Would you eat lab-grown meat? What happens to a culture, an economy, and tradition when an entire food group is fundamentally altered? We’re exploring cultivated meats to see if it could be a sustainable food solution.
We tend to think of meat as a sort of triangular equation: farmer, butcher, animal.
However, in 2026, that equation is looking a little lopsided; what happens when the animal is no longer a part of it?
Between January and mid-May this year, over 1,454 shipments carrying 664,308 sheep, goats, cattle, and camels entered the UAE, according to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. Shipments rose by 19.51% from the same period last year, reflecting stronger demand in a country where meat remains deeply embedded in commerce, hospitality, and religious tradition.
Historically, animals have been lifelines in Emirati culture. Government reports cite limited agricultural production owing to harsh climatic conditions, thereby increasing reliance on animal products like camel milk and meat. Particularly since traditional dishes such as Machboos, Khuzi, Harees, and others heavily feature meat.
For a country largely dependent on imports, livestock presents a particularly complex problem in terms of feed, water, and land before it becomes meat on our plate. Cultivated meat, therefore, could offer the UAE a chance to rethink the solution.
Omar Shihab, a Dubai hospitality strategist and the founder of BOCA, says this dependence is hardly new. Before modern logistics opened up global supply chains, meat was scarce enough that it was reserved for major celebrations and important guests. “Eating meat in general was such an occasion and a privilege that was reserved for the big celebrations or Eid or when you housed extremely important guests,” he says.
Through the years, trends have skewed towards a technologically convenient future. The person buying the meat doesn’t need to see the farmer, visit the livestock market, or even speak to a butcher. It can arrive at the front door through an app.
Now Abu Dhabi is exploring something more radical still: meat that doesn’t require an animal at all.
A closer look at cell-cultured meat
Cultured meat, otherwise known as cultivated meat, cell-cultured meat, or lab-grown meat, has gone from pie-in-the-sky to a real possibility in a matter of decades. Using tissue-engineering techniques borrowed from regenerative medicine, the process swaps animal cells for the whole animal. The cells are then grown in a nutrient-rich medium within a bioreactor to create a wide range of animal proteins.
The technology sounds futuristic. The price tag is, too.
But despite investment in the technology, Omar says cultivated meat remains “definitely far away” from commercial viability. Before restaurants can routinely cook it and consumers can afford it, he says, the industry still has to prove it can scale, reproduce the taste and texture of conventional meat, and behave predictably in commercial kitchens.
“I really see the Gulf region as one of the most logical places to develop cultivated-meat technology,” says Ghita Bahmad, Food Systems Architect & Founder of The Food Engineer, an organisation designing sustainable food systems through engineering and education.
“But that doesn’t automatically make it easy. The UAE itself is one of the best places to test it because the country is more open to technology and doesn’t necessarily see technology and tradition as opposites.”
Omar’s conversations with chefs and suppliers during recent disruptions have revealed interruptions in availability and sharp price increases, with some restaurants removing products from menus altogether.
In 2024, AgriFood Growth and Water Abundance (AGWA) and Believer Meats unveiled their partnership focused on cultivated meat ‘capabilities’ in the capital. The company hopes to establish a regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi, supporting commercial operations, regional expansion, manufacturing and R&D.
Perhaps the more pertinent question isn’t one of development, but its cultural cost.
The numbers certainly demonstrate the appeal of alternative sources, but is cultivated meat the climate solution it promises to be?
Meat-ing in the middle of tech
As a multicultural society, the UAE has certainly not been impervious to evolution. Globalisation and urbanisation have seeped into the region’s diverse fabric, creating a convenience-based economy. In doing so, customers are far more distanced from their food and ingredients today, even meat.
An illuminating example of this is the appification of Udhiyah. Platforms like noon Minutes and Gulf-based company Zabehaty increasingly manage the ritual sacrifice, allowing customers to select livestock, schedule slaughtering, choose whether meat should be delivered or donated — all while tracking it from the comfort of their homes.
Dan Wanies, Co-Founder at CarniStore, an online butcher model launched in 2018, offers meat that’s easier to browse, customise and order.
Cultivated meat takes convenience one step further by removing the animal altogether.
Does the greener good prevail?
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicts a 73% increase in conventional meat by 2050. If livestock production and agriculture account for 77% to 80% of all global agricultural land, 70% of the planet’s deforestation, and at least 12% to 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions, the situation is dire.
The numbers certainly demonstrate the appeal of alternative sources, but is cultivated meat the climate solution it promises to be?
However, as Dan highlights, “The reality is that there are still significant challenges around scalability, affordability, and what can actually be produced. One major challenge is recreating the complexity and structure of whole-muscle cuts like a steak or chicken breast at scale. At the moment, the process remains extremely expensive.”
The bioreactors needed to create cultivated meats also pose a new challenge: introducing and training highly specialised growth media. Creating new facilities would require massive amounts of electricity, specialised inputs, technology, skilled labour, manufacturing facilities, and new supply chains.
Would cultivated meat allow the UAE to escape the environmental costs of importing animals, or is it simply exchanging one form of dependency for another?
The good, the bad, and the halal
However, the disappearance of the animal wouldn’t necessarily mean the disappearance of documentation. Dan argues that consumers might care less about breed, cut, or farm, and more about “where the original cells came from, how the meat was produced, and its environmental and animal-welfare implications. The questions around provenance will simply change.”
Traditional butcher models are already being phased out. Market trends are moving fast from alternative meats to high-protein diets, increasing conventional meat demands.
Introducing cultivated meat would mean transparency for ingredients, labelling, and packaging.
Paramount among these is halal certification. In May 2025, the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, an institution of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, adopted Resolution No. 265 on the consumption and marketing of cultivated meat following its 26th session in Doha.
The nuanced conditions include, but are not limited to, the source of cells, prohibited substances, and supervision of the process by a credible specialised authority.
This makes halal certification not the dead end it once was with cultivated meat.
From the consumer perspective, Ghita argues, the eventual decision will come down to “taste, price, halal status and trust”. If policymakers can establish trust and a credible halal framework, producers will just need to focus on taste and price.
Where do we go from here?
“Cultivated meat is not yet a solution to today’s food crisis; it is an insurance policy against tomorrow’s doomsday scenario, an uninhabitable world in which degraded soil and contaminated water leave us dependent on lab-made protein,” says Nithiya Laila, culinary anthropologist.
Heavily dependent on food exports like the UAE, Singapore is the first country in the world to approve the retail of cultivated meat in small batches. In the UAE, acceptance and trust will be key to that aim.
The UAE has constantly proved its reinvention mettle. Oil changed economics, global trade changed what was available, apps changed how the food gets home.
Omar’s preferred solution is less radical as a whole, focusing on “less meat but better meat”, alongside a more diverse diet, better sourcing and stronger local agricultural systems.
So the question isn’t about the probability of evolution. The Emirati culture has grown beyond the expectations of even those who have inhabited its lands the longest. The question instead is what kind of Emirati culture would emerge from a stem-celled world.
