China Makes Massive Investment In Israeli Lab Meat Technology

By Sue Surkes, The Times of Israel September 18, 2017 2 minutes

cultured meat, lab-grown beef, courtesy

This article was first published by The Times of Israel and was re-posted with permission.

China has signed a $300 million deal to partner with Israeli high-tech companies working to create laboratory-grown meat as the Asian giant looks to embrace technologies that will help it cut down on harmful emissions and pollution.

Israeli companies SuperMeat, Future Meat Technologies, and Meat the Future are three of only eight companies in the world growing meat from animal cells in laboratories, Quartz magazine reported.

The move potentially opens up the massive Asian economy for the Israeli companies. The Chinese market is potentially huge: China imported meat worth more than $10 billion in 2016, according to the International Trade Centre.

As the country modernized and the standard of living rose for the average Chinese, meat consumption has rocketed.

“It is a colossal market opportunity,” said Bruce Friedrich, head of the The Good Food Institute (GFI), which supports and lobbies on behalf of meat alternative interests. “This could put [lab-made] meat onto the radar of Chinese officials who have the capacity to steer billions of dollars into this technology.”

The move is expected to garner applause from environmentalists as a step toward reducing greenhouse gases.

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