Marketing Man-Made Meat

There's been some buzz recently that "man-made meat may be just around the corner." What an awesome marketing challenge!

Dr. Mark Post, physiology professor at Maastricht University in The Netherlands, leads a team of scientists who are developing meat products made grown from stem cells taken from healthy cattle. His team's work was featured in a New Yorker article (May 23, 2011) that provides insights on the pros/cons and in-between opinions regarding "test tube meat." (Get the article abstract online.)

The genesis of this concept traces back to William van Eelen, a Dutchman of privilege who ended up in a concentration camp during WWII. There, he witnessed horrendous treatment of prisoners and the animals kept there as a food source. After the war, haunted by memories of starvation and animal abuse, van Eelen decided to dedicate his life's work to growing meat without inflicting pain.

Thanks to van Eelen's persistence, the award of a patent and some NASA-funded experiments that proved growing food outside of a body was indeed possible, there are now teams forming at universities throughout the world. While their passions are varied, the welfare of animals and the planet are front and center to most of the development. PETA has even provided funding.

Currently, our 7 billion fellow earthlings consume 90 pounds of meat per person, for a collective intake of 285 million tons of meat each year. Those who predict such things anticipate a doubling of the demand for meat by 2050 to support a world population of 9 billion. With 80 percent of farmland now devoted to meat production, we're looking forward to some serious environmental consequences.

"Cultured meat" does seem to hold promise … but will anyone actually eat it? Putting aside any moral or ethical conundrums, can marketers solve for the "yuck factor" that's bound to be a first reaction?

We could …

• Go stealth … introduce the concept as a high-protein, low fat ingredient that offers food companies the makings of a great nutrition label … a chunk of "something" in a canned stew that surprisingly tastes like chicken.
• Take a page from the Prius marketing book … intellectualize it so that cultured meat is the protein of choice for environmental elitists.
• Position it as every-day exotic! When celebrity chefs and foodie shows get cooking, the masses often follow.

If these scientists don't get some marketers involved early on, they may never see this intriguing concept commercialized. Then what? My sense is that we will be forced to change a lot of our current thinking and behavior when sustainability realities start to hit home and that consumption of protein from a test tube is inevitable. It's just that the "early adopters" might not be those of us with the liberty of choice.

What do you think?