Social scientist Chris Bryant talks cellular agriculture
Chris Bryant is a social scientist and an expert on alternative proteins and the protein transition. He is the Director of Bryant Research, a research consultancy and think tank which works with alternative protein companies and animal protection non-profits to advance the protein transition using social science research and policy analysis.
He is also Head of Policy for the Alternative Proteins Association, which represents the interests of alternative protein companies in the United Kingdom. I recently had the opportunity to interview Bryant about cellular agriculture for Slaughter-Free America. If you’d like to be interviewed or want to write something for the site, send an email to JonHoch9@gmail.com.
SLAUGHTER-FREE AMERICA: When and how did you first learn about cultivated meat?
CHRIS BRYANT: I first learned about cultivated meat in 2013, when Professor Mark Post’s cultivated hamburger was eaten at a public taste testing in London. Later, Professor Post visited the University of Exeter, where I was a student, and I had the opportunity to meet him. I developed my interest in cultivated meat over the next couple of years, and in 2016, I started my PhD in consumer acceptance of cultivated meat.
SFA: How did you come to support cultivated meat?
CB: Around the time I met Professor Post, I had just become a very reluctant vegetarian. I recognised that there are good reasons not to eat meat, but I also recognised that eating meat is very enjoyable. I realised that many omnivores must feel the same way, and cultivated meat seemed to be a great way for people to have their steak and eat it. To the extent that cultivated meat can be produced without harming animals, I am staunchly in support of it.
SFA: Once cultivated meat is cheaper than and indistinguishable or superior in taste to slaughtered meat, what sort of impact might it have on animal agriculture?
CB: Price and taste are consistently the strongest predictors of food choice. These factors are more important than healthiness, morality, environmental impact, and cultural alignment. Therefore, getting animal product alternatives which are tastier and cheaper than animal products is absolutely essential to achieving the reduction in animal product consumption that we need to see.
However, it may not be sufficient – even when cultivated meat is cheaper and tastier than conventional meat, habits and defaults may keep many people committed to meat from animals. Therefore, we also need to continue to highlight the ethical and environmental imperative to move away from animal products.
SFA: What would you say to progressives who are skeptical about cultivated meat?
CB: There are certainly progressives who are skeptical of cultivated meat. Some people view cultivated meat as unnecessary, insisting that people should eat whole plant foods only for optimal health. The issue with this view is that we have had whole plant foods available for a long time, and most people still choose to eat meat.
The choice is not between cultivated meat and whole plant foods. The choice is between cultivated meat and conventional meat. People with this view need to acknowledge that tasty and affordable meat alternatives are essential to getting people off meat from animals. Whole plant foods simply cannot do this on the scale required.
Another progressive objection to cultivated meat is that it continues to subjugate animals and perpetuates the view that their flesh is appropriate for human consumption. Again, halting the development of cultivated meat will not stop this – it will just mean that many millions of animals will need to be killed to produce the meat.
The choice here is between a world where people eat cultivated meat (and some of those people have disrespectful attitudes towards animals) vs. a world where people instead eat conventional meat, and millions more animals are killed. Suppressing cultivated meat on this basis will cause the death of millions of animals, which puts into perspective any feelings of disrespect which may arise.
SFA: Would you eat cultivated meat, or is it just something you want available for others?
CB: I will certainly be the first in the queue to eat cultivated meat when it becomes available here in the UK! The US, Singapore, and Israel are all ahead of the UK with respect to regulation here, but it is my hope that we can catch up!
SFA: Do you think activists should expend energy and resources to help advance cellular agriculture, by pushing for more government funding for cultivated-meat research?
CB: Developing cellular agriculture by pushing government funding for cultivated meat research is likely to be an extremely high expected-value advocacy method. That said, there is a role for animal activists to keep pushing the reasons why people should move away from animal products – especially the animal ethics-related reasons!