Cell-Based Meat and Firms' Environmental Strategies: New Rationales as per Available Literature

Higher demand for meat production and limited inputs, as well as environmental and animal ethics issues, are bringing alternative protein sources to the market, such as cell-based meat (CBM), i.e., meat produced through cell culturing, without involving animal raising and killing. Although the potential social and environmental benefits of the technology have been recently addressed in the blossoming CBM literature, little has been discussed about the possible implications for the environmental strategies of firms that are entering the new cell-based production chain. Thus, drawing on the theoretical framework of competitive environmental strategies and a systematic review of the literature, we discuss prospects for cell-based meat regarding the possible adoption of environmental strategies by firms that are entering the CBM chain. The technology may be considered a potential means for mitigating most of the environmental impacts of large-scale meat production, e.g., extensive land use and greenhouse gas emissions. We discuss how such benefits and consumer attitudes towards cultivated meat could encourage the adoption of environmental strategies by firms, and the roles that value chain firms are likely to play in those strategies in the future.