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

The objective to be maximized is the expansion of the activity fresh mass production (referred to as the target cell). To achieve this goal, a solver in the model is tasked with adjust- ing the expansion of all activities, including that of fresh mass production. This adjustment must be carried out while adhering to certain constraints. These constraints include the full utilization of land area capacity, crop rotation restrictions (mentioned below), and the required nutrient supply for agricultural crops together with the corresponding expansion of production procedures. 3.2 Model specification This section specifies the objective and constraints of the linear programming model to opti- mize nutrient and land use for CM production. We developed a static linear programming model to evaluate the agricultural feedstock production for CM in southern Germany, apply- ing it to a 100-hectare land area reference. The model aims to maximize CM output while adhering to agricultural constraints like yields and crop rotation restrictions. The focus is on using 100 hectares to produce the macro nutrients (glucose and amino acids) and energy required for CM production. The model’s objective function and constraints are formulated as detailed below: Objective Function: Maximize M ¼ pT x ð2Þ Where: • M is the total production of CM medium (targeting maximization). • x is the vector of decision variables, representing the activities including different crops and crop rotation, as well as the potential use of solar panels for energy production.

• p is the vector of production quantities per unit of activity, namely the quantities of glucose and single amino acids produced per unit of crop or solar energy generation activity. • T denotes the transpose of the vector p. Constraints: Nutrient Recipe Constraints: These constraints ensure that the mix of inputs used matches the specific nutritional requirements for CM production: X jaij � xj � yj � bj � M ð3Þ where: • aij represents the amount of amino acids and glucose content i provided by crop j. • xj is the amount land use for a specific crop or for energy production j. • yj is the yield per ha of crop or energy production • bi is the required amount of input i per unit of CM medium, defining the feedstock recipe for CM. The goal of the model is to find the optimal combination of activities x that maximizes the total production of CM medium M, subject to the constraints of available resources, which is land and crop rotation restrictions. Crop Rotation and Land Use Constraints: PLOS ONE Evaluating agricultural feedstock for cultivated meat PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316480 January 22, 2025 8 / 27