Precision fermentation uses microorganisms to produce animal proteins without animals, offering a potential route to animal-free dairy, eggs and other products that could dramatically reduce farm animal suffering.
Precision fermentation offers one of the most promising structural solutions to farm animal welfare at scale. If consumers adopt fermentation-derived dairy and egg proteins at scale, the suffering of hundreds of millions of cows, pigs, chickens and other animals involved in conventional animal agriculture could be significantly reduced. Unlike cultivated meat, precision fermentation products are already commercially available in some forms and at price points approaching conventional alternatives. The welfare impact of widespread adoption would be enormous. Regulatory frameworks, consumer acceptance and price competitiveness are the main barriers to scale.