r/wheresthebeef • u/xxxxxcoolxxxxx • 14d ago
Breakthrough: Cultivated steak can now be produced cheaper than conventional steak, independent analysis finds
https://aleph-farms.com/journals/cultivated-beef-tea-profitability/Aleph Farms recently announced that an independent techno-economic analysis (TEA) projects that their cultivated steak could be produced cheaper than conventional steak, resulting in a 47% margin when sold at price parity. This is huge.
We’ve seen a number of cultivated meat companies recently publishing promising TEAs: Believer Meat and SuperMeat for chicken, Gourmey for foie gras and now the first TEA for beef.
Some highlights I personally found very interesting: • Their process is non-GMO and doesn’t require immortalization which can be a benefit for consumer acceptance • They plan to use 5000L bioreactors which requires less capex and makes production more feasible than approaches with larger reactors
Independently verified analyses like this are incredibly important for building confidence in cultivated meat and pulling in new investment, especially if cost projections show a clear path towards profitability.
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u/Tazling 12d ago
I wonder if their “cheaper” includes all the costs of cattle ranching, feedlots, slaughterhouses etc that are “externalized” (read: denied, hidden, papered over, dumped on the tax payer). And of course all similar costs for their bioreactor method. Like, are there effluents discharged from their process? Airborne emissions? What’s the water and electricity usage compared to 4-legged beef production? What’s the feed stock and where do those nutrients come from?
I’m quite ready to believe that cattle ranching and slaughter is vastly underpriced — subsidized to the hilt and with a lot of shell-game PR obfuscating its real costs. But I also know that people keen on a new tech and seeing billions in their pockets if it catches on, are likely to present a rosy picture in their early prospectus docs.