Head-to-head: Cultivating vs. farming octopus
The octopus farm
If you haven’t heard yet, we’ve figured out how to make octopuses repopulate in captivity. It’s one of the key domestication criteria for factory farming of animals so octopus is now on the menu… figuratively and literally. The new breakthrough has paved the way for a massive octopus farm in Spain operated by Nueva Pescanova, which plans to process a whopping 1 million octopuses every year, yielding 3,000 tonnes of meat. Can you imagine that? But here's the thing - this news got me thinking. With octopus farming becoming a reality, is anyone out there focusing on cultivated octopus meat production to meet the growing demand?
What’s the issue with an octopus farm?
A review of >300 scientific studies concluded that octopuses feel pain and pleasure, leading to them being recognised as "sentient beings" in the UK's Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. If you’ve seen Netflix’s documentary; My Octopus Teacher, you’ll know there is an incredible intelligence within octopus that we have only just started to discover and explore. They’re the only invertebrates to be recognised as “sentient” alongside mammals and birds. The proposed slaughtering method is to use icy water which is deemed by many to be a “cruel” method. Nueva Pescanova deny that the octopuses will suffer. Research demonstrates that this slaughter method used on fish results in a slow and stressful death. For the much more intelligent octopus with a wide network of nerve cells, this will be torture. A farm at this proposed scale breeding and processing 1 million octopuses annually will cause significant suffering and pain for these sentient beings. Petitions are being signed by thousands to try to stop Nueva Pescanova’s project (Animal Save Movement, 2022), however more than €65 million has already been funded into the project so it is unlikely that petitions will stop its progress. After all, meat is a profitable commodity and there is a huge demand for octopus meat.
In addition, it's worth noting that octopuses are carnivorous creatures that primarily feed on crabs, fish, and other marine animals. In order to sustain an octopus farm, we will have to fish the already over-fished oceans more vigorously to feed the creatures that eventually feed us. This seems like an unsustainable and unfair solution, especially considering the current fragile state of our planet's ecosystems. Ultimately, we should carefully weigh the ethical and ecological consequences before pursuing octopus farming on a large scale.
Why should we cultivate octopus instead?
Since 2013, the technology of cultivated meat has rapidly evolved, attracting millions of dollars in investment and resulting in the establishment of over 130 companies between 2013 and 2023. One of the key advantages of cultivated meat is that it only requires animal cells, eliminating the need for breeding live animals for meat. This not only reduces the amount of wasted animal tissue discarded during the slaughtering and preparation phase, but also eliminates the need for animals to suffer or be killed for their meat.
Can octopus meat be cultivated?
Through tissue engineering, we have discovered that various cell types from different animals can be grown outside of the body. This remarkable technology allows us to selectively grow only the muscle, skin, and cartilage of an animal, eliminating the need to dispose of any waste products from the process. Even octopus nerve cells have been successfully cultivated for medical research. However, as of yet, there has been limited exploration of growing octopus meat. Currently, most cultivated meat companies are focusing on livestock meat such as beef, pork, chicken, and lamb. Nevertheless, some seafood cultivated meat companies are now exploring different species of fish and crustaceans. With the rapidly expanding world population and increasing demand for meat, cultivated meat has the potential to revolutionise the food industry, providing a more sustainable and ethical solution to traditional meat production.
What makes octopus desirable for cultivation?
Aside from the ethical aspect of an octopus farm, there are some compelling reasons to cultivate octopus meat.
Octopuses have a unique ability to regenerate amputated or damaged tentacles much more efficiently than lizards regenerates a tail. There’s clearly a highly regenerative ability of octopus at a cellular level. This could be a key to solving a few common challenges with cultivated meat including proliferation rates and yield. If the cells are regenerative and grow rapidly, the exponential mass growth will be reflected in a huge yield. If the cells are less regenerative and grow slower, scale will be difficult to reach, without needing to add more cells to the start.
Studying octopus cells in the context of cultivated meat will allow scientists to screen its genome and possibly identify genes that are activated when an octopus loses a limb and starts to regenerate a new one. This could unlock the key to achieving a high yield not only in octopus but any other species being grown for cultivated meat.
As a food, it’s also considered a low-fat food and has a reputation of being a healthier protein option, hence the spike in demand. It is becoming increasingly popular among health-conscious consumers.
Who is making cultivated octopus?
As of today (the first week of April in 2023), there is one company that has announced their intention to produce cultivated octopus, Cell4Food in Portugal. This presents a clear opportunity for more companies to stand out in the cultivated meat market by offering a novel species that is both widely consumed and in high demand.
Current total octopus meat market
By 2025, the Global Octopus Market is predicted to reach nearly 650,000 metric tonnes. While Nueva Pescanova's 3,000 tonne per year farm will only contribute a small portion of this, it marks a technological milestone as the first operational octopus farm. As a result, it's likely that more octopus farms will emerge now that octopuses can be bred in captivity. However, the remaining gap in the octopus market will require additional solutions, such as more small businesses who catch wild octopus, plant-based seafood alternatives, or cultivated octopus meat producers. This presents a unique opportunity for existing cultivated meat companies to start working on octopus or for new companies to emerge, specifically focused on octopus production.
There’s more
This is a field I’m excited to watch develop over time. There are many animals that are eaten as delicacies or culturally-specific food that the cultivated meat industry has not tapped into yet. Some examples are:
Insects (spiders, wasps, scorpions etc.)
Frogs
Worms
Snake
Snails
Starfish
Aquatic mammals like dolphins
Elephant
As the industry grows, so will the range of species. Thanks to advances in tissue engineering, any animal with cells (which is all of them) can be a candidate for cultivated meat.
In this blog I wanted to highlight the potential benefits of cultivated meat in reducing animal suffering, particularly for sentient beings like mammals, birds, and octopus. It is important to recognise that domestication and farming of animals are not the only options for our consumption needs. As a relatively new and rapidly evolving industry, there is a great opportunity for cultivated meat to make a significant impact on the way we produce and consume food.
I hope you found this blog informative and thought-provoking. Please share your thoughts and feedback, and feel free to share this blog with anyone who may find it interesting or relevant. Together, we can create a more sustainable and ethical food system for the future.
