Dhe origins of Homo sapiens date back six million years. Since then, it is estimated that around 100 billion people have ever lived.
Just as many animals are slaughtered. However, not in a period of six million, but one and a half years. Tendency to increase globally. The damage to ethics and the environment is huge. Animal husbandry accounts for every fifth tonne of greenhouse gas emissions.
Now there are two solutions: either stop consuming animal products or make it more sustainable and ethical. The first option is slowly becoming more popular in Germany: more than 1.5 million Germans now say they are vegan, and almost eight million say they are at least vegetarian. Viewed globally, however, a world without animal husbandry is unrealistic utopia.
Only the second option remains: make consumption more sustainable. Imitations made from soy and pea proteins have been around for years. The Hamburg start-up Mushlabs even works with the border crosser between the animal and plant world. “Most meat substitutes are plant-based, but we rely on mushrooms,” said Thibault Godard, head of development, in an interview with the FAZ in June. To be more precise, Mushlabs does not aim at the fruiting body at all, but at its root, the mycelium. To enable the company to further develop the idea, the EU supported the start-up with over ten million euros in June.
Real schnitzel without slaughter
Not only the Hamburg mycelium mixers enjoy generous investments. A recently published study by the Swiss market research company BV4 comes to the conclusion that the capital invested worldwide in companies working on plant-based meat substitutes is growing rapidly. Ten years ago, only small amounts in the double-digit millions flowed into the industry worldwide, last year it was almost 2 billion dollars. For the current decade, the researchers are assuming annual market growth of 19.3 percent. The market volume would thus double every three to four years.
However, anyone who directly believes in the unstoppable triumph of the veggie sausage is wrong. Although the meat substitute market is growing rapidly, “it’s all about an evolution rather than a revolution,” says Dorian Ebneter, author of the BV4 study. The meat-and-blood sausage will probably continue to dominate the refrigerated shelves for a long time to come.
And not just in Germany, but worldwide. The United Nations expects the world population to surpass 10 billion by 2060. “Factory farming, with its enormous resource and space requirements, will not be able to feed this crowd,” Bernd Böck is convinced. He works for Alife Foods. The company belongs to the small circle of German companies researching cultivated meat. In Leipzig he is working on how real schnitzel can end up on the plate without having to slaughter a pig.
To do this, stem cells are removed from the animal, which then grow in a nutrient solution. All without developing consciousness – and thus a feeling of suffering. Winston Churchill already imagined this business model in the 1930s. “We will avoid the absurdity of raising a whole chicken to eat the breast or wing by raising those parts separately in an appropriate medium,” said the then-Member of the House of Commons.
