Narrator: This machine
is 3D printing steak. The goal is to create a piece
of meat without killing a cow. And this Israeli startup is
one of the dozens of companies racing to perfect the process. It turns out that
cows aren't necessarily

the most efficient way of making beef. Narrator: It's no secret
that beef is one of the most damaging foods for the planet. The search for a solution
has become a big business. But can lab-grown steak or
plant-based alternatives

really fix the broken beef industry? The global beef industry produced nearly 75 million tons of meat in 2020. That's about 19 pounds for
each person on the planet. Each step of the supply
chain is doing damage.

Let's start on the farm. Raising cattle requires lots of land. On average, tropical rainforests
the size of El Salvador are cleared every year
to make room for cattle. These cows release tons of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gasses.

Then there are the emissions
from slaughtering, processing, packaging and transporting beef. Globally, beef was responsible
for three billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. About twice as much as all
vehicles in the U.S. at the time.

But plant-based alternatives to meat have grown into a $5.6 billion industry. Beyond Meat has made its way into an estimated 135,000
grocery stores and restaurants. Its signature burger is made
by using heating, cooling, and pressure to give plant-based proteins

a meat-like texture. A study funded by the company
found that pound for pound, its product generates about 90% less greenhouse gas emissions
than traditional beef. Still, for many scientists, the holy grail is to not just imitate
meat but actually make it.

Back in 2013, Professor
and scientist Mark Post unveiled the first lab-grown burger at a live tasting in London. This one patty cost over $325,000 to make. - It's close to meat, it's not that juicy

but the consistency is perfect. Celia: I think that was kind of one of those like pivotal
moments where you're like: "Oh, this could be a thing." Narrator: But it wasn't
until 2020 that funding

for lab-grown food really
started to pour in. With some startups drawing
high profile investments from the likes of Bill Gates and even traditional meat companies. - It's like everyone wants
to hop on that bandwagon. Narrator: Now researchers
in Israel are taking on

one of the biggest challenges,
growing steaks in a lab. Simon: When it comes to steak,
you're bringing together the full range, essentially, of tissue engineering technologies and cell growth technologies. Narrator: Simon Fried and
his team are using stem cells

to create a steak they
say is more ethical, although it's not vegetarian. Here's how it works. Look at this perfectly marbled steak, the white stuff is fat,
that gives it flavor. The pink stuff is muscle,
that's for protein.

Scientists had to figure out how to recreate both. First, they take stem cells from a cow and then grow them in a lab. Simon: That means that we're replacing the body of the animal with what's called a bioreactor.

Narrator: Getting the cells to grow under these conditions is no easy task. Usually cells are attached to something. They grow in a petri dish or flasks and they want to attach to something. Narrator: Here the cells grow suspended in a liquid

where they divide roughly once a day. Then scientists move the mass of cells to the tissue engineering lab where they make something called bioinks. Simon: So this is the beginning of the bioprinting stage. The inks that we're using actually contain the cells

that we've been growing in the labs previously. Narrator: There's one for muscle and one for fat. They're fed through these nozzles and technicians can customize how much of each goes into the steak. Simon: You can print any structure that you're able to design.

So you upload a file to the printer and you can print a steak of pretty much any size and also any proportions. Narrator: One key challenge in this process is keeping the printing room sterile. Simon: These are living cells and they're being jetted

through the printer. So everything that can be done to keep the air clean of any impurities is necessary. Narrator: Otherwise there's a chance the cells could die. The steaks aren't quite finished when they leave the printing room.

The cells still need time
to develop into muscle and fat tissue. - From a few days up to a few weeks, we can start seeing the muscle
fibers starting to contract spontaneously in the dish. Narrator: Which looks like this.

The process takes about a month. Simon: And after that, you can treat it as you would a regular piece of meat. Narrator: But MeaTech
is still a long way away from selling its steak to
consumers for a few reasons.

Remember how the cells were
growing in that liquid? Well, it contains something called fetal bovine serum or FBS. - In layman's terms, it's baby cow blood. Narrator: It's one of
the most controversial parts

of growing meat in a lab
because it comes from fetuses of pregnant cows that were slaughtered, but it's necessary for the cells to grow. Simon told us they are using FBS as part of the research process, but they plan to eventually
replace it with something else.

- Our plans are that it
shouldn't be part of any at-scale commercial activity. Narrator: But an alternative
that's just as effective has yet to be found. Simon wouldn't give us an
estimate on when the steak will be ready for the public to try

or how much it costs
to make the prototypes. In the meantime, he says
the company is focused on a more attainable goal
like this hybrid product made of soy and beef fat
grown in MeaTech's lab. - The texture of our cultured
kebab, it's nearly the same

like a real kebab. Narrator: MeaTech is building a new facility in Belgium to start making foods like these on a larger scale. But it's unclear how sustainable a scaled-up lab-grown beef industry would really be.

Celia: We don't know what the carbon footprint looks like to actually scale these up in the amount of space and energy it will take. Narrator: And this is all a gamble on something most consumers haven't even tried yet.

So far, meat made in a lab can only be sold in Singapore where one company debuted its chicken nuggets back in 2020. Despite the uncertainty, companies working on lab-grown meat have raised nearly $2 billion.

They're betting that the rest of the world will follow Singapore's lead and start granting lab-grown foods approval for sale. But even if lab-grown meat manages to win over regulators and the public, could it actually replace beef?

- I'm honestly not fully convinced that this is the right way to mass produce meat for the public to be eating based off of how long this has been developing and how little we've seen. Narrator: So while we wait on lab-grown beef,

consumers looking to reduce their carbon footprint can still turn to plant-based options. For two and a half years, we've taken you behind the scenes of giant industries from cruise ship graveyards in Turkey to aloe factories in the Dominican Republic.

to Himalayan salt mines in Pakistan. And we're excited to unpack more stories around the world for big business. If you've got an idea
for the next episode, let us know in the comments below. And make sure to like and subscribe

Can Lab-Grown Steak be the Future of Meat? | Big Business | Business Insider

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Can Lab-Grown Steak be the Future of Meat? | Big Business | Business Insider

Can Lab-Grown Steak be the Future of Meat? | Big Business | Business Insider

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