A week later, an OmniPork new pork plant protein artificial meat was officially launched on the Tmall platform, with 230 grams per serving priced at 28 yuan. As a result, artificial meat is stepping on the table of Chinese people. While feeling novel, many people are also worried about this kind of unnatural “fake meat”.

What exactly is artificial meat? According to Wikipedia, artificial meat is usually divided into two categories: vegetable meat and cultivated meat. Plant meat refers to food products made from plant raw materials and mimicking the taste, taste or appearance of animal meat products. The above-mentioned OmniPork new pork is such artificial meat.

Cultivated meat refers to meat made by cultivating animal muscle cells through biological engineering. What Professor Zhou Guanghong’s team cultivates is cell culture meat.

“Qianjiang Evening News” published a report “Artificial Meat, Is It Really Unacceptable?” More environmentally friendly.

(Qianjiang Evening News)

Is the supply and demand of natural meat unable to meet people’s needs? Does natural meat cause environmental pollution and resource consumption? Is artificial meat more nutritious than natural meat? Artificial meat does not contain antibiotics and can artificially control nutrients?

Verified reporters verified the above issues and concluded:

1. China’s domestic natural pork market is tight in supply and demand;

2. Natural meat production and consumption have polluted the environment and consumed a lot of resources;

3. Currently, artificial meat on the market has lower calories, fat and cholesterol than real pork, but its protein content is not as good as real pork;

4. Plant protein artificial meat does not contain traditional animal antibiotics, but only cell cultured meat in the laboratory can artificially control nutritional components.

Checkpoint 1: Does China’s natural pork fail to meet market demand?

A: At this stage, the domestic pork market is tight in supply and demand, and imports have increased significantly.

(Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, taken from Bill Gates’ blog)

Bill Gates is a supporter of artificial meat. He has invested in several artificial meat producers, including Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat. The Qianjiang Evening News quoted a quote from Bill Gates’s blog saying:It is good news that more people can afford to eat meat, but the bad news is that by 2050, we will double the demand for meat than in 2005. However, we don’t have that much land for grazing anymore. “

Is the emergence of artificial meat because the market supply of natural meat is inferior to market demand? In response to the demand for natural meat in the Chinese market, the reporter took pork as an example and conducted a verification.

A reporter from the National Bureau of Statistics found the China Statistical Yearbook from 1999 to 2019 on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s pork production has increased from almost 31.58 million tons in 1996 to 54.03 million tons in 2018, which has nearly tripled in 22 years. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Database (https: / /stats.oecd.org /) data show that China ’s pork consumption increased from 31.356 million tons in 1996 to 55.218 million tons in 2018.

(Data source: National Bureau of Statistics)

(OECD: China Pork ConsumerCost)

As for the number of imports and exports, according to the data of the “China Agricultural Industry Development Report 2019”, from 2010, China’s pork imports began to rise significantly.

(Data source: China Agricultural Industry Development Report 2019)

We calculated from the formula of [pork production-pork consumption] and [(pork production + pork imports)-(pork consumption + pork exports)] and got the following results:

(The author calculated it based on the data of China Agricultural Industry Development Report 2019, OECD, National Bureau of Statistics)

It can be seen that although China ’s pork market has maintained supply-demand balance with the replacement of imports, since 2010, the annual production volume has been less than the annual consumption volume, and the gap has been expanding. Correspondingly, pork imports increased by 1777% from 2000 to 2018, and the domestic pork market demand and supply tended to be tight.

In 2019, due to changes in African swine fever and a series of prevention and control policies, as well as changes in the slaughter process, the domestic pig production volume has significantly decreased, and the production capacity of pigs and fertile sows has continued to decline. The time period is concentrated, leading to a surge in domestic pork prices.

Combining the above materials, ChinaThe demand for pork products continues to increase, and the problem of tight supply and demand in the domestic natural pork market will become increasingly prominent.

Checkpoint 2: Does the production and consumption of natural meat cause environmental pollution and large consumption of resources?

Answer: The production and consumption of natural meat will cause pollution to the atmosphere and require a lot of land and water resources.

