The climate impact and land use of cultivated meat: Evaluating agricultural feedstock production

The economic feasibility of CM production is heavily influenced by the cost of growth media, which remains a major financial bottleneck. Current estimates indicate that media expenses account for up to 99% of material costs, driven by expensive amino acids and growth factors produced through precision fermentation or chemical synthesis [37, 41, 115]. Even as bioreactor scale increases, reducing media costs is critical to achieving competitive prices with conventional meat [116]. While precision fermentation has lower land use impacts, its com- plexity and high production costs makes it still a challenge. Chemical production of growth factors adds to this economic burden. Emerging research suggests that plant-based media could offer a more cost-effective solution, though this remains speculative as hydrolysates have not fully proven feasibility for cell media formulation [37, 115]. The study assumes direct extraction of amino acids and glucose from crops, which oversim- plifies real-world processes and might overestimate yields, thus affecting production efficiency and land use metric. Additionally, incorporating biotechnological methods for amino acid production could realistically enhance efficiency. Other studies using precision fermentation technologies showed more optimistic scenarios that could be implemented in the future. Those hybrid media formulations could decrease land use and efficiency [41]. On the other hand, involving synthetic amino acid supply for pig feed would also boost efficiency of land use for pork production [117, 118].

In general, we did not consider the upcycling of by-products from food processing, such as soybean meal, rapeseed meal, or sugar beet pulp. There may still be potential to increase land use efficiency in the production of plant-based cell media. Many co-products are created by industrial food processing leading to sugar and protein rich feed that could be used for culti- vated as they are used for animal feed now. But many sustainability criteria must be reconsid- ered for those side streams anew [119]. While land use and emissions could be decreased, economic feasibility often remains a constraint when it comes to adopting side stream prod- ucts and their usage. Currently available solutions include alternatives to fermentable sugar, nitrogen, and phosphates, which could also be converted into proteins through precision fer- mentation [120]. During the production of hydrolysates and glucose from crops, byproducts are generated including solid residues (stillage), fiber, proteins, lipids, ash, and in the case of maize, maize gluten meal, maize gluten feed, and maize oil. One limitation of our study lies in the fact that we did not account for the metabolites [50] produced by cells during the CM pro- duction process. These metabolites, primarily consisting of compounds such as urea, ammo- nia, lactic acid, and other organic acids [121], could potentially be utilized as a form of manure or soil conditioner. This factor was not incorporated into our current model and could repre- sent an area of interest for further investigation.

In terms of energy, CM comes with higher energy needs than animal meats, including pork [39]. We only considered land use scenarios if solar energy was used, leading to direct influ- ence on land use. While it might use less land per output, the use of fossil energy for produc- tion of CM would have a far greater impact on the environment [122]. Furthermore, the model considers only land use and does not account for other critical environmental impacts, such as water usage, influence on biodiversity, or ecosystem structures. 5.3 Future research directions There are several opportunities for future research on agricultural involvement in CM produc- tion. Agriculture will be involved in CM production in any matter. It is also critical to under- stand the social acceptance and economic viability of CM. Thus, future studies could focus on consumer perceptions, market dynamics, and the broader socio-economic implications of a shift from conventional meat production to CM. PLOS ONE Evaluating agricultural feedstock for cultivated meat PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316480 January 22, 2025 20 / 27