59% say they won't eat lab-grown meat: YF Twitter Poll
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio recently invested in two cell-cultured meat startups. And a recent Yahoo Finance poll on Twitter reveals 59% don't want to eat lab-grown meat and plan on sticking with farm-raised meat only.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back. In today's Hot Takes, it's deja vu all over again, as Akiko and I discussed Leonardo DiCaprio investing in lab grown meat startups. We wanted to ask you guys out there, the viewers, whether or not you would be down to experiment with some of these lab-- I should say cell cultured meats, the title we went with here. And it was about 60% of you that said no, you'll stick with your farm raised meat only.
About 33% said, yes, it's better than farms. 7.7% saying, no any meat is bad here. And Akiko, it sounds like most people were in the camp of our producer, Val and myself. Farm raised meat only is the best way to go.
AKIKO FUJITA: Cell cultured meat just doesn't sound appetizing. I mean, nobody's going to go on a restaurant menu and say, I'm going to have the cell cultured meat instead of regular meat. But there are a few questions that I have here. For those who said yes, only farm raised meat, my question to you is, do you know which farm your meat came from, what kind of chemicals were used in the process to grow these animals. And I would argue most Americans don't know.
And so I'm not necessarily advocating for lab grown meat. But I'm curious that maybe it's just the term, the resistance to it. Because it just doesn't sound appetizing. But I don't know, I don't know about you, Zack, I've done a deep dive before on how some of the meat production happens in the US. It's not a pretty picture.
ZACK GUZMAN: No, it's not. And I think most people who eat meat would agree with you until you know, they have to pay more for the ones that aren't in that camp. And that's kind of what the pricing always matters here, why it matters. Because we've seen that with even Beyond Meat. And to your point on kind of branding, it took them a while to figure out plant based meat might be better than just the veggie burger term, or whatever else they use to really try and get people to experiment with it.
But I guess it all comes down to taste. That's what we saw with the Burger King push when they had those burgers, because it was, you wouldn't know the difference, so why not order it? And I think with cell cultured meat, they have a better case there, because it's actually meat.
AKIKO FUJITA: In the context and all, this background is, of course, a lot of people who are worried about climate change are saying, the carbon footprint for meat production is just simply too big. And that's why we've seen the growth of plant based meat now, lab grown meat as well. A lot of investors getting into that space as well.
We're looking at potentially a $85 billion by 2030, according to some analysts, in terms of this particular market. And here's a stat I throw out to you, Zack. You know, meat production accounts for nearly 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, stemming from food consumption. So that's much more than dairy. That's much more than vegetables. And it is an issue of choice.
I think at some point, there's got to be some kind of give here on what you consume. If you're just about farm raised meat, then sure, that's great. Prices will likely go up a little higher, and production is going to be limited, because of where we see this industry moving.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and I think that those are the nuanced points that everyone's got to get out there, and figure out here in regards to solving that issue. Or some sort of technological advancement like this would have to come along to really reduce that on the climate front. But Akiko and myself leaving the answer to you all, about 60% saying you don't want to try just yet.
