The Development of a Responsible Cultured Meat Innovation System in The Netherlands

Abstract

As of today, many people are aware of the negative impacts of eating farmed meat. The current farming system is a burden on the environment and animal welfare, as well as an potential threat to human health. Moreover, to secure food for our growing society, a change in the current food system is inevitable. Since people are still hesitant to cut meat out of their diets, this asks for a more sustainable production of meat. We can think of improving our current farming system. However, new technologies can offer more efficient and sustainable alternatives to the (improved) existing farming system. One of these alternatives is cultured meat (CM). The advantage of CM compared to other (plant-based) meat substitutes, is that it is exactly the same product as farmed meat. Many academic research has already been performed and published on CM over the past few years. These papers mainly describe either the technical aspects, consumer acceptance, ethics, and/or environmental impact. The focus has rarely been on describing the entire socio-technical context of CM, and the formation and subsequent functioning of a future CM industry. This, while deep changes of the socio-technical system are required to succeed in developing CM. Therefore, this research aims at mapping out the Dutch socio-technical system of cultured meat, in order to evaluate the development of the socio-technical system and investigate its potential to grow. Eventually aiming at answering: ‘How has the Dutch socio-technical system of cultured meat been developing and under which circumstances will it grow?’. In finding an answer to this question, a framework combining the functions of innovation system (FIS) approach and the multi-level perspective (MLP), is adopted. To complement for the lack of focus on actor values and strategies of an integrated FIS-MLP framework, analysis of actor strategies and actor values are separately integrated in this model. Information has been retrieved from a combination of desk research and expert interviews. In the first part of the research, the Dutch cultured meat innovation system has been analysed in terms of its structural and functional components. The Dutch CM scene is still in its infancy. The technology is still strongly evolving – mostly at the two Dutch CM start-ups Mosa Meat & Meatable – , the networks are still small, little amount of suppliers are in sphere, and no product is on the market yet. Looking into the functioning of the system, no central guidance is present in the Dutch CM system, while this is important to align the visions of key stakeholders. Moreover, lobby activities are limited, while these can be crucial in increasing the legitimacy of the technology. In the second research part, the external context of the innovation system has been explored. First, the recent developments on landscape and regime levels have been determined, followed by the identification of actor strategies and actor values. Partly following from the lack of central guidance, we can observe diverging actor values and expectations. While all actors value sustainability and environmental benefits, their view on how to achieve this differs. Ranging from improving current farming system to meat alternatives and CM. The CM sector is no longer government funded, but fully dependent on private investors. This caused the research to shift from universities to the two start-ups, who keep their research highly confidential. This also causes the CM research and values within this research of actors to diverge. By collecting and coupling the outcomes of the first two research parts, the elements blocking or facilitating the development of the Dutch cultured meat innovation system have been identified. Based on these analysed system problems, recommendations for strategic actions for specific actor groups with influencing power, have been established. Altogether, the development of the Dutch CM scene and subsequent industry, requires more time and more money to do research. Implementing the suggested recommendations could help in facilitating this.