The Qianjiang Evening News reported in the original text that “the faeces of livestock will pollute the land and water sources, and their farts contain a large amount of methane, and the greenhouse effect of methane is 25 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. Considerable pressure. There is no excrement in artificial meat, and the land occupied by three-dimensional production is very small. “

Aiming at the greenhouse gas emissions of pig farming, the reporter consulted the October 2015 article of “China’s Pig Industry”, “The Development of China’s Pork Industry and Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. Nitrous oxide emissions from manure (methane and nitrous oxide are listed as greenhouse gases by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), it was concluded that in 2012, only 112 million tons of greenhouse gases were emitted during pig farming (excluding other processes).

Not only that, Xu Wenchuan, a master degree thesis published in May 2018 of Nanjing University, “Analysis of Changes in Dietary Consumption of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Chinese Residents,” states that the greenhouse gas emissions of pork in China’s dietary consumption (including the entire process including farming) From 252 million tons in 2002 to 325 million tons in 2012 (Figure 1), the proportion has also continued to rise, rising from 27% to 28% (Figure 2), ranking the highest among all diet types the first. Compared with the 7.954 billion tons of total national greenhouse gas emissions indicated by the China Carbon Emissions Trading Network in 2012, this number accounts for about 4.1% of China’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

(Figure 1 Source: “Analysis of Changes in GHG Emissions of Chinese Residents’ Consumption”)

(Figure 2 Source: “Analysis of the Changes in Dietary Consumption of Greenhouse Gases of Chinese Residents”)

With regard to the consumption of land and water resources for pork production, the reporter reviewed the data of the 8th LCA International Conference on Agri-Food in October 2012 in Rennes, France. According to the statistics of the responsible agency of this conference, each ton of edible pork output requires 4.9m ^{3 of water resources (see the figure below) , beef, mutton and other meat are consumed more.}

(Photo source: “Report of the 8th International Conference on LCA in Agricultural Foods”)

According to the data of the first inspection point, China ’s domestic consumption of pork in 2018 was about 55.22 million tons. According to the data of the above meeting, about 270.5 billion cubic meters of water resources were needed. According to the “2018 China Water Resources Bulletin” announced by the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China, the total domestic water consumption in the country in 2018 was only 85.99 billion cubic meters, and the water consumption for pork production that year could at least supply the daily lives of the people throughout the country Used for more than 3 years, even more if other meats are added.

Meanwhile, meat production based on animal husbandry consumes a lot of land resources. According to Clark & ​​Tilman in the journal En”Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice” on vironmental Research Letters (“Environmental Research Letters”) (A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Production Systems, Agricultural Input Efficiency and Grain Selection) 0.13 square meters of land, and 1.02 square meters of land per gram of beef and mutton protein.

(Data source: Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice)

However, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the area of ​​usable grassland in our country is decreasing year by year. From 2003 to 2018, China’s available pasture land decreased from 3.33 million square kilometers to 2.194 million square kilometers. The reduction of pasture area has limited the development space of animal husbandry, which also confirms the worry of “no more land to graze” in Bill Gates’ blog.

(China’s pasture grass area change Data source: Statistical Yearbook of the National Bureau of Statistics)

Based on the above information, the production and consumption of natural meat has indeed caused problems of environmental pollution and large consumption of resources.

Checkpoint 3: Artificial meat is low in calories, low in fat, zero in cholesterol, and has higher nutritional value.

A: Compared with real pork, OminPork artificial meat currently on the market in China has lower calories and fat content and zero cholesterol, but it also has slightly lower protein content.

The Qianjiang Evening News reported that “artificial meat may be healthier than natural meat. The production process of artificial meat does not require antibiotics, and it can also artificially control the nutrients in meat. According to data, this (refers to the artificial meat listed on the e-commerce platform in 2019.11.25 in the report) The artificial meat that has just been put on the market uses plant-based protein as the raw material, compared with real pork , Fat is 70% lower, calories are 65% lower, cholesterol is 0, and iron and calcium content is 2 to 3 times higher than pork under the same protein content as pork. “

The reporter found that the artificial pork currently on the market in China is only OminPork new pork, and the inspection was performed on this behalf. This artificial meat is a future meat product developed by Right Treat, a food research company owned by Green Monday in Hong Kong, and is sold through the Green Common Tmall International platform. This is a plant protein meat, the main ingredients are water and plant protein concentrates such as soybeans, shiitake mushrooms and rice.

