Livestock or Laboratory? The Future of Meat in Southern Africa

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: Food Systems, Agriculture, and Rural Life

Abstract

Cellular agriculture (the production of meat and dairy products from tissue engineering and precision fermentation) could have a profound impact on global development. Proponents argue that cellular agriculture technologies could improve food security, biosecurity, sustainability, and animal welfare, while critics argue that these technologies could increase socioeconomic inequality and divert resources from more pressing needs (Chiles et al., 2021; Howard, 2022). These technologies have primarily been developed in the world’s highest income countries, but over the past 5 years, several cellular agriculture start-ups have emerged in South Africa. Cellular agriculture in South Africa thus provides a unique opportunity to study inclusive innovation and just transitions in an era of global inequality, rapid technological change, and ecological crisis. Accordingly, this paper explores the following questions: (1) How might historically marginalized students, farmers, workers, and communities interpret the unique risks, opportunities, and challenges associated with cellular agriculture in South Africa? (2) How can these stakeholders be effectively exposed and upskilled on the technical and social aspects of cellular agriculture, such that they are prepared to take their own initiative on developing and/or critiquing these technologies? (3) How can US-based institutions partner with South African institutions to further explore the technical and social aspects of these technologies? I collected data for this project through a series of preparatory visits to South Africa, a stakeholder workshop in Cape Town, and a Fulbright/sabbatical year for fieldwork in Cape Town, the Eastern Cape, and Zimbabwe. The presentation of the paper will include excerpts from a documentary film on this research project that was shot with the author's African partners.

Author

• Robert Magneson Chiles, Pennsylvania State University