Cultured, or in vitro, meat consists of edible biomass grown from animal stem cells in a factory, or carnery. In the coming decades, in vitro biomass cultivation could enable the production of meat without the need to raise livestock. Using an anticipatory life cycle analysis framework, the study described herein examines the environmental implications of this emerging technology and compares the results with published impacts of beef, pork, poultry, and another speculative analysis of cultured biomass. While uncertainty ranges are large, the findings suggest that in vitro biomass cultivation could require smaller quantities of agricultural inputs and land than livestock; however, those benefits could come at the expense of more intensive energy use as biological functions such as digestion and nutrient circulation are replaced by industrial equivalents. From this perspective, large-scale cultivation of in vitro meat and other bioengineered products could represent a new phase of industrialization with inherently complex and challenging trade-offs.

The environmental implications of cultured meat are profound: An anticipatory life cycle assessment of cultured meat published in 2011 showed it to have a smaller impact than agricultural meat in all categories except energy consumption (Tuomisto and Teixeira de Mattos 2011). As with most technologies, cultured meat will almost certainly be accompanied by unintended consequences as well as unforeseen costs and benefits that accrue disproportionately to different stakeholders. Uncertainty associated with new engineered products cannot be completely eliminated prior to introduction, but ongoing environmental assessments of the technologies as they advance can serve to reduce unforeseen risks. Given the pace at which tissue engineering is advancing, systemic assessments of the technology will be pivotal in mitigating unintended environmental consequences.

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Cultured meat -edible muscle tissue grown in a laboratory or factory (carnery) without the need of a whole animal -was shown to be feasible in 2000 [1] and several researchers have since suggested that large-scale production is possible [2][3][4][5]. Using ESEM principles as a guide, this investigation represents a preliminary attempt to shed light on some of the environmental, economic, and social implications of this emerging technology. The ultimate goal is to facilitate adaptive management of its commercialization and diffusion in order to prevent or mitigate sub-optimal lifecycle impacts.Index Terms-Cultured meat, in vitro meat, carneries, earth systems engineering and management, emerging technologies.

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