Charlie Powell is right that there's an increasing consumer desire for what's often called clean meat. ("Tooth and Nail: The market for lab-grown meat," Sept. 15).
Such meat, while not yet on the market, is likely to be commercialized by start-ups like Memphis Meats, and within years, not decades. It's not an alternative or substitute to meat. Instead, it's real, actual meat, simply grown from animal cells rather than animal slaughter. And the reasons consumers are enthusiastic about it are manifold.
As humanity continues to increase our numbers and more people want to eat a meat-heavy diet, the need to produce meat with a lower footprint is paramount. Growing meat rather than raising whole animals helps toward that end, with one published study from Oxford finding it, unsurprisingly, takes 99 percent less land to produce clean beef compared to raising cattle.
Similarly, clean meat can help address serious food safety problems, a primary reason for its name. Since producers are growing muscle as opposed to intestines, they can worry less about intestinal pathogens like E. coli and salmonella.
Food scientists play an important role in feeding us. Clean meat is one more way they can help make our food system safer and more sustainable.
Paul Shapiro
Sacramento, Calif.
