What Will Christmas Dinner Be Like in the Future?

As December 25 looms, households across the globe are scurrying to secure their Christmas turkeys. In the US alone, the National Turkey Federation estimates that Americans will consume around 22 million turkeys on Christmas Day, with Brits set to gobble down a huge 10 million birds.

While most will head to the butcher or supermarket to purchase their Christmas dinner centrepieces, biotech scientists are predicting that in less than two decades lab-grown turkeys could grace festive tables. Paul Mozdziak, professor of poultry science at North Carolina State University is pioneering the concept, and predicts that the first ‘artificial’ turkeys could appear by 2030.

The ‘cellular agriculture’ revolution

The idea of "cellular agriculture" may seem outrageously modern, though in 1931 Winston Churchill prophesised the exact scenario, predicting that within half a century the world would "escape the absurdity" of chicken farms and instead embrace lab-grown meat. Churchill’s vision is now materialising, with advocates maintaining that "cellular agriculture" is quickly emerging as an ethical and economical alternative to factory farming.

“Years from now, when people are in the grocery story trying to decide if they want to buy traditional versus cultivated meat, I am 100 per cent sure that culture meat is going to be just as cheap, if not cheaper,” comments Mozdziak in an interview with MIT Technology Review. “You’re not giving nutrients to bone, you’re not giving nutrients to the alimentary tract.”

Growing turkeys from scratch

So how will scientists grow turkeys from scratch? Mozdziak has revealed that in the future meat will be grown in huge 5000 gallon drums, with lab operators using small slithers of breast to isolate the unique stem cells that form the meat’s muscle fibre. These cells will then be soaked in a nutrient rich cocktail of sugar and amino acids, a ‘soup’ that mimics a turkey’s insides and triggers the cell division process.

Ethical and eco-friendly

While the concept is dripping with controversy, lab-grown meat has already won the support of both animal rights campaigners and environmentalists. Not only will it ease the world’s reliance on battery animals, but it will also save precious resources and minimise the carbon footprint of the planet’s immense livestock farming industry. Some experts maintain that cellular agriculture within the beef industry could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.

It’s an exciting concept, though the technology is still in its early stages. Currently, culture meat is not an economically viable solution, with the first lab grown hamburger taking more than three months to grow, at a cost of more than £220,000. In Mozdziak’s lab, growing just one turkey would require around £20,000 worth of growth serum.

That said, over the next 15 years advancements will revolutionise the process, with scientists estimating that over the course of three months a single satellite cell could undergo 75 generations of division, and create enough muscle to manufacture 20 trillion turkey nuggets. Teams are also exploring the possibility of growing 3D cells, which would significantly speed up the process, and drastically lower the cost.

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