DOD Funds Research on Fake Meat Rations to Improve Soldiers' 'Military Readiness'
The Department of Defense is using taxpayer dollars to fund the production of 'nutrient-dense military rations' made from ultraprocessed fake meats, turning military members into lab rats.
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
The Department of Defense is funding research on lab-grown "fake meat" rations for soldiers, partnering with BioMADE to develop synthetic food products for military use
Critics argue this initiative is unethical, comparing it to treating soldiers like lab rats and questioning the nutritional value of these artificial food products
The production process for lab-grown meat involves genetically engineered microbes and faces challenges such as potential contamination and the use of questionable cell lines
Despite claims of environmental benefits, studies suggest lab-grown meats may have a higher environmental impact than traditional beef production when considering the entire production chain
Health concerns arise as these lab-grown meats are classified as ultraprocessed foods, which have been linked to increased risks of cardiovascular disease and other health issues
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has partnered with the BioIndustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE) to produce lab-grown foods intended to feed the nation's military. The public-private partnership, which is largely DOD funded, released a project call in May 2024 looking for proposals in a number of focus areas, including "sustainable food production."1
Under this category, the Sustainable Logistics for Advanced Manufacturing (SLAM) project includes a call for innovations in food production that "could include, but are not limited to, production of nutrient-dense military rations via fermentation processes, utilizing one carbon molecule (C1) feedstocks for food production, and novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein."2
Ultimately, the partnership sets up military members as lab rats who will be fed synthetically grown, ultraprocessed junk foods in lieu of a healthy, whole-food-based diet.
DOD Plans to Feed Soldiers Fake Meat
The biotech industry is rolling out a "tsunami of fake foods"3 that are being positioned as environmentally friendly and health-promoting alternatives to real foods like meat and dairy. Lab-grown meat may one day represent 80% or more of the "meat" consumed worldwide,4 a dramatic departure from the way humans have eaten for centuries.
The DOD describes BioMADE as "a nonprofit created by the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC)." In 2020, it awarded the outfit $87 million in funding for a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII):5
"Through a close relationship with DOD and the Military Services, BioMADE will work to establish long-term and dependable bioindustrial manufacturing capabilities for a wide array of products.
Anticipated bioindustrial manufacturing applications include the following products: chemicals, solvents, detergents, reagents, plastics, electronic films, fabrics, polymers, agricultural products (e.g., feedstock), crop protection solutions, food additives, fragrances, and flavors."
However, the DOD also funds innovation grants, each of which has a $2-million limit up to a total budget of $500 million — funding that earmarked at least in part for BioMADE's development of lab-grown fake meat products.6 In fact, in March 2023, BioMADE announced that its federal funds budget ceiling had increased from an initial $87.5 million to over $500 million.7
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) condemned the idea. Ethan Lane, NCBA vice president of government affairs, said in a press release:8
"It is outrageous that the Department of Defense is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to feed our heroes like lab rats … American troops deserve to be served that same wholesome, natural meat and not ultraprocessed, lab-grown protein that is cooked up in a chemical-filled bioreactor.
This misguided research project is a giant slap in the face to everyone that has served our country. Our veterans and active-duty troops deserve so much better than this."
Former U.S. Special Forces member Martin Bailey further told the Daily Mail:9
"I think the government should focus on letting the military protect our nation from enemies, foreign and domestic, sometimes, but you know, that's what the military is there for. They're not there to be experimental lab rats … why doesn't the government feed experimental meat product that, you don't even know what it is, why don't they feed that to, let's say, homeless people?
Well, there's a reason they don't, because that would be completely unethical. So why is it ethical to stick it down the throat of our military service members?"
'Fermentation' Processes for Lab-Grown Meat Are Far From Natural
In a process completely removed from nature, biotech companies are using precision fermentation based on genetically engineered (GE) microbes to create synthetic food products in a lab. Like other lab-grown meats on the market, BioMADE's "nutrient-dense military rations" produced "via fermentation processes" will be made using processes far removed from the natural fermentation that occurs in the production of wholesome foods like yogurt.
In precision fermentation, GE microbes such as yeast and bacteria are fermented in brewery-style tanks under high-tech, sterile conditions. But serious problems have already emerged.
To make fake meat, cell lines are taken from a living organism. They're then manipulated to grow quickly and consistently. "What are cells that proliferate quickly? Either cancers or fetuses. They have cells that proliferate very quickly," Dutch investigative journalist Elze van Hamelen says.10 For lab-grown meats, biotech is cryptic about what types of cell lines are actually used.
Contamination in cultured meat is another serious issue. It must be controlled down to 2 parts per billion, van Hamelen says, "because as soon as there is a contamination … it becomes riddled with bacteria, and you don't have a cell culture, you have a bacteria culture."11
An expose in Wired points to a number of the technological challenges that van Hamelen also speaks of,12 direct from employees at Upside Foods, one of two companies allowed to sell cultured meat in the U.S. Wired reported:13
"One former employee says that between the factory opening in November 2021 and the summer of 2022, they saw dozens of attempts to use the bioreactors to produce sheets of tissue, but they rarely resulted in usable meat. At times, production runs were ruined by contamination that meant the meat was unsuitable for turning into a product, the former employee says.
