Debate on meat substitutes lacks objectivity
New research has shown that interest in laboratory-cultured alternatives to meat are generating far greater interest in mainstream media than in academic research.
Multi-stakeholder group European Livestock Voice has shared details of research by a team of academics, including the research director of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Dr JeanFrançois Hocquette.
The study found that there were more than 12,000 articles in mainstream media in 2020 on cultured food products aiming to replace meat. In contrast, the research team found only 300 academic papers.
Brussels-based European Livestock Voice has argued that, apart from the discrepancy in the volume of articles, writers in the mainstream media frequently ignore some of the negative facts about these synthetic products that appear in many of the academic papers.
It said, for example, that micronutrients added in laboratories appear to reduce the nutritional qualities of the new foods, and that claims that cultured products have a lower sustainability footprint do not stack up.
This has led to a debate that is lacking in objectivity, European Livestock Voice said.
