Welfare Science

Cultivated Meat and Animal Welfare

Cultivated meat, grown from animal cells without slaughter, has the potential to dramatically reduce farmed animal suffering if it reaches scale.

Key Facts

Cultivated meat requires only a small biopsy from a live animal to initiate production
Current production uses foetal bovine serum, an animal welfare concern being addressed
Several companies have received regulatory approval for cultivated meat products
Production costs have fallen dramatically but price parity with conventional meat remains a challenge
Welfare advocates broadly support cultivated meat as a transformative technology

Welfare Considerations

Cultivated meat represents one of the most potentially significant animal welfare innovations in history. Support for its development and regulatory approval is a high-impact welfare intervention.

What You Can Do

Support cultivated meat companies and the organisations advocating for them
Engage positively with cultivated meat when it becomes available in your market
Advocate for regulatory frameworks that enable rapid, safe cultivated meat approval
Support research into animal-free cell culture media to replace foetal bovine serum
Learn about the range of alternative protein technologies reducing animal suffering