Lab-grown meat may be better for livestock, but not necessarily for the environment

The move to put alternative protein on our plates is gathering pace but there are still questions to answer

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On my morning walk with the dog, my path takes me past a field where a small herd of cattle grazes. I usually pause there, partly because my dog is utterly fascinated by cows, and partly because it's a pleasingly bucolic scene.

This is what I picture when I think of livestock farming: cows or sheep wandering around munching grass in a field. Then, like a lot of us who don't work in farming or meat production, I probably don't dwell as much as I should on what happens between the grazing animals and the meat we see on the supermarket shelves.

But there's a burgeoning meat-production industry that looks very different from this, which is set to offer us an innovative alternative using science: meat grown not in an animal, but cultured from a single cell, in a vessel inside an industrial production facility.

I'm curious to try it. And if there's a way I can indulge my appetite for meatballs and sausages without the need for an animal to be slaughtered, I'm keen to explore it.

But lab-grown-meat companies are already making environmental claims that have yet to be borne out by evidence.