16/04/2026
Here’s me 3 years ago eating real meat – except it didn’t harm a single animal.
Recently in parliament, we passed a bill that makes it far easier to finally get cultivated meat on the market in our state.
I'm joined here with Ben Carroll trying pork from Magic Valley (who is now the Deputy Premier, but was Minister for Innovation at the time).
Cultivated meat is literally the lifeline for our future. Think I’m being dramatic? I’m really not.
Right now, estimates show that global meat demand is projected to double by 2050.
That’s a scary thought.
Especially because animal agriculture is already using up to 80% of our planet’s agricultural land but only producing 18% of global calories and 37% of global protein.
Over 80 billion land animals are already being killed for human consumption each year. And yet we literally don’t have the resources to feed our growing population.
Cultivated meat presents us with a solution.
It reduces land use, deforestation, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, it eliminates the need to slaughter animals entirely.
It is also produced without antibiotics (which are used so routinely in animal agriculture that it is creating antimicrobial resistance in humans) – and lowers the risk of zoonotic diseases and pandemics by being produced in a controlled and sanitary environment (unlike the filthy and crammed conditions of a factory farm).
Cultivated meat is not just more ethical – it’s safer.
And here’s the thing – cultivated meat is real meat. It’s just grown differently.
Instead of raising and slaughtering animals, a small sample of animal cells is taken from a living animal (such as a non-invasive scraping inside the ear) and placed in a controlled environment.
It is fed nutrients and allowed to grow into muscle tissue. The same tissue as meat.
The result is literally the same products minus the risks and cruelty.
The cultivated meat industry is expected to be worth $25 billion by 2030. It is creating jobs in innovation and emerging technologies around the world.
And while other countries around the world have been making forward progress and taking up these opportunities – we’ve barely budged.
This is partly due to bureaucracy.
In Victoria, local council has been the regulator of cultivated meat. But the reality is that council environmental health officers may not have the appropriate expertise or resources to adequately regulate these food products.
It also meant that all 79 councils would need to develop expertise in this area of food technology.
But during the last sitting week in parliament, we changed that.
This function will now be centralised under a new body called Safe Food Victoria – allowing cultivated meat businesses to obtain a food safety license no matter where in the state they are located.
Essentially, it means these new laws cover the food safety requirements to both produce and sell cultivated meat.
As an advocate for animal protection, I see cultivated meat as one of the most exciting opportunities for our future.
Because here’s the thing: Even if you wouldn’t eat it yourself, there will always be people who refuse to give up meat.
Now they don’t have to.
And by supporting this exciting opportunity, we can save our planet, better human health, create jobs and end animal suffering.
