New Tools for Science Policy

Factory Meat and Designer Food

Soon at a Store Near You?

Policy makers must grapple with the social implications and governance issues surrounding emerging technologies.  The August 5, 2013 introduction of the first factory hamburger, made from stem cells in a production facility, followed by its ceremonial consumption, is one well-publicized example.

About the Seminar

December 10, 2013 8:30am

Policy makers must grapple with the social implications and governance issues surrounding emerging technologies.  The August 5, 2013 introduction of the first factory hamburger, made from stem cells in a production facility, followed by its ceremonial consumption, is one well-publicized example.  While the cost of the original was over $300,000, estimates are that even using today’s technology one could produce factory meat for considerably less, perhaps under $500 per kilogram.  While it is still unclear what technologies will actually be used, the implications of such a technological shift, ranging from the cultural and social challenges posed by designer food to economic impacts on the beef industry and its suppliers, are potentially profound.  Thus, the time to begin thinking about how such a technology might diffuse, and how its impacts should be managed, is now, even given the high levels of uncertainty involved.   In this sense, factory meat is not just important in itself, but as a case study of the many emerging technologies that raise similar considerations.

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Speaker

Braden Allenby

Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering

Brad Allenby is the Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, and professor of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, and of Law, at Arizona State University. He is the founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and…

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