Report

External costs of locally produced cultivated meat compared with three conventional Dutch meat products

In this research project the external costs of RESPECTfarms’ locally produced cultivated meat product and three conventional meat products (chicken meat, pig meat and dairy cow meat, produced in the Netherlands) are assessed. The True Cost Assessment (TCA) method is followed. This method currently includes natural, social and human capital, and excludes economic capital.

CE Delft conducted this study together with Wageningen Economic Research (WEcR). CE Delft has modeled cultivated meat production using data from RESPECTfarms. This yielded the environmental results needed to calculate natural capital.

All products are valued for a 2030 scenario, the RESPECTfarms technology is assumed to be developed to TRL7. Energy used on the farms is partly generated by Photo Voltaic (PV) panels on stable roofs and partly purchased from the grid with the expected average energy mix in the Netherlands in 2030 (which has a higher share of sustainable generated energy than the current average mix).

In the 2030 scenario, the total external costs of the locally produced cultivated meat are assessed to be lower compared to the three conventional meat products.

In 2030 it is estimated that a switch from Dutch conventional chicken meat, pig meat, and dairy meat production to RESPECTfarms’ locally produced cultivated meat production will probably:

  • Decrease the external costs on the natural capital: although the external costs of fossil resource scarcity and scarce water use will increase, the external costs of air pollution, water pollution and land use will decrease. For climate change, the external costs of cultivated meat will increase if cultivate meat replaces chicken meat, but decrease if cultivated meat replaces pig meat and dairy cow meat.
  • Decrease the external costs on the social capital, although not all social issues could be valued. A switch is expected for five reasons:
    1. To avoid social risks in feed production (especially compared to pig meat production).
    2. To avoid a considerable number of social risks hours in the slaughterhouse stage and it avoids risks on a decline in lung function and risks on an increase in the prevalence of asthma in the more intensive primary sectors.
    3. To decrease the external costs of fatal accidents in the primary sector and slaughterhouses, although the contribution to the total assessed external costs is very low.
    4. To decrease animal related social issues, especially if cultivated meat replaces chicken meat. The decrease is a consequence of the very limited amount of (donor) animals needed for cultivated meat production (0,002% compared to cattle animals). Still, animal welfare should be ensured for the limited animals used in the cultivated meat production.
    5. To decrease the external costs on animal health because of the reduced number of livestock animals, although this is still largely unknown.

Within the human health capital no clear trend in external costs can be made when shifting from conventional meat to cultivated meat, because impact studies are still limited. External costs on economic capital are not assessed since currently no assessment method has been developed.

The report can be found here.

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