The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition found that low- and middle-income countries make up 75% of the deaths from food-borne illnesses, while constituting roughly 40% of the population.
“[Even] devout meat-eaters…can’t ignore…the trucks carrying chickens packed together in wire cages. From a humanitarian perspective, it’s sad. From a food safety angle, it’s disgusting,” [Good Food Institute’s Varun] Deshpande said, adding that the supply chain in cultivated meat can be far more traceable than conventional meat.
“Cultured meat is not a sure-fire solution,” said [Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology’s Nalam Madhusudhana] Rao, “but it is one of the solutions that can be effective to solve these problems.”
These reasons will grow as incomes rise in India and the demand for protein increases.
“Meat is an aspirational food in India – it’s a symbol of affluence,” Deshpande said. “Cultivated meat offers a path to fulfil [the increasing] demand. We need to take it out of the Michelin-star restaurants of Los Angeles and Singapore and bring it to places like India.”
