food with his term “resilient” and defines it carefully. He proposes a four-pillar sustainability framework for future food that must be embraced by both live animal and analogue meat sectors. If these four concepts are the foundation for coexistence, then we must understand them before we can review and possibly accept fundamental meat production changes. Dr. Recht’s four pillars of meat production sustainability:

Environmental conservation — Utilizing resources in an efficient, circular manner, minimizing waste while moving towards carbon neutrality.
Sociocultural need satisfaction — Supporting needs of growers, local communities and preventing inequalities.
Health promotion — Preventing disease and providing nutritional accessibility through a sustainable diet.
Economic viability — Ensuring that affordable product and a resilient and traceable supply reflects the true cost of food production considering both health and environmental impact.

While you may think that this is altruism at its finest but unattainable self, you should probably open your mind a little to see the trees for the forest. Sustainability is a common theme in Dr. Recht’s white paper and coincidentally it is a concept that the animal agriculture community writ large has also embraced as a key to its future.

For the moment, let’s dwell on the coexistence of livestock production and meat analogue foods. To me, it seems that these two are constantly at loggerheads. Each disparages the other while purporting to promote itself. In the history of marketing, tearing down a competitor has never really worked well. However, self-promotion while seemingly narcissistic in its approach has resonated with consumers as they vicariously enjoy the entrepreneurial zeal that the consummate self-promoters exhibit. Even with the bickering of self-promotion, both live animal production and analogue prepared “meat” are foods that can be both sustainable and nutritious. You may argue that one or the other is neither, but after careful examination I think both can be judged to be viable and necessary for the future of food production.

In conclusion, Dr. Recht tells us that meat consumption is expected to grow by 50% in the coming decades to a market valued at US$1.8 trillion by 2040 — only a few 19 years away. And he fully realizes that meat consumption is here to stay but offers the caveat that today there is an opportunity to evolve meat production toward a healthier future for both humans and the planet.

Unlike the constant internecine chirping by both live animal proponents and meat analogue developers, Dr. Recht offers a cooperative vision of the future for meat consumption in total that embraces both systems. It is refreshing to view such proposed cooperation, but its future viability will take some compromises on the part of both sectors almost unimaginable if viewed thru the lens of their current bickering.

If you think live animal meat production will continue without competition from the meat analogue sector, you are wrong. If you think that meat analogues will supplant live animal food production, you are also wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right. But a system that incorporates a sustainable future is right for both sectors and, most importantly, for consumers.

Can we all just get along?

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