India To Have Government-Backed Lab-Grown Meat By Next Year?

If all goes well, India may have lab-grown meat by next year. The Good Food Institute, in partnership with Maharashtra’s Institute Of Chemical Technology, will establish a facility for lab-grown meat in Mumbai by 2020.

The Good Food Institute is an international non-profit that promotes plant and cell-based meat through research. According to reports, the institute, along with the Maharashtra state government-backed ICT, plans to establish a Centre of Excellence in Cellular Agriculture. The first campus will be in Mumbai, with a second one slated to open in the ICT’s Jalna campus by 2021.

Cellular agriculture is a process where a small number of cells is painlessly extracted from an animal and used to grow meat in a manufacturing lab. The end product goes by different names - motherless meat, clean meat, slaughter-free meat and cultured meat, to name a few - but the process involved is the same. Activists and vegan advocates see it as a cruelty-free and more sustainable way of consuming meat, since it doesn’t involve animal farming and slaughter.

“This will be the world’s first dedicated centre on cellular agriculture. This centre will pioneer innovation, allowing Indian businesses a chance to create products using our research.”

Dr. Rekha Singhal Dean – Research, Consultancy & Resource Mobilisation, ICT

Both organizations will look at securing grants and funding from the government, charitable organizations and philanthropists to grow the facility. Says Varun Deshpande, MD - India, The Good Food Institute, “It will include state-of-the-art facilities for cell culturing and endow research fellowships in the various technology areas of cellular agriculture, including cell culture media, cell line isolation, scaffolding, and bioreactor design.”

Despite the tag of being one of the world’s leading vegetarian nations, research indicates that the Indian diet is actually meat-heavy, with only 20% of the population being vegetarian. In that context, meat that is not the byproduct of animal farming will be a welcome addition to the food pyramid. With global clean meat companies like Memphis Meats and MosaMeat trying to make lab-grown meat commercially viable for all, this could be just the push India needs to do the same at home.

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