There is an increase in cultivated meat and in this edition, we unpack how this new technology affects farmers and veterinary professionals. Dr Nandipha Ndudane, the president of the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC), gives more insight into this lab-grown meat.
A jack of all trades, you will find Ndudane in leadership roles within the SAVC as well as playing a vital role in teaching young people within the agricultural space.
“I am currently the president of the South African Veterinary Council and also work as a principal of agricultural colleges,” she says.
What is cultivated meat?
Ndudane says, “Cultivated meat is a new science or technology where meat cells are taken from a live animal and cultivated to produce meat. It’s meat grown in the laboratory, if I simplify it.”
She explains that it is new biotechnology and it tastes exactly like meat from a live animal. Traditionally, livestock farming is one of the industries that produce a lot of greenhouse gas emissions around 80%.
“One of the benefits is it is less harmful to the environment because it is the technology that is being used in the laboratory,” she says.
It also has the potential to reduce world hunger because it is cultured and controlled in a certain environment, Ndudane adds, and it can cancel out some types of diseases, especially food-borne diseases.
Ndudane reassures livestock owners to not be too worried about the new technology as there is room for both in the industry.
“We will always need meat. So there is space for the livestock and space for cultivated meat, [in the South African landscape].”
In this episode, Ndudane also discusses:
- Affordability for consumers; and
- Opportunities for farmers.
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