Clean Meat is focused on educating readers on alternatives to animal farming and slaughter that have come into play within the last decade but need to evolve more quickly. Animal agriculture is not sustainable in our climate-changing world in which major hurricanes, floods, drought and forest fires have greatly increased due to a variety of factors including humans over-use of our planet's resources. And methane produced by millions of cows only worsens the environment.

Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement for the Humane Society of the United States, informs us about the continuous, systemically egregious and appalling conditions in which cows and chickens are kept before slaughter. It is only getting worse due to exploding demand for meat, chicken, milk and eggs; and will keep up as human population increases.
Meat agriculture takes too much land and water to grow the feed these animals need only to be killed to feed us. Do we really want to eat animals suffering pain and cruelty because it’s the least expensive business model for big farm
companies? Americans alone consume 9 billion animals per year. That’s more than the number of humans on the planet!

Firstly, we need to understand that it would be much more effective to use land and our quickly decreasing water supply to grow grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit for the increasing need for food and sustenance. The benefits to humans and the planet would be a huge savings of energy, land and water, and would eliminate the unnecessary suffering of farm animals if we had millions less of them. This would reduce the amount of methane (a potent green-house gas) cows release into the environment.

Food scientists who care for animals have been thinking about and working on alternatives to meat farming for years. One alternative is culturing meat WITHOUT slaughtering an animal, and works by cutting muscle protein cells via biopsy of a cow; and growing the cells in a laboratory with yeast and sugars until it becomes actual meat. A number of companies have experimented and tweaked this process, received large investments and ramped up their work force, equipment, and production, and are selling products successfully. Key benefits are that these labs grow real beef but only the part that people can eat; not the whole cow.

Another alternative is ‘fake meat’ using vegetables and/or soy, and or heme and spices. They are healthier because of the vegetables and increased fiber which help eaters fill full longer. Many successful companies have been selling in this area for years.

Acellular Agriculture or Enhanced Fermentation is another option. Similar to brewing beer using specialized yeast, process adds sugars to make milk-like, egg-like and/or collagen proteins but then switches from beer brewing process by removing the yeast. This creates a cholesterol-free, lactose-free, bacteria-free, and non-GMO foods. Making these products requires the use of large bio-reactors or fermenters. Companies have produced and are successfully selling these products.

The people behind companies producing these products are hopeful that consumers will get on board with a new way of thinking. These new technologies can replace foods we already have with healthier, disease-free foods but also has the potential create healthier food choices unimagined yet. A way that’s better for the planet, healthier for humans, and ending animal suffering and reducing the need for billions of animals for human consumption.

Clean Meat gave me much to think about. As with many non-fiction books I’ve read over the last few years, I feel these books teach worthwhile lessons but include far too many details and pages. Clean Meat is no exception.