Fake meat doesn’t have to cost a fortune
A U of T lab is figuring out how to make animal-free meat affordable for everyone
Plant-based patties are popping up everywhere—even big chains like A&W and McDonald’s are getting on board. However, for those who can’t quit the cow, Peter Stogios of U of T’s BioZone has a solution. Thanks to a $250,000 grant from D.C.’s Good Food Institute, Stogios is attempting to make lab-grown meat (yes, real meat) less expensively. Cellular agriculture uses stem cells from livestock, along with a soup of protein molecules and growth factors, to develop into muscle cells that will turn into meat. It’s an earth-friendly, slaughter-free solution, but there’s one big problem: that “soup” costs a bundle. Stogios’s challenge is to lower that cost by finding new, cheaper proteins. He and his team will search for more potent growth factors in other species, so less of them will be required to grow the cells that make the meat—which one day soon you may be able to eat.
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These stories originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Toronto Life magazine. To subscribe, for just $29.95 a year, click here.
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