Contesting and reinforcing the future of ‘meat’ through problematization: Analyzing the discourses in regulatory debates around animal cell-cultured meat

Abstract

This paper draws attention to how ‘problems’ were constructed at the USDA-FDA Joint Public Meeting on Use of Animal Cell Culture Technology in 2018 and the implications of these discursive constructs for the governance of animals in food systems. The findings demonstrate what problems animal cell-cultured meat has been positioned as the solution to, and what problems emerge from this new technology that regulators are expected to respond to. The problem representation and the solutions posed reproduce understandings that normalize and promote high and increasing levels of animal flesh consumption and related intensive uses of animals. With relevance for various academic disciplines, and policy-making and activist communities, this analysis offers insight from a critical animal studies lens into the role discourse plays in the governance of food systems that in turn shape the lives and bodies of animals in this emerging regulatory space.