Cultivated poultry has arrived in the UK in pet foods, but media coverage of these products still fails to discuss the long-term impacts, says Katherine Lewis.
Dog treats made with cultivated meat went on sale in the UK this month. The technology is gathering pace and what seemed like sci-fi just a few years ago is today becoming increasingly plausible. Yet, despite the fact that it could affect us all, not everyone is part of the conversation.
The voices we hear talking about cultivated meat tend to have a vested interest – either in its success or its failure. At the Royal Agricultural University, we found that farmers – even though they might be at the sharp end of this new market – were also being left out of the discussion. So, over the last two years we brought together a team to ask what farmers think of cultivated meat, and how it might impact UK farming.
Part of the project explored how cultivated meat is covered in the farming press and by farmers on X/Twitter as well as The Farming Forum, the farming discussion website. Our colleagues from the University of Reading, who led this piece of work, published their findings this week in the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Online, they found very little discussion amongst farmers and the posts they did find strongly opposed cultivated meat. However, they found little of this opposition in the farming press.
With the exception of a few thoughtful and well-researched articles, most reporting was cultivated meat ‘industry news’; that day’s innovation or advancement, often using the companies’ own terminology and key messages, rather than about long-term impacts. I noticed the same trend in the mainstream media during last week’s dog treat launch. Other than some ‘man on the street’ vox pops, the same messaging came through whether it was in national newspapers or on the six-o-clock news.
The conversations we’ve been having offline are very different. Most of the farmers we spoke with were deeply sceptical, but they also had nuanced views on the potential risks of cultivated meat, and were frank about how they might adapt their own businesses. Some even thought there might be benefits. As part of CARMA, the cellular agriculture manufacturing hub, we have also been running a ‘citizens forum’ on cultivated meat. There, people come from all walks of life and show that everyone has insightful, often complex views on this topic, and that the wider the range of voices, the more interesting the discussion becomes.
The role that cultivated foods could play in our food system is far from fixed. Factors like the foods that are substituted, who owns the IP, and the role of regulation are all still to be worked out – and could mean vastly different futures for our food system. This all needs to be worked out in the open and involving as many of us as possible. Comparing what we found in the media with the conversations we’ve had in person suggest this hasn’t been happening so far.
We recently took the discussion to the Oxford Real Farming Conference. We had a brilliant – and at times, fiery – debate. We need more opportunities like this – not just for farmers, but for everyone who cares about our food system. Because as one agro-ecological farmer at the conference told us: “If you’re interested in food systems and sustainability, you’ve got to speak up. Because it’s going to happen without us if we don’t.”
Katherine Lewis is research engagement manager at the Royal Agricultural University.