(Chinese version ingredients list provided by Tmall International)

It can be seen from the ingredient list displayed in the official Green Common flagship store that this artificial meat has energy of 74 kcal per 100 g, fat content of 1.5 g, and cholesterol content of 0. According to the comparison chart of the composition of the artificial meat with 84% refined meat and 16% fat real pork, the artificial meat has 66% lower calories and 68% lower saturated fat than real pork. .

(Ingredients list in official Green Common flagship store)

The above product data is inconsistent with the data mentioned in the Qianjiang Evening News report: in terms of fat, energy, and cholesterol data, the two are basically the same; but it is worth noting that the protein content of this artificial meat It is 12.5g, which is slightly lower than 17.9g of real pork, which contradicts the “same protein content” mentioned in the report. At the same time, this artificial meat has 2.6 times the calcium and 1.27 times the iron content of ordinary pork, instead of the vague “2-3 times” in the report.

Furthermore, the report does not mention the fat-to-lean ratio of real pork as a reference (lean meat: fat ≈84: 16) , but different The fat-to-lean ratio will result in different nutritional content of pork, which may affect readers’ understanding of the nutritional value of artificial meat.

Checkpoint 4: Does artificial meat require antibiotics and can artificially control the nutrients in the meat?

A: Plant protein meat does not require antibiotics, but only cell culture meat can artificially control nutrients.

2017 published in “Journal of Animal Nutrition””The characteristics of plant extracts and their application in sow production” stated that the abuse of antibiotics in large-scale pig farms is very serious, which will not only cause antibiotic residues in meat products, but also cause the generation of resistant bacteria, which seriously threatens human Health. It can be seen that farmers add antibiotics to the feed, and antibiotics remain in the pigs, so there is a saying that “natural meat contains antibiotics”.

In contrast, the ingredient list of the above-mentioned OminPork new pork shows “No added antibiotics”.

(Ingredients list in official Green Common flagship store)

As for the “can control the nutritional content artificially” proposed in “Qianjiang Evening News”, a reporter from the verification report found that this is mainly for the cultivation of meat.

According to the definition of Wikipedia, the principle of cultivating meat is to first extract stem cells from animals, then put them in test tubes or petri dishes to allow them to divide and grow, and finally generate muscle tissue. In this process, nutrients can be controlled.

As early as 2005, Jason Massini’s group at the University of Maryland PhD in Agricultural Economics and Public Health proposed two technologies with potential for large-scale meat production in the scientific journal Tissue Engineering. Regarding these two methods, Massini said: “You can even control nutrition. For example, most meats have higher Omega 6 fatty acids, and artificial meats can be replaced with Omega 3, which is a healthy fat.”

(Artificial meat cultivated by Professor Zhou Guanghong and his team) Source: “National Meat Center” public number)

But as mentioned above, the argument that artificial meat can artificially control nutrients is limited to the cultivation of meat in vitro, and this technology is less likely to be widely marketed. According to a report by Global Network on November 25, 2019, “When will Chinese artificial meat be on the table of the people?” “Experts: Super-Large Lobster”, experts from the College of Animal Science and Technology of China Agricultural University and Beijing Agricultural College believe: “ (Domestic) As far as current technology is concerned, a large amount of animal serum needs to be added to the cell culture system, and the serum comes from blood. Therefore, animals must be slaughtered in order to obtain serum. In addition, human and material resources that need to invest a lot of scientific research in the early stage of research and development, Meat costs far more than ordinary meat. “

(Global Network reports “When will Chinese artificial meat be on the table of ordinary people? Expert: Super-large lobster”)

In summary, the report is suspected of confusing the two types of artificial meat. For vegetable protein artificial meat, because animal protein is used, animal antibiotics are not used. However, the so-called “artificially controlled nutritional ingredients” are only for the cultivation of meat in the laboratory, and this technology is currently less likely to be marketed.

Summary

At present, the supply and demand of China’s meat market is relatively tight. Traditional animal husbandry has caused a lot of air pollution, land and water resources occupation. Under such circumstances, artificial meat has gradually entered people’s vision. As far as artificial meat is concerned, the only vegetable protein meat sold in the domestic market, OmniPork, is made of pure plants, which is even lower in calories, lower in fat,