Former Upside employees describe how batches of meat growing in the custom-made bioreactors would frequently be ruined by contamination and have to be incinerated. 'Once they had any indication it was contaminating, they would try to just stop the run, get the cells, and get any results out of it that they could,' says a former employee with knowledge of the process."
Meanwhile, despite the pharmaceutical-style manufacturing, lab-grown meat isn't considered a pharmaceutical product, which means no human testing is required. "If this is brought to market, it's a human experiment," van Hamelen says14 — one that apparently the DOD is willing to test out on its own military.
BioMADE Funds Bacteria Biomass Protein for Warfighters
One BioMADE-funded project that's already underway is Superbrewed Food's bacteria biomass protein.15 According to BioMADE:16
"Through this project, member Superbrewed Food (SBF) will produce sustainable protein, formulate it into a format that would be desired by warfighters, and conduct ex vivo studies to identify the nutrition and functional food benefits associated with their postbiotic protein ingredient.
There are several areas where SBF's postbiotic protein could potentially enhance performance, including increased energy/endurance, shortened recovery times, improved focus and concentration, and overall performance and military readiness."
In March 2024, Superbrewed received a no-questions letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status for its Postbiotic Cultured Protein product — making it the world's first company to received such a notice for a bacteria biomass protein.
"Postbiotic Cultured Protein is the first ever FDA-notified, bacteria-derived biomass ingredient, similar in concept to nutritional fungal proteins," the company reported.17 Meanwhile, Children's Health Defense reported:18
"The company doesn't only make edible proteins. In another BioMADE-funded, joint project with Lockheed Martin, the company is 'doping' nanoparticles with metals to modify their magnetic properties for various defense and commercial applications.
Other food-related funding by BioMADE includes funding to global food giant Cargill to scale up fermentation processes in its bioreactors. Bioreactors have applications in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food production and wastewater treatment."
Lab-Grown Meats Take a Toll on the Environment
It's a myth that fake meat is better for the environment than real animal foods, particularly those raised regeneratively. A preprint study from University of California, Davis researchers, for instance, found that the environmental impact of lab-grown meat is "likely to be orders of magnitude higher than median beef production."19
In fact, fake foods are far from sustainable. Dr. John Fagan, a molecular biologist who worked with the U.S. National Institutes of Health for 8.5 years, explains:20
"The reality is that many of the carbon footprint calculations have been done starting with the fermentation process and going forward, but where did the high fructose corn syrup come from that is the primary energy component that goes into these fermentations?
… And you look at that industrial agriculture and you add that carbon footprint on to what they have been using in their calculations and suddenly it goes way in the wrong direction. And so we can't even use the sustainability arguments to justify what's being done. It just doesn't work."
Fake Meats Are Ultraprocessed Foods With Significant Health Risks
Lab-grown meat products are examples of highly processed foods, and with that comes a range of significant health risks. These ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are a disaster for your health, even if they're "animal-free" and "plant-based."
A recent study on plant-based ultraprocessed foods like veggie burgers and meatless nuggets provides just one example. The study, which involved researchers from the University of São Paulo and Imperial College London, included data from 126,842 people who answered questions about their diets. Food groups were broken down into plant-sourced or non-plant/animal-sourced, then further divided into non-UPF or UPF as a percentage of total energy intake.
Hospital and mortality records were later linked to the data to gather information about cardiovascular diseases. Eating plant-sourced non-UPFs, such as fruits and vegetables, was beneficial. Every 10% increase in unprocessed plant-based foods was associated with a 7% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 13% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.21
However, consuming plant-sourced ultraprocessed foods was linked with a 5% increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a 12% higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.
Study author Eszter Vamos, from Imperial College London, added, "While ultraprocessed foods are often marketed as healthy foods, this large study shows that plant-based ultraprocessed foods do not seem to have protective health effects and are linked to poor health outcomes."22
It's not surprising that plant-based ultraprocessed foods are linked to heart risks and other health problems, as they're typically loaded with seed oils, also known as vegetable oils, such as corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and canola oil. Vegetable and seed oils are high in the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid (LA).23 At a molecular level, excess LA consumption damages your metabolism and impedes your body's ability to generate energy in your mitochondria, driving chronic disease.
If the lab-grow "nutrient-dense rations" the DOD is studying for the military also include seed oils along with fake meat protein, it will be an even greater recipe for ill health among the military.
While all humans need whole, unprocessed foods to thrive, ensuring military members have access to wholesome, nutritious, real food — not fake lab-grown counterparts — is a fundamental component of maintaining their health and performance. Sigrid Johannes, NCBA senior director of government affairs, added:24
"These products are not yet approved for grocery store shelves, yet we have DOD putting money into developing these products for military rations. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say they're using our servicemen and women as test subjects for a product that still has a lot of nutritional questions hanging over it, plenty of environmental and safety questions hanging over it, and bottom line, just isn't needed …
I'm a little bit confused why DOD is feeling the urgency to provide this kind of cell cultured, lab-grown, ultraprocessed product to our military."
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