BRIAN TRIAS l August 24, 2023 l Manila Bulletin
Just recently, Atty. Eusebio “Ebot” V. Tan, a Trustee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) Foundation, shared with fellow FINEX members a video about a company that has the technology to produce lab-grown meat. The company featured in the video uses technology that combines cultured cells with biomaterials to create a bioink which is then fed into a 3D bioprinter to produce cell-based meat. It sounds like science fiction but cultivating meat in a lab is actually happening. Can this be the answer to ensuring food security?
Food security means having access to sufficient food that is affordable and can meet the nutritional needs of a community. Without it, a community cannot be productive and healthy. Food security, or food insecurity rather, is an issue that our country is facing.
To elaborate, we rely heavily on imported food and relying on other countries for food leaves us vulnerable. We are susceptible to supply issues and price increases due to demand, the depreciation of the peso and any increase in transportation and fuel costs among other things. The Philippines is a net importer, and imported food is just another factor that widens the trade deficit and negatively impacts our GDP.
Food insecurity is not just an issue here locally, but it is also an issue in many countries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, global supply chains were heavily disrupted. This resulted in food insecurities on both local and international levels. And just when things were starting to get better, the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, causing another food crisis in many regions.
Improving our agriculture sector can address this issue. The Philippine government is aware of this and does have plans to improve food security. The Philippine Development Plan 2023–2028 includes a framework that covers it. President Marcos even recently mentioned the roadmap of a program called the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program during a rice industry convergence meeting held in Quezon City last month which aims to achieve at least a 97.5% rice sufficiency in five years. These plans are well and good, but implementation of the strategies is what’s key to success.
Perhaps cellular agriculture should be considered and included in the modernization of our agriculture and agri-business plans. It is a production method used to create cell-based meat. This type of meat is also known as cultured meat, cultivated meat, clean meat, in vitro meat, and so forth, but they all refer to meat that is produced using cellular agriculture. The end product derived from cellular agriculture is still meat. The only difference is the production method. Instead of slaughtering animals, cultured meat involves growing cells from an animal in a cultivator also known as a bioreactor.
An advantage of cultured meat is said to be improved safety because of its production in a controlled environment. In addition, less land and water are used. Animal feeds and antibiotics are not needed either. By relying more on cultured meat, reduction in the slaughtering of livestock also decreases the spread of diseases such as swine flu and food-born illnesses such as E. coli. There are other benefits to cultured meat, but it also has its challenges such as mass-scale production and whether it will be more environmentally sustainable than traditional meat production. Another challenge is market acceptance. Some may say it is a more humane alternative, but others may be skeptical.
Cultured chicken is currently being sold in Singapore. The US Department of Agriculture just recently approved two companies to produce and sell cultured chicken. Perhaps producing cultured meat in the Philippines could happen, too. Ensuring food security by producing cultured meat locally could be a far stretch, but at the very least, it could help reduce our dependence on imported meat.
*** Brian Trias, Vice President of CCT Chemicals, Inc., member of FINEX, and currently attending the Strategic Business Economics Program at the University of Asia and the Pacific.