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A Pentagon contractor that has received more than $500 million from the Defense Department wants to produce lab-grown meat for America's soldiers in order to "reduce the CO2 footprint" at Defense Department outposts, the Free Beacon reports.

BioMADE, a public-private DoD contractor, "is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) with a vision to build a sustainable, domestic, end-to-end bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem," according to a project overview posted last month. It is seeking proposals to develop "innovations in food production that reduce the CO2 footprint of food production at … DoD operational environments," which include "novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein," aka lab grown meat.

"Innovations in food production that reduce the CO2 footprint of food production at and/or transport to DoD operational environments are solicited," the company said in an informational document. "These could include, but are not limited to, production of nutrient-dense military rations via fermentation processes, utilizing one carbon molecule (C1) feedstocks for food production, and novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein."

The company is also soliciting proposals for "processes that convert greenhouse gasses," as well as "projects that develop bioproducts useful in mitigating the negative environmental impacts either regionally or globally," including "bioproducts that can be used to prevent or slow coastal erosion

The project has fallen under heavy scrutiny from critics, who say that US troops should not be used as guinea pigs for experimental food.

"Taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund the lab-grown meat sector," said Jack Hubbard, executive director at the Center for the Environment and Welfare, a consumer group that analyzes emerging markets such as bioengineered meat. "Our troops deserve better than to be served lab-grown meat, produced in bioreactors with immortalized cells and chemicals."

"Unfortunately, this effort is being driven by an agenda that is political and anti-farmer. Our soldiers should never be used as guinea pigs," he continued.

According to former DoD official Matt Spence in 2021, "One of the most immediate, politically feasible, and high-impact ways to do this [address climate change] is for the U.S. government to invest in and accelerate alternative ways to produce meat."

That said, UC Davis published a report last year suggesting that "lab-grown meat’s carbon footprint [is] potentially worse than retail beef."

"If companies are having to purify growth media to pharmaceutical levels, it uses more resources, which then increases global warming potential," said lead author, Derrick Risner of the college's Department of Food Science and Technology. "If this product continues to be produced using the ‘pharma’ approach, it’s going to be worse for the environment and more expensive than conventional beef production."

"Our findings suggest that cultured meat is not inherently better for the environment than conventional beef. It’s not a panacea," said corresponding author Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. "It’s possible we could reduce its environmental impact in the future, but it will require significant technical advancement to simultaneously increase the performance and decrease the cost of the cell culture media."