The likelihood for artificial meat production in Norway: A comparative case study of two actors

Abstract

As the meat industry cannot respond to increases in demand and the emerging climate changes, the industry must find solutions to issues regarding sustainability, health, and animal welfare. Further, they will have to do so in spite of competition from emerging non-traditional meat products in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. In order to meet the issues facing the traditional meat industry, these novel meat products, otherwise known as ‘artificial meat’, are utilizing ground-breaking technologies. However, there is no real capacity for these artificial meats, in vitro or cultured meat, as well as meat from genetically modified organisms, to compete with conventional meat production in the present environment.

Artificial meat is a promising, but early-stage, technology with different technical challenges. Recognizing the importance of the political and regulatory forms an artificial meat industry might take is also crucial. Thus, this thesis investigates the likelihood of artificial meat production in Norway, as well as enhancing our knowledge about how artificial meat can be produced, by looking at the necessary implementations needed and how it can serve as a mitigation pathway for combating climate change. Based on the problem statement and research questions proposed, an abductive and qualitative methodological approach was applied to the case study of two actors.

The findings throughout the research of this thesis showcase many factors that must be in place for a feasible and sustainable rapid large-scale artificial meat technology – the biggest one being able to scale up production. Such large-scale production is significantly more challenging, having a key issue of producing effective culture media. Through the research, findings and discussions of this thesis, it becomes evident that having artificial meat production on a scale that makes an impact on global climate change would likely take many decades. Thus, a rapid large-scale production might seem unlikely as of today