28/06/2026
Very good article on lab grown meat by a friend of mine & highly respected Naturopath Ross Walter
There’s another new assault on our food supply, with new highly processed “food” products having been developed and promoted under the alleged pretence of being better for the environment and better for animals or for sustainability reasons. This new concept is that of “cultured meat”. Also known as “cell-cultured meat”, “cell-cultivated” or essentially, it’s “lab grown meat”.
And now this “cultured” meat is legally available in Australia after being approved to be sold to the public by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand in 2025 (FSANZ, 2026). This technology is now being used to produce meat products such as minced meat, steak or chicken fillets, quail and foie gras at this time, but more foods may be approved in future. They have even managed to culture meat from a woolly mammoth…. I am not kidding. Mammoth burgers anyone?!
Labs and factories take meat cell samples from animals and then culture or grow the meat cells in a controlled environment on a growth medium in a giant bioreactor.
How would you know if you are buying or eating cultured meat? It depends… Lab-grown or cultured meats for sale in a retail environment must be labelled as such. However, lab-grown meats which are ingredients in other processed foods, or used in restaurants, may not need to be labelled or advertised as such. Luckily, the only approved supplier (at this time, being a Sydney-based biotech company called “Vow”) kindly lists all the restaurants using their products on their website (here - https://www.forgedbyvow.com/find-a-forger), so we can avoid these highly processed and unnecessary foods. Support real farmers and eat real food instead!
Ironically, the approved manufacturer said they first designed the product to address global food shortages, where current systems don't produce enough food to feed a growing global population (ABC News, 2025). But instead of feeding starving people in various parts of the world, they are actually supplying high end restaurants around Australia and a few other rich countries.
The company claims that their products are better for the environment, yet their facilities are very energy intensive, as opposed to no energy being needed for cows to eat grass and turn it into meat…
Another of their ridiculous and impossible claims is that the carbon footprint of cultured meat can be lower than from real animals! Considering that the whole “global warming” or “climate change” is being blamed on high and increasing levels of carbon dioxide or CO2. But the actual atmospheric percentage of CO2 is only 0.04% (yes, it is really!), it is impossible for this tiny amount of CO2 to affect anything to do with the weather or climate! Also, CO2 is NOT an environmental toxin, but is FOOD FOR TREES! The more CO2, the more plants, and the more food for animals, and the more food for humans. These artificially produced and highly processed products are based on and marketed on LIES.
And science proves that these processed meats are in fact much worse for the environment, including one pre-print study finding these meats were 25 times worse for the environment than naturally sourced meats! (Gript, 2026).
I feel that these highly processed meat products are no different to the highly processed vegan “meat” products – with their lots of ridiculous claims of being better for the environment and you, yet lacking the flavour and nutrition of the real thing, and everyone avoiding these foods. Remember in the COVID days of food shortages, but the fake meats section in the supermarkets were still full and no-one was desperate enough to eat that garbage?!
What are your thoughts on this?
Stay healthy!
References:
ABC News. (2025). Lab-grown meat has just been approved for consumption in Australia. What is it and how is it made? Retrieved 27th Jun from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-24/lab-grown-meat-approved-for-sale-australia/105448604
Australian Government. (2025). Federal Register of Legislation: Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code – Standard 1.5.4 – Cell-cultured foods. Retrieved 27th Jun 2026 from https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2025L00686/asmade/text
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). (2026). Cell-cultured foods. Retrieved 27th Jun 2026 from https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/our-safe-food-supply/Cell-cultured-foods
Gript. (2026). Lab-grown ‘meat’ worse for environment than retail beef: study. Retrieved 27th June 2026 from https://gript.ie/lab-grown-meat-worse-for-environment-than-retail-beef-study/
Vow. (2026). Forged by Vow. Retrieved 27th June 2026 from https://www.forgedbyvow.com/
