AS Australia's red meat industry closes in on its target to be carbon neutral by 2030, what is emerging from the science is that there is still so much in this space that is not yet fully understood.
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New research on methane, on how laboratory-grown meat stacks up environmentally and the role of animal-based protein in the human diet is being published at a rapid rate, as the world struggles to feed a fast-growing population and address climate change at the same time.
As the World Environment Day tweets and posts flow through today about whether eating steak is going to save or kill the planet, producers would do well to keep in mind the fast-evolving nature of the science, industry leaders say.
In April, a major collection of scientific papers was published in a special edition of Animal Frontiers - the official journal of the world's biggest professional animal science societies.
These papers, which included the work of several Australian experts in the field, were the basis for discussion at a Dublin-based event held last year, the International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat.
More than a thousand scientists around the world, including at least 50 from Australia, are signatories to the resulting Dublin declaration, which seeks to separate evidence-based discussion from ideology and policy making on the role of meat and livestock production globally.
In late May, the paper from another big study from the University of California was published. It found the global warming potential of cell-based meat production could be up to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.
Internationally-recognised expert on the future of cell-based protein, Australian Professor Paul Wood, says it's now clear the economics of producing lab-grown meat at scale 'just won't work'.
"It might not be quite 25 times worse for the environment - but there are now multiple studies which have concluded that producing cell-based protein in a lab will be far more energy intensive when it's produced at scale," he said.
"In addition to these concerns, there is a distinct lack of nutritional data from the cell-based protein industry - and that's not good. There are a lot of big claims, but no data whatsoever to back them up."
Meat & Livestock Australia's managing director Jason Strong told delegates at the 2023 Angus National Conference the key takeaway in this space was that 'we are still learning'.
"We are still working out exactly what the problem is and we are absolutely still working out the solutions," he said.
"Humans have spent thousands of years perfecting how to have a negative impact on the environment, so the problem won't be solved today."
For example, Mr Strong said in the past few years, quite a bit of research had been done that showed while methane had 24 times the impact on the environment compared to other gases like carbon dioxide, it also had a cooling affect.
"That's something which we haven't understood before and when you net the two out, it reduces the overall impact of methane by as much as 60pc," he said.
