A chicken nugget was recently served for the first time in a restaurant in Singapore, the meat of which was made in the laboratory. The business ethicist Nick Lin-Hi from the University of Vechta sees this as a change of epochs, to which the agriculture and food industry in this country must also adjust.

You say the Singapore laboratory meat approval is the greatest innovation in human nutrition in two million years – why?

Lin-Hi: So far we have produced our meat by cultivating animals, which also includes the production of feed and thus the cultivation of plants. In the future we will produce meat without animals. You have to consider the effects meat production has had on our environment so far: Around a third of greenhouse emissions come from the food sector, half of which is due to meat production. Not only is the population increasing worldwide – by 2050 it should be almost ten billion people – with increasing prosperity, the demand for meat also increases. Both factors mean that up to there is an increase in meat consumption of 40 to 70 percent is forecast. With conventional meat production, it will not be possible to achieve all of the climate protection goals that we have.

Nick Lin-Hi (40) has 1999 graduated from high school in Hildesheim, studied business administration in Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, did his doctorate 2008 at the Handelshochschule in Leipzig and completed his habilitation 2008 at the University of Mannheim. Since August 2016 he has held the professorship for economics and ethics at the University of Vechta.

But is meat from the laboratory even more sustainable and resource-saving?

Of course we don’t know whether the promises of the new technology can be realized. Optimists see the potential to have up to 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, 90 percent less water consumption and 70 percent less land consumption. This is a promise of a much more sustainable development.

“We love eating meat” Nevertheless, the effort for in-vitro meat is greater than for purely plant-based meat alternatives, such as a meatless burger.

That’s right. We could talk about whether we can get people off meat consumption. I don’t think that’s realistic. We humans love to eat meat, the taste, we love to sizzle a steak in a convivial atmosphere at the grill in the summer.

But last but not least there is the demand for vegetable ones Meat alternatives have risen sharply.

Plant-based meat substitutes are very successful. That is why all large companies have turned to this market segment. From my point of view, this is a bridging technology. The classic meat consumer in particular as a target group will not forego real meat. But with the artificially produced meat, the door opens to the market for these consumers. It is the perfect substitute, it is real meat.

It should be a long time before artificially produced meat arrives in the mass market …

That can go faster than you think now, especially since cultured meat is really on the plate in Singapore now. It is a signal to the financial markets to invest billions in this area. And when money flows in, the development and production of new products also goes very quickly. The Asian market in particular, and not least China, should take up the topic quickly.

How do you see the food industry in this country in terms of the question?

I find it extremely important that companies like the PHW Group, i.e. Wiesenhof, participate in the development of alternative protein sources through start-ups. In general, however, I am concerned that the train will end up leaving without the German agriculture and food industry. Something is changing tremendously in the world right now and we cannot keep up with it fast enough. Especially when I think of agriculture with its problems, such as the collapsed meat export to China, I think that you have to find the courage to do something fundamentally new. With our cooperative structures, we have the chance to build something up. But politics should also do more.

(mho)