“Soylent Green 2.0?" A Qualitative Analysis of Online Comments on Cultivated Meat in Germany and the Netherlands
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Published
17-04-2026
Martina Felicitas Baumann
Laurens Landeweerd
Denise van Baalen
Abstract
Cultivated meat attracts growing attention not only in news media and among experts and investors but also in social media discussions and online newspaper comments. While not representative of the general public, such comments offer valuable insights into public attitudes, perceptions, and concerns. We analysed 491 German and Dutch online comments to explore perceived benefits, risks, and barriers to cultivated meat development. Many commenters expressed optimism about sustainability and animal welfare benefits, yet concerns about health risks, fairness, and unnaturalness were widespread. Overall, attitudes were predominantly negative and highly polarised. We identify several contributing factors: polarising media events, societal divides around sustainability and responsibility, distrust in institutions and industry, over-promising technological narratives, and the spread of misinformation. These findings underscore the need for transparent communication, inclusive dialogue, and more nuanced public debate on the societal implications of emerging food technologies.
How to Cite
Baumann, M.F., Landeweerd, L. and van Baalen , D. (2026) ““Soylent Green 2.0?": A Qualitative Analysis of Online Comments on Cultivated Meat in Germany and the Netherlands”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 32(1), pp. 229–250. doi:10.48416/ijsaf.v31i1.804.
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Keywords
cultivated meat , online comments, public perceptions, societal polarisation , misinformation
References
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Baum CM, Bröring S and Lagerkvist C-J (2021) Information, attitudes, and consumer evaluations of cultivated meat. Food Quality and Preference 92: 104226.
Boereboom A, Mongondry P, Aguiar LK de, et al. (2022) Identifying consumer groups and their characteristics based on their willingness to engage with cultured meat: A comparison of four European countries. Foods 11(2): 1–18.
Böhm I, Ferrari A and Woll S (2018) Visions of in vitro meat among experts and stakeholders. NanoEthics 12(3): 211–224.
Boykin K (2019) Chew on this: Investigating public perceptions of lab grown meat. [Unpublished thesis/report].
Bryant C and Barnett J (2020) Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: An updated review (2018–2020). Applied Sciences 10(15): 5201.
Changing Markets Foundation/Ripple Research (2023) Truth, lies and culture wars: Social listening analysis of meat and dairy persuasion narratives.
Chen Y and Zhang Z (2022) Exploring public perceptions on alternative meat in China from social media data using transfer learning method. Food Quality and Preference 98: 104530.
Clifford S (2018) How emotional frames moralize and polarize political attitudes. Political Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/pops.12507.
Dai X, Leung AK and Chong M (2024) The link between people's social perceptions of cultivated meat eaters and their acceptance of cultivated meat. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 27(3): 473–486.
Driessen C and Korthals M (2012) Pig towers and in vitro meat: Disclosing moral worlds by design. Social Studies of Science 42(6): 797–820.
Dürnberger C (2019) Normative concepts of nature in the GMO protest: A qualitative content analysis of position papers criticizing green genetic engineering in Germany. Food Ethics 4(1): 49–66.
Gebauer (2020) AFD sagt veganer Ernährung den Kampf an. Available at: https://www.vegan.eu/afd-gegen-vegan/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2023) Deutscher Markt für pflanzenbasierte Alternativprodukte wächst 2022 um 11% und trotzt der Inflation. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/de/blog/deutscher-markt-fur-pflanzenbasierte-alternativprodukte-wachst-2022/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2024a) Neue Umfrage zu kultiviertem Fleisch und pflanzlichen Alternativen. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/de/blog/umfrage-plantbased-und-kultiviertes-fleisch/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2024b) New survey finds 3 out of 5 Dutch people are ready for cultivated meat, 1 July. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/press/new-survey-finds-3-out-of-5-dutch-people-are-ready-for-cultivated-meat/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Goodman M, Wylie A, Sexton A, et al. (2024) Analysis of the narrative grammars of cultured meat in UK food and farming media. The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food 30: 1–20.
Goodwin JN and Shoulders CW (2013) The future of meat: A qualitative analysis of cultured meat media coverage. Meat Science 95(3): 445–450.
Grünhage T and Reuter M (2021) What makes diets political? Moral foundations and the left-wing-vegan connection. Social Justice Research 34(1): 18–52.
Kirsch M, Morales-Dalmau J and Lavrentieva A (2023) Cultivated meat manufacturing: Technology, trends, and challenges. Engineering in Life Sciences 23: 2300227. DOI: 10.1002/elsc.202300227.
Kouarfaté BB and Durif F (2023) Understanding consumer attitudes toward cultured meat: The role of online media framing. Sustainability 15(24): 16879.
Laestadius LI (2015) Public perceptions of the ethics of in-vitro meat: Determining an appropriate course of action. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28(5): 991–1009.
Laestadius LI and Caldwell MA (2015) Is the future of meat palatable? Perceptions of in vitro meat as evidenced by online news comments. Public Health Nutrition 18(13): 2457–2467.
LANDTAG NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN (2018) *Antwort der Landesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage 1260 vom 3. Juli 2018 des Abgeordneten Dr. Christian Blex AfD Drucksache 17/3094*. Available at: https://www.landtag.nrw.de/Dokumentenservice/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD17-3325.pdf (accessed 8 April 2026).
Leong AD (2022) Framing in the social media era: Socio-psychological mechanisms underlying online public opinion of cultured meat. New Media & Society: 146144482211222.
Léonie de Jonge (2024) Extreme Rechte - Die Angst vor Insekten im Essen. Deutschlandfunk Nova.
Lewisch L and Riefler P (2023) Behavioural intentions towards cultured meat: The role of personal values, domain-specific innovativeness and distrust in scientists. British Food Journal 125(5): 1769–1781.
Mau S, Lux T and Westheuser L (2023) Triggerpunkte: Konsens und Konflikt in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Mayring P and Fenzl T (2014) Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. In: Baur N and Blasius J (eds) Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, pp. 543–556.
Mohorčich J and Reese J (2019) Cell-cultured meat: Lessons from GMO adoption and resistance. Appetite 143: 104408.
Muiruri SW and Rickertsen K (2024) Norwegian consumers’ willingness to try cultured meat. Future Foods 10: 100409.
Neubaum G and Krämer NC (2018) What do we fear? Expected sanctions for expressing minority opinions in offline and online communication. Communication Research 45(2): 139–164.
Nextnature.net (2014) Cultured future with in vitro meat. Available at: https://nextnature.org/en/magazine/story/2014/the-carnery-a-cultured-future-with-in-vitro-meat?mc_cid=5b5ae01ad1&mc_eid=8ef307f368 (accessed 8 April 2026).
Noelle-Neumann E (1974) The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication 24(2): 43–51.
Ordoñez MAM and Nekmat E (2019) ‘Tipping point’ in the SoS? Minority-supportive opinion climate proportion and perceived hostility in uncivil online discussion. New Media & