Last week’s news about the recent $17 million investment in Memphis Meats has once again provoked fierce debate about cultured meat – raising many questions.
Hoping to address some of those questions is a feature-length documentary about cultured meat that will be released in 2019.
The trailer, which can you watch here, was released in October 2016.
Meat the Future focuses on the ‘clean meat’ movement, following Memphis Meats’ CEO and Co-founder Dr. Uma Valeti.
Speaking about creating meat in a lab, Dr. Valeti says: “Knowing that this has never been done in history before? That’s the part that’s incredibly motivating.
“The story is yet to be told.”
Challenges
A statement by director Liz Marshall – director of The Ghosts In Our Machine – says: “Meat the Future is a natural extension of my previous work.
“Since the 1990s I have had the privilege of featuring resilient stories around the globe, shot within the context of war, climate change, corporate industrialized globalization, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“Meat the Future spotlights a convergence of urgent issues through an active unfolding human story.
“This is a documentary that grapples with significant global challenges, while looking to what is possible.
“Meat the Future is not another doomsday survey that leaves audiences feeling overwhelmed with information overload.
“Instead, we zoom in on compelling people working overtime, risking everything to make a difference, while also examining the challenges and obstacles they face.”
Criticism
The cultured meat sector has come in for criticism from some vegans, as animal cells are needed to create the product, meaning the product still uses animals.
Furthermore, the harvesting of these cells can involve slaughter.
Commenting on the film’s Facebook Page, Mary Mellozzi wrote: “Use those millions to RESCUE animals instead. Animals, whether 1 or a billion is irrelevant, will still be slaughtered for this unnecessary fake meat which will never be of interest for meat eaters to consume [sic].”
But proponents of cultured meat – which is also known as lab, bio, or in vitro meat – claim the technology could save billions of animals’ lives – and help fight climate change.
Bruce Friedrich, the Executive Director of the Good Food Institute says: “The really big questions in food production are how are we going to feed 9 billion people by 2050, and especially what are we going to do about climate change?
“And we’re not going to do it with the climate nightmare that is animal agriculture.”
You can watchthe trailer for Meat the Future here.
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