Is cultured meat a threat or opportunity for UK farmers?

这项研究将严格评估养殖肉类对英国农业的潜在影响，这项技术可能对食品和农业的未来产生深远而不确定的影响。也被称为“清洁”，“细胞为基础”和“培养”的肉，培养肉是供人们食用的工程动物组织。它是一种替代蛋白质。替代蛋白质对英国和全球粮食系统具有战略重要性，因为它们可以比畜牧产品使用更少的土地和水，减少温室气体排放，减少抗生素使用和新的人畜共患病风险，并有助于促进动物福利。早期的数据表明，养殖肉类可以产生这样的好处，但可能难以与其他肉类替代品在能源效率和成本上竞争。它们之所以重要，是因为它们可以比其他替代品更直接地替代牲畜肉类，并且处于发展的早期阶段，因此更容易受到政策制定者和投资者的影响。它还带来了营养、食品欺诈和食品安全方面的风险。技术、监管、市场和文化的不确定性意味着该行业可能不会在英国商业化发展，或者可能发展但无法提供公共利益。本项目重点关注培养肉类如何影响英国的农业。这与其对环境、经济和动物福利的影响有关，也与公众和政治态度有关，这些态度将决定如何对其进行监管。养殖肉类通常被认为是对农民的威胁，生产食品的方式可能会使一些人破产。然而，没有人真正深入研究过这个问题，或者与英国的农民探讨过这些问题。在实践中，培养肉的不同发展方式可能会给农民带来不同的风险和机会。该技术可能会产生对新农产品的需求，如细胞（用于细胞收获的供体畜群）、生长培养基的原料（耕地、饲料、甜菜）、可食用支架的原料（纤维素、豌豆、豆类、大豆）和当前的废物流（葡萄糖、纤维素）。在某些情况下，养殖肉类甚至可以在农场生产，在农民拥有和经营的设施中生产，或者可以补充“更少更好”的肉类运动。或者，它可能根本不会减少牲畜肉类的消费，或者它可能会直接与高福利的肉类生产竞争。这项研究旨在影响这种潜在的变革性技术如何影响英国的食品系统。我们将与农民和其他可能受该技术影响的人合作，调查他们是否能看到开发养殖肉类的负责任的方法。我们将研究农民目前对养殖肉类的看法，并探索该技术的不同发展方式。我们将与各种不同情况下的农民合作，模拟他们的企业如何参与或受到养殖肉类生产的影响，并评估环境，社会和经济后果。我们旨在回答以下问题：1.英国农民目前如何看待养殖肉类？2.在不同的情况下，养殖肉类的发展对英国农场企业构成了什么样的威胁和机遇？3.在什么条件下，如果有的话，在农场生产养殖肉是实际的，经济上可行的，在英国是可取的？在回答这些问题时，我们不仅要考虑养殖肉类对农业企业和生计的直接影响，还要考虑更广泛的生态，营养，文化和道德影响，以及养殖肉类如何与英国土地使用和饮食方式相补充或冲突。

This research will critically assess the potential impact on UK agriculture of cultured meat, a technology with possibly profound and uncertain implications for the future of food and farming. Also known as 'clean', 'cell-based' and 'cultivated' meat, cultured meat is engineered animal tissue intended for people to eat. It is a type of alternative protein. Alternative proteins are strategically important to UK and global food systems because they can use less land and water than livestock products, lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, cut antibiotic use and the risk of new zoonotic diseases, and help promote animal welfare. Early data suggest that cultured meats could yield such benefits, but may struggle to compete with other meat alternatives on energy efficiency and cost. They are important because they could substitute more directly for livestock meat than other alternatives, and are at an earlier stage of development, so more open to influence by policy-makers and investors.While cultured meat is potentially transformative, its benefits therefore remain speculative. It also brings risks in nutrition, food fraud and food safety. Technical, regulatory, market and cultural uncertainties mean that the sector may not develop in the UK commercially, or may develop but fail to deliver public benefits.This project focuses on how cultured meat could affect farming in the UK. This is relevant to its environmental, economic and animal welfare impact, and to public and political attitudes that will shape how it gets regulated. Cultured meat is commonly assumed to be a threat to farmers, producing food in ways that could put some out of business. However, nobody has actually looked into this in-depth, or explored these issues with farmers in the UK.In practice, the different ways that cultured meat might develop could bring diverse risks and opportunities for farmers. The technology may create demands for new agricultural products, such as cells (donor herds for cell harvesting), feedstock for growth media (arable, forage, sugar beet), feedstock for edible scaffolds (cellulose, pea, bean, soya) and current waste streams (glucose, cellulose). In some scenarios, cultured meat might even be produced on farms, in facilities owned and operated by farmers, or could complement campaigns for 'less and better' meat. Alternatively, it may not reduce livestock meat consumption at all, or it may compete directly with high-welfare meat production.This research is designed to influence how this potentially transformative technology affects the UK food system. We will work with farmers and other people who may be affected by the technology to investigate whether they can see responsible ways of developing cultured meat. We will examine what farmers currently think of cultured meat, and explore different ways the technology could develop. We will work with farmers in a wide range of different situations to model how their businesses could get involved in or be affected by cultured meat production, and assess the environmental, social and economic consequences. We aim to answer the following questions:1. How do UK farmers currently perceive cultured meat?2. What threats and opportunities does the development of cultured meat pose to UK farm businesses in different scenarios?3. Under what conditions, if any, would on-farm production of cultured meat be practical, economically viable and desirable in the UK?In answering these questions, we will consider not only the direct effects of cultured meat on farm businesses and livelihoods, but also wider ecological, nutritional, cultural and ethical implications, and how cultured meat might complement or conflict with the ways land use and diets in the UK could change to become sustainable.