…And the technologies that could save it!

Since man hunted and got a taste for the meat of the Auroch, later domesticated into the ancestors of modern cattle breeds, the market for beef has grown steadily. The last 10 years have not been so kind, with plummeting beef consumption and higher prices. There is some light, as meat intense diets like paleo and keto have turned some consumers back to beef, but just at the point when the cattle industry has become more consolidated, sophisticated and consumer focused it is ironically facing some of the greatest existential threats to its 10,000 years existence. Touted as sustainable, welfare friendly or conversely dismissed as'fake meat' the clear intent of growing meat on petri dishes is to displace the consumption of red-meat. Despite concerns of how'friendly' the technology really is, meat producers such as Cargill and Tyson foods have invested in startups in this market. Environmentalists advocating'Meatless Mondays' and other initiatives at consumer level have been unremitting in their attacks on the meat industry. These action groups have used sometimes dubious data to support their contention that cattle, and specifically beef uses more water, more resources and emits more greenhouses gases then other human choices. Their relentless attack appears to be having an effect on red meat consumption in the US and Europe.