Alt-Meat Trounces Animal Meat’s Massive Inefficiencies
The potential flexibility of plant- and cell-based meat producers to switch from one product to another (e.g. from loin to spare rib), fluidly and inexpensively, translates to substantial market advantages.
LIZ SPECHT: ‘One of the strongest selling points of plant-based and clean meat is the efficiency of production: The conversion of inputs to outputs is vastly more streamlined than cycling calories through an animal. Lesser appreciated, but perhaps more economically compelling, is also the improved market efficiency: far less time and waste and far greater responsiveness to consumer demand for a range of products and species.
1. Supercharged timesaver: No pregnancy, no birth, no raising, no slaughter. Both plant- and cell-based meat face far less formidable forecasting challenges. Manufacturers can rev up production lines in essentially real-time response to demand, meaning the system has far less waste and greater profitability because manufacturers aren’t contending with flooded markets driving down prices…
2. Solving the carcass balancing problem. The slaughter of a single cow produces only about 28 T-bone steaks, 10 sirloins, and eight filet mignon. So the order of the 29th T-bone or ninth filet would drive the slaughter of an entire additional cow. Plant- or cell-based meat manufacturers can produce meats in the exact ratios at which they are selling; there is no carcass to balance…
3. Adapting swiftly to shifting demand across species. For plant-based and clean meat, the difference between producing beef or pork or even salmon is comparatively minuscule. The potential flexibility of plant- and cell-based meat producers to switch from one product to another within a species category (from loin to spare rib) or between species much more fluidly and inexpensively than conventional meat producers translates to substantial market advantages’. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: