5 Ways Cultivarianism Challenges Food Traditions
- David Bell
- Jul 10
- 12 min read
Cultivarianism says you can keep eating meat without accepting slaughter. That one idea puts pressure on five parts of British food life: identity, what counts as meat, animals’ place in food, familiar dishes, and the meat economy.
Here’s the short version:
Identity shifts: you can still be a meat-eater, but for different reasons.
“Real meat” shifts: meat grown from animal cells blurs old labels.
Animals’ role shifts: animals move from being killed for food to being cell donors.
Meals stay familiar: pies, sausages, roasts and mince-based dishes can stay on the table.
Jobs and farming shift: the supply chain, local industry and rural incomes may change too.
A few numbers stand out. UK meat consumption fell 11% over the past decade. Around 16% of British adults say they are flexitarian. And 58% of British adults say they have never heard of cultivated meat or know nothing about it. So this is not just a food debate. It is also a debate about habit, language and who gets to shape the next version of meat.
Is Cultivated Meat the Future of Food? | Uma Valeti | TED
Quick Comparison
Area | Old view | Cultivarian view | What changes for people in the UK |
Identity | Meat-eater or non-meat-eater | Meat-eater without slaughter | New label for people who still want meat |
Meat | Meat comes from slaughtered animals | Meat can come from animal cells | Old legal and everyday terms come under strain |
Animals | Animals are bred and killed for food | Animals can act as cell donors | The moral basis of meat changes |
Meals | Meat dishes depend on standard livestock | Familiar meals can use cultivated meat | Sunday roasts and pies may stay much the same |
Economy | Farmers and processors sit at the centre | Labs, factories and new suppliers join in | Jobs, ownership and rural income may move |
If I strip it right back, the article makes one point: the meal may stay the same, but the meaning of the meat changes.
Why Food Traditions Are Being Reconsidered
British food traditions have never stood still. Rationing, refrigeration and shifts in home life changed even something as familiar as the Sunday roast. That matters now, because meat traditions are shifting for reasons that go beyond taste. What seems timeless is often the product of small, steady change.
How British food traditions have changed before
The dishes tied most closely to British identity - such as steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie and Christmas dinner - have all shifted over time. Immigration and global trade brought new flavours into daily cooking, and meals once treated as foreign now sit comfortably within British food culture. That leaves room for new ways of eating meat without breaking from the past.
Why meat production is now under closer scrutiny
Now the pressure is less about what people eat and more about how it is made. Animal welfare, environmental impact and food system sustainability have moved into everyday public debate. A UK parliamentary briefing on cultivated meat notes that standard livestock farming adds to greenhouse gas emissions and land use, while other methods could cut antimicrobial use in food systems [5]. UK meat consumption has also fallen - down 11% over the past decade [4] - as more people look at how food is produced, not just how it tastes.
Why familiar meals still matter
None of this means people want to give up their Sunday roast. The meal carries meaning far beyond nutrition. It is about sitting round a table, the smell of something cooking in the oven and a shared routine that gives shape to the week. The format of the meal holds meaning even when the ingredients change.
That is why the debate around cultivated meat is not just a food-tech story. It is also a question of whether the rituals people care about can survive a shift in how the main meat is made.
That tension leads straight to the first Cultivarian challenge: identity.
1. The Cultivarian Society and a New Meat-Eating Identity
In British food culture, meat-eating has often been framed as a simple either-or choice. You eat meat, or you don’t. The Cultivarian Society is pushing back on that idea. Founded by David Bell, the Society defines a Cultivarian as someone who eats cultivated meat without animal slaughter. That shifts the conversation beyond simple wording.
For a lot of people, meat is wrapped up in identity, habit and family life. Sunday roasts, barbecues, comfort food, holiday meals - it’s not just about what’s on the plate. So when people are asked to give up meat, it can feel like giving up part of themselves. The Cultivarian identity takes a different route. It doesn’t ask people to stop being meat-eaters. It asks them to think again about where their meat comes from.
That matters because food habits in Britain are already changing. Around 16% of British adults identify as flexitarian, and frequent meat-eating among 18–24-year-olds fell from 67% to 52% between 2019 and the mid-2020s [7]. People are moving, but many are doing so without a clear label that fits. Cultivarianism offers one - and it keeps meat in the picture rather than asking people to walk away from it.
The Society’s work is as much about language and belonging as it is about science. Through education, advocacy and public discourse, it is trying to make “Cultivarian” a recognised everyday dietary identity. That won’t happen overnight, especially when more than half of consumers in UK and US studies still know little about cultivated meat [2]. Even so, the group the Society is speaking to - people with a strong attachment to meat - may be the very people most open to an identity built around how meat is made, not whether it should be eaten at all [3].
If identity is one challenge, definitions are the next.
2. Redefining What Counts as 'Real Meat'
Cultivated meat puts pressure on a simple old idea: that real meat has to come from slaughter. Once slaughter drops out of the picture, the next question is plain enough: what still counts as meat?
For Cultivarians, the answer is straightforward. Meat is still meat. Slaughter just stops being the thing that defines it.
Cultivated meat is made by growing animal cells under controlled conditions. That leaves it sitting in an awkward middle ground: close to the meat people know, but not a neat fit for older legal labels. Recent UK guidance from food regulators says cell-cultivated products are legally classed as products of animal origin. At the same time, they do not meet the older EU legal definition of "meat", which is tied to slaughtered animals.[1][8][9]
Public understanding still lags behind the science and the law. A 2025 UK study found that 57% of people did not fully understand terms like "cultured meat", and fewer than 2% felt familiar with them.[6] Even so, around 40% said they were open to trying it.[6] That gap matters. People may be willing to taste something before they feel sure what to call it.
The wording plays a big part here. Terms like "lab-grown" can put people off, while "cultivated" or "cell-cultivated beef" keep a clearer link to meat.[11][12][13] In plain English, the name can shape the reaction before the product even reaches the plate.
In Britain, ideas about meat often rest on provenance: breed, region, and farmer. That's part of the story people buy into when they buy food. Cultivated meat swaps that story for cell lines and controlled production. For some, that feels like something has been stripped away. For others, especially shoppers who already think about animal welfare and environmental impact, it can make the product feel more legitimate. A 2025 FSA-linked review found that 59% of UK respondents saw at least one potential benefit, most commonly better animal welfare (41%) and environmental sustainability (34%).[3]
If cultivated meat works in familiar dishes, the argument starts to move. It becomes less about whether it looks right and more about whether it does the same job in everyday food. From there, attention turns to a bigger issue: what role animals should have in food culture at all.
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3. Reimagining Animals' Role in Food Culture
That shift in definition leads to a much deeper question about food culture. In standard livestock farming, animals are treated as inputs for slaughter. Their role in the food system ends when they die. Cultivarianism works differently. It starts with a small cell sample from a donor animal. According to FOUR PAWS, a single donor animal could theoretically replace 400 cattle in cultivated beef production[14]. That isn't a small tweak to farming. It's a basic change in how animals fit into the food system.
And that changes the moral story around meat. In conventional production, animals are usually raised with slaughter as the end point. In a Cultivarian model, animals become donors whose cells are sampled, which can cut the number of animals needed over time. That said, the picture isn't the same across every production method.
Some cultivated meat still depends on fetal bovine serum, so this moral shift is not complete yet[15]. Even so, Cultivarianism starts to change what animals mean in food culture long before the industry reaches that end goal. The move away from slaughter is still the main idea.
A review in the Journal of Animal Science found that religious consumers who want to avoid animal harm can be more open to cultivated meat than to conventional meat in principle[16]. Seen through the lens of harm reduction, cultivated meat can feel easier for some religious consumers to accept. That's part of why Cultivarianism reaches beyond ethics and into everyday food culture.
4. Updating British Dishes Without Giving Up Meat
Cultivarianism keeps the meal familiar while taking slaughter out of the picture. That matters most with the dishes people already see as part of British life.
The British staples that fit cultivated meat best are mince, sausages and pie fillings. That lines up with some of the first cultivated-meat formats now being developed. Some producers are targeting cultivated mince for burgers and sausages[18]. In plain terms, that drops neatly into cottage pie, bangers and mash, sausage rolls and toad in the hole. The dish stays the same; the supply chain changes.
Some producers have also looked at blended products that combine cultivated and conventional mince[18]. For pubs and home cooks, that could offer a gradual shift rather than a jump from one system to another. A burger could be part cultivated, part conventional. That kind of middle step makes sense for British meat culture as it stands now, while still pointing towards where Cultivarianism wants to go.
A cultivated-meat steak and kidney pie is still a steak and kidney pie. The pastry, the gravy, the smell from the oven, the ritual of putting it on the table - none of that needs to change. What changes is the source of the meat: same meal, different moral basis. The roast dinner can stay too; only the meat changes.
British consumers are still getting used to the idea. Around 54–59% are not at all familiar with cultivated meat[2]. Even so, the dishes people love do not need to be introduced all over again. If the recipe can stay familiar, the next question is what happens to farms, suppliers and local food communities.
5. Reshaping Meat Economies, Farming and Food Communities
Even if the meal still looks and tastes familiar, a tougher issue sits underneath it: who gets to own the next meat economy.
Cultivated meat doesn't just change what's on the plate. It changes who produces meat, where the money goes and who ends up winning from that shift. In the UK, that matters a great deal for the 97,000 people employed in meat processing and the roughly 50,000 farmers whose income depends on livestock.[25][26] For many farmers, the main worry isn't the idea of cultivated meat itself. It's control. More specifically, it's the risk that a small group of large firms could end up controlling the factories, contracts and intellectual property behind cultivated meat, leaving farmers even further from the heart of food production.[19][10][21]
Research suggests farmers wouldn't have to sit on the sidelines. There are clear roles they could take on in a cultivated meat supply chain, including:
That matters because this shift is not only about loss. It could also mean new work. 87.5% of experts surveyed expect cultivated meat to create new jobs, while 56.2% think there will be fewer roles in standard meat supply chains.[28]
Where those jobs end up may matter just as much as how many appear. Oxford Economics estimates that UK cultivated meat revenues could hit £850 million to £1.7 billion per year by 2030, with as much as £523 million per year in tax revenues.[23][27] If facilities are based in places that already have food manufacturing infrastructure - including the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West - those gains are more likely to stay local. That could help keep supplier networks in place and support the food identity that already runs deep in those areas.[22]
The last point is simple, but hard to ignore: rural areas need a fair share of the upside, not just the shock of change. Cultivarianism does not ask farming to vanish. It asks the food system to change in a way that lets rural communities take part in what comes next, instead of paying the price for it. It pushes against old ideas by shifting the moral and economic basis of meat, not by stripping meat out of British food culture. Whether that happens will depend less on the science itself and more on the policy choices and business models that shape how cultivated meat grows in the UK.[20][21][5]
Tradition vs Cultivarian Change at a Glance
These five shifts point to one simple idea: Cultivarianism keeps meat in British food culture, but drops slaughter as the standard way to produce it. Put side by side, the pattern is clear. The meals people know can stay much the same, while the story behind the meat changes. The table below shows what that looks like in practice.
Key differences in one table
Area | Conventional meat tradition | Cultivarian interpretation | What this means in practice for UK consumers |
How meat is produced | Animals are raised on farms and slaughtered in abattoirs. | Meat is grown from animal cells in a controlled facility, with no need to raise or kill a whole animal. | In future, shoppers could choose clearly labelled cultivated beef or chicken alongside conventional options. |
Role of slaughter | Slaughter is built into the process and largely kept out of sight. | Cultivarianism treats slaughter as avoidable. A small cell sample can keep producing meat. | Ipsos research finds that 33% of UK adults cite not killing animals as the main benefit of cultivated meat[24] - the most common answer. |
What counts as real meat | Real meat is understood as coming from a slaughtered animal. | Cultivarians see cultivated meat as real meat, even though the production method is different. | Cell-cultivated products are currently classed as products of animal origin, not legally as meat.[30] |
Relationship to animals | Farm animals are treated as livestock, bred and slaughtered for meat. | Animals become cell donors rather than units to be bred and killed. Over time, this could move some animals towards conservation or land management roles. | Ipsos research shows 47% of Gen Z Brits would eat cultivated meat, compared with 21% of Baby Boomers[24]. |
Place in British meals | Meat from slaughtered animals is the centrepiece of celebration and everyday cooking alike. | Cultivarians imagine familiar dishes kept intact while the source of the meat changes. | Regional favourites could in principle be made with cultivated meat, preserving local food identity without requiring slaughter. |
Environmental impact | Conventional livestock farming uses significant land and water, and produces substantial greenhouse gas emissions. | Cultivated meat aims to reduce land use and emissions, though early gains will depend on how facilities are powered.[17][29] | Benefits are not guaranteed at early stages of production and will depend on the UK's energy mix and how facilities are regulated. |
Cost and availability | Conventional meat is widely available at a broad range of price points. | Cultivated meat will likely arrive gradually and cost more at first. | A rapid evidence review for the UK Food Standards Agency found that 59% of UK people think cell-cultivated meat could offer some kind of benefit compared with traditional meat.[3] |
One figure matters here: 58% of British adults say they have never heard of cultivated meat or know nothing about it[24]. That lack of awareness shapes every part of this debate. For many people in the UK, this is still not a choice between old and new meat. It's a choice between something familiar and something they've barely come across at all.
Conclusion
Cultivarianism doesn’t ask Britain to give up its food traditions. The point isn’t whether people in Britain go on eating meat. It’s whether that meat still has to come from slaughter.
The meals people know can stay much the same. What changes is the source of the meat. The process is different, but the plate still looks familiar.
British food culture has never stood still. It has changed over time, bit by bit, while still holding on to dishes people know and love. Cultivarianism fits into that story. It challenges tradition by changing what meat means without changing the meal itself.
The Cultivarian Society gives that shift a clear name: meat-eaters who reject animal slaughter as the means of production. The meal can remain. What changes is the ethic behind it.
Cultivarianism keeps the meal and changes the meaning of the meat.
FAQs
Is cultivated meat really meat?
Yes. Cultivated meat is real meat because it comes from actual animal cells and is biologically identical to conventional meat.
The difference is in how it's made. Instead of raising and slaughtering livestock, producers grow it in controlled environments using bioreactors, while still matching the taste, texture and cellular structure of animal tissue.
Would cultivated meat change British dishes?
Cultivated meat doesn’t have to change British dishes. If anything, it could help keep them going. Because it is real meat grown from animal cells, it could keep staples like the Sunday roast or a full English breakfast on the table while cutting the ethical and environmental costs linked to slaughter.
Instead of pushing these classics aside, it offers a way to keep British food traditions in step with modern values such as sustainability and compassion.
How could Cultivarianism affect UK farmers?
Cultivarianism may clash with long-standing farming norms, especially in places where livestock sits at the heart of rural identity and heritage. For many people, cultivated meat can look like an unwanted form of industrialisation that puts livelihoods and established ways of life under pressure.
There’s also a fear that company-led biotechnology could chip away at local, self-sufficient food systems. To deal with that, the conversation needs to respect British farming history and the people behind it, while framing cultivated meat as a new stage in food production, not a push to replace farmers.
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