S2E32: Should we just give up on cultivated meat?

Jan 19, 2026

27:30

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Lab-grown meat. The way of the future or a hard act to swallow?

Synopsis: Every first and third Tuesday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

In this episode, hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty get their teeth into cultivated meat, a topic that was very much in the headlines a few years back. Singapore was the first nation to approve the sale of cultivated chicken meat in 2020 but investment in the sector, after much fanfare, has slowed.

So is there still potential for this sector to take off? The pay-off could be huge if companies can create safe, tasty and affordable beef, chicken, lamb and even seafood in bioreactors instead of relying on huge tracts of land and the sea. Meeting the needs of billions of people, could slash the impacts on the environment and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Is this your vision of the future? Or still too soon to say? Let us know what you think!

Highlights of conversation (click/tap above):

2:24 What is the difference between cultivated meat and plant-based alternatives?

3:24 Why the interest in cultivated meat? What are the environmental benefits?

6:20 How cultivated meat products are made and why is the process challenging?

12:14 If companies succeed, the prize could be huge but there are still hurdles

20:32 Stay the course: Cultivated meat could become an important tool to fight climate change

23:04 Better information, better decisions by consumers. For instance: CO2 content labels on food products

Follow Audrey Tan on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/848W

Read her articles: https://str.sg/JLM2

Follow David Fogarty on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/jcvy

Read his articles: https://str.sg/JLMu