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A call for an ‘Asilomar’ for cultivated meat and seafood

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 895–897 (2023)Cite this article

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The idea of ‘cultivating’ meat is almost 100 years old. In December 1931, Winston Churchill famously wrote that “in 50 years we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium”. His prediction was off by some 30 years but was nevertheless fulfilled as a proof-of-principle: in 2013, the world’s first-ever cultivated hamburger was developed at the modest price of US $325,000. The following decade brought several improvements in cell lines, culture media, bioreactors and scaffolds1. Whether it will soon be possible to cultivate meat at market scale and in a cost-competitive manner remains debated2,3. Nevertheless, the sizable market opportunity has led to considerable investment (in total, almost $3 billion)4.

Ethical advantages aside, cultivated meat is predicted to have a lower environmental burden than that of conventional meat5, to limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria6 and to reduce the risk of zoonosis7. Collectively, the field is attracting the attention of governments and other entities that are looking for solutions to tackle these pressing issues of our time. In this context, a recently proposed bill by the Italian government to ban cultivated meat is not only anachronistic but also creates a dangerous precedent that could stifle this emerging sector elsewhere. As representatives of the field who are suffering the effects of this antagonistic political and social climate at first hand, we wish to contextualize and raise international attention on this matter and ultimately to propose a call for action to mitigate it and prevent similar developments elsewhere.

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Fig. 1: An Asilomar for cultivated meat and seafood.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the University of Torino Future of Eating (FEAT) research group and the Fondazione Luca Coscioni for insightful discussions. This work was supported by PON R&I Azione IV.5 & IV.6 - FSE REACT-EU (PhD fellowship, S. Bottini; research fellow, C.F.), Save The Chickens Foundation (N.S.), a PoV grant from University of Torino (A.B.) and Lazio Innova 2021 (C.G.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sveva Bottini, Claudia Fuoco, Nike Schiavo.

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: Alessandro Bertero, Stefano Biressi, Luciano Conti, Cesare Gargioli.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Biotechnology Center “Guido Tarone”, Department of Molecular Biotechnology & Health Sciences, University of Torino, Turin, Italy

    Sveva Bottini & Alessandro Bertero

  2. Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Claudia Fuoco & Cesare Gargioli

  3. Department of Cellular, Computational & Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Nike Schiavo, Stefano Biressi & Luciano Conti

Authors
  1. Sveva Bottini
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  4. Alessandro Bertero
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  6. Luciano Conti
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  7. Cesare Gargioli
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Contributions

S. Bottini, C.F. and N.S. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. A.B., S. Biressi, L.C. and C.G. revised the manuscript. A.B. conceptualized the manuscript and coordinated the group. Equally contributing, and jointly supervising, authors are listed alphabetically in the author list.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alessandro Bertero, Stefano Biressi, Luciano Conti or Cesare Gargioli.

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Competing interests

A.B. is an inventor on a cellular agriculture patent and a cofounder, shareholder and member of the scientific advisory board of SoundEats, a cultivated seafood company. L.C. and S. Biressi are inventors on a provisional patent application on cellular agriculture. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Bottini, S., Fuoco, C., Schiavo, N. et al. A call for an ‘Asilomar’ for cultivated meat and seafood. Nat Biotechnol 41, 895–897 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01849-x

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