Narrator: This machine is 3D printing steak.
The goal is to create a piece of meat without killing a cow.
And this Israeli startup is one of the dozens of companies
racing to perfect the process.
- It turns out that cows aren't necessarily
the most efficient way of making beef.
Narrator: It's no secret that beef is one of the most
damaging foods for the planet.
The search for a solution has become a big business.
But can lab-grown steak or plant-based alternatives
really fix the broken beef industry?
The global beef industry produced
nearly 75 million tons of meat in 2020.
That's about 19 pounds for each person on the planet.
Each step of the supply chain is doing damage.
Let's start on the farm.
Raising cattle requires lots of land.
On average, tropical rainforests the size of El Salvador
are cleared every year to make room for cattle.
These cows release tons of methane,
one of the most potent greenhouse gasses.
Then there are the emissions from slaughtering, processing,
packaging and transporting beef.
Globally, beef was responsible for three billion tons
of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010.
About twice as much as all vehicles in the U.S. at the time.
But plant-based alternatives to meat
have grown into a $5.6 billion industry.
Beyond Meat has made its way
into an estimated 135,000 grocery stores and restaurants.
Its signature burger is made by using heating, cooling,
and pressure to give plant-based proteins
a meat-like texture.
A study funded by the company found that pound for pound,
its product generates about 90% less
greenhouse gas emissions than traditional beef.
Still, for many scientists, the holy grail
is to not just imitate meat but actually make it.
Back in 2013, Professor and scientist Mark Post
unveiled the first lab-grown burger
at a live tasting in London.
This one patty cost over $325,000 to make.
- It's close to meat, it's not that juicy
but the consistency is perfect.
Celia: I think that was kind of
one of those like pivotal moments where you're like:
"Oh, this could be a thing."
Narrator: But it wasn't until 2020 that funding
for lab-grown food really started to pour in.
With some startups drawing high profile investments
from the likes of Bill Gates
and even traditional meat companies.
- It's like everyone wants to hop on that bandwagon.
Narrator: Now researchers in Israel are taking on
one of the biggest challenges, growing steaks in a lab.
Simon: When it comes to steak, you're bringing together
the full range, essentially,
of tissue engineering technologies
and cell growth technologies.
Narrator: Simon Fried and his team are using stem cells
to create a steak they say is more ethical,
although it's not vegetarian.
Here's how it works.
Look at this perfectly marbled steak,
the white stuff is fat, that gives it flavor.
The pink stuff is muscle, that's for protein.
Scientists had to figure out how to recreate both.
First, they take stem cells from a cow
and then grow them in a lab.
Simon: That means that we're replacing the body of the animal
with what's called a bioreactor.
Narrator: Getting the cells to grow
under these conditions is no easy task.
- Usually cells are attached to something.
They grow in a petri dish or flasks
and they want to attach to something.
Narrator: Here the cells grow suspended in a liquid
where they divide roughly once a day.
Then scientists move the mass of cells
to the tissue engineering lab
where they make something called bioinks.
Simon: So this is the beginning of the bioprinting stage.
The inks that we're using actually contain the cells
that we've been growing in the labs previously.
Narrator: There's one for muscle and one for fat.
They're fed through these nozzles and technicians
can customize how much of each goes into the steak.
Simon: You can print any structure that you're able to design.
So you upload a file to the printer and you can present
a steak of pretty much any size and also any proportions.
Narrator: One key challenge in this process
is keeping the printing room sterile.
Simon: These are living cells and they're being jetted
through the printer.
So everything that can be done to keep the air clean
of any impurities is necessary.
Narrator: Otherwise there's a chance the cells could die.
The steaks aren't quite finished
when they leave the printing room.
The cells still need time to develop into muscle
and fat tissue.
- From a few days up to a few weeks,
we can start seeing the muscle fibers starting to contract
spontaneously in the dish.
Narrator: Which looks like this.
The process takes about a month.
Simon: And after that, you can treat it
as you would a regular piece of meat.
Narrator: But MeaTech is still a long way away
from selling its steak to consumers for a few reasons.
Remember how the cells were growing in that liquid?
Well, it contains something called
fetal bovine serum or FBS.
- In layman's terms, it's baby cow blood.
Narrator: It's one of the most controversial parts
of growing meat in a lab because it comes from fetuses
of pregnant cows that were slaughtered
but it's necessary for the cells to grow.
Simon told us they are using FBS
as part of the research process
but they plan to eventually replace it with something else.
- Our plans are that it shouldn't be part of any
at scale commercial activity.
Narrator: But an alternative that's just as effective
has yet to be found.
Simon wouldn't give us an estimate on when the steak
will be ready for the public to try
or how much it costs to make the prototypes.
In the meantime, he says the company is focused
on a more attainable goal like this hybrid product
made of soy and beef fat grown in MeaTech's lab.
- The texture of our cultured kebab it's nearly the same
like a real kebab.
Narrator: MeaTech is building a new facility in Belgium
to start making foods like these on a larger scale.
But it's unclear how sustainable a scaled up
lab-grown beef industry would really be.
Celia: We don't know what the carbon footprint looks like
to actually scale these up in the amount of space
and energy it will take.
Narrator: And this is all a gamble on something
most consumers haven't even tried yet.
So far, meat made in a lab can only be sold in Singapore
where one company debut its chicken nuggets back in 2020.
Despite the uncertainty, companies working on lab-grown meat
have raised nearly $2 billion.
They're betting that the rest of the world
will follow Singapore's lead
and start granting lab-grown foods approval for sale.
But even if lab-grown meat manages to win over regulators
and the public, could it actually replace beef?
- I'm honestly not fully convinced that
this is the right way to mass produce meat for the public
to be eating based off of how long this has been developing
and how little we've seen.
Narrator: So while we wait on lab grown beef,
consumers looking to reduce their carbon footprint
can still turn to plant-based options.
For two and a half years, we've taken you behind the scenes
of giant industries from cruise ship graveyards in Turkey
to aloe factories in the Dominican Republic
to Himalayan salt mines in Pakistan.
And we're excited to unpack more stories
around the world for big business.
If you've got an idea for the next episode,
let us know in the comments below.
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