New Documentary Focuses on Cultured Meat
We might just have to add a #11 to our top ten list of important vegan and animal rights documentaries! A new observational documentary by Liz Marshall, who also directed The Ghosts in Our Machine, is officially in the works and focuses on cultured meat and the impact it may have on food and the future of animal agriculture.
Titled Meat the Future, the film asks what would happen if “cruelty-free, environmentally sustainable, “clean meat” replaced conventional meat in the grocery store?” and follows the story and work of startup Memphis Meats. Memphis Meats is the company behind the cultured meatball, with co-founder, CEO and cardiologist Uma Valeti boldly stating that “this is absolutely the future of meat” and that it will make “raising animals unthinkable.”
Memphis Meats isolates and harvests animal cells, which means that no animals are actually killed in the process, with the resulting products having said to use 90% less water and land and 50% less energy when compared to conventional agriculture. Meat the Future asks:
“Is it a solution to climate change, world hunger, and the abysmal treatment of factory farmed animals? Will consumers want it, or is it Frankenfood? How can clean meat be produced at scale, as affordable and competitive? How will the powerful transnational agricultural lobbies respond? And ethical vegans and vegetarians have asked whether cultured meat can be produced without using animals at all-if so, will they eat it? These are just some of the myriad questions posed as we follow CEO Dr. Uma Valeti, his partner and team at Memphis Meats, as they research, fundraise, test, cook, market and unveil their product to the world.”
Memphis Meats aims to bring cultured meat to the market by 2020, and as Meat the Future‘s website states, if it is successful, “the implications are staggering.” To find out more about the film and watch the trailer, visit this link.
Photo Credit: Meat the Future
