Printing meat: history, climate change, and governance

Printing meat is moving mainstream with new technologies.

Printing meat is moving mainstream. As the Economist argues, human attempt to replace meat and milk with plant ingredients is centuries old. For example, during the Tang Era in China, soya started being used to ‘mimic’ cow milk. Today, use of soya milk is mainstream in many societies worldwide.

Replacing meat by plant production will have multiple impacts on society. There are two main trends. The use of meat will be decreasing in the developed world while increasing with wealthier developing countries. It will also have an impact on climate change as meat production contributes almost 1/3 of human-generated emissions.