Recently you may have read or heard information about artificial meat and how it is presented as a solution to the climate emergency. But is it really the best solution? What actually is artificial meat? What effects does it have on our body? Is food created in laboratories a solution to the environmental challenge?

The arrival of artificial meat on the shelves of some supermarkets and on the menus of avant-garde and sophisticated restaurants is already a fact in countries like Singapore or Israel. Everything seems to indicate that in the future artificial meat will coexist on the shelves of stores and supermarkets with traditional meat. But what do we know about this type of meat? Are the arguments put forward by its strongest defenders true?

What really is artificial meat? How is it produced?

Synthetic meat is meat created in laboratories by extracting cells from a live animal (cow, chicken, pig) along with other substances such as

• fetal serum

• amino acids

• fat

• connective tissue

that are grown in a completely artificial environment until they are turned into hamburgers, steaks...

Is it the solution to the environmental challenge?

As farmers, ranchers and producers in the organic sector, we find a great contradiction between the argument of sustainability and ethics put forward by artificial meat manufacturing companies. These ensure that it respects the well-being of animals, that it is more sustainable and ecological... But at the same time it is based on the extraction of stem cells and other types of substances and tissues from animals for its manufacture in a laboratory.

Now that it is a minority, elitist and incipient industry, its environmental impact is minimal, but what will happen if this model becomes a large-scale model as widespread as intensive industrial livestock farming? Will this model be reproduced? Will it then continue to maintain its low environmental impact?

Likewise aOxford University report 2019He pointed out that the production of artificial meat produces fewer greenhouse gases, yes, but in the long run these are much more harmful to our planet. The methane gas produced by livestock activity disappears after about 12 years while carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for millennia.

From our point of view, the true solution consists of a change of model, from intensive industrial livestock farming to an extensive and ecological livestock farming model. This livestock model does offer many more advantages when we talk about sustainability and sustainable development, such as its role in preserving ecosystems of high biological value such as mountains or pastures, native breeds, fire prevention, in addition to contributing to population establishment. in rural environments, to the circular economy..., as statedin this article, José Antonio Mendizábal, Professor of Animal Production at the Public University of Navarra

¿Es la carne artificial un alimento seguro?

De momento ni la Autoridad Europea de Seguridad Alimentaria (EFSA) ni la FDA estadounidense han dado luz verde a la carne cultivada y todavía existen unas cuantas incógnitas sobre sus efectos en el organismo a largo plazo.

En la comunidad científica internacional se han manifestado ciertas dudas respecto a la inocuidad de este alimento. Manuel Collado, científico especializado en células madre en cáncer y envejecimiento del Hospital Clínico de Santiago de Compostela, han expresado su preocupación por algunas cuestiones “hay que tener en cuenta que se trata de ingerir tejido vacuno que parte de células vivas pluripotenciales con capacidad tumoral y mantenidas con factores de crecimiento y agentes con capacidades no testadas para su consumo”.

Por nuestra parte lo que sí sabemos con certeza es que la carne es una parte importante de la dieta humana y así lo ha sido durante siglos. Presenta proteínas de alto valor biológico, hidratos de carbono, vitaminas, minerales, grasas monoinsaturadas… Es un alimento seguro y cuyos beneficios para la dieta humana han sido demostraos a lo largo del tiempo. Su consumo ha sido fundamental en el desarrollo del cerebro humano y para nosotros la clave está en qué tipo de carne se consume y en qué cantidad.

Para reducir el impacto de la ganadería industrial en el planeta y mejorar los problemas de salud relacionados con una elevada ingesta de carne y ultraprocesados lo recomendable es eliminar el consumo de alimentos ultraprocesados y carnes baratas.

Limitar el consumo de carne a 3 ó 4 raciones a la semana, igual que el pescado, y optar siempre por el consumo de carne de calidad, de animales alimentados con recursos locales producidos en el entorno que promueven el desarrollo sostenible, los productos saludables, elanimal welfarey el desarrollo local.

Como aclaramosin this article, comer carne y cuidar y respetar el medioambiente es algo totalmente compatible.