As nearly 10 billion people will need to be fed by 2050, sustainable innovation in food production has never been more urgent. With climate change threatening crops, agricultural land shrinking, and food insecurity rising, cultivated or “lab-grown” meat offers a provocative solution: real meat grown from animal stem cells in bioreactors, eliminating the need to raise and slaughter livestock. Since Mark Post’s first lab-cultured burger cost around $330,000 in 2013, production expenses have fallen dramatically, bringing this technology closer to commercial reality.

Moreover, the environmental benefits of cultivated meat are striking. The livestock sector generates roughly 14.5 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the FAO, whereas a recent Nature Food study suggests that lab-grown meat could cut emissions by 78 percent, slash land use by 99 percent, and reduce water consumption by 96 percent. By contrast, conventional animal farming consumes vast pastures and irrigation resources, whereas vertically stacked bioreactors or urban “food........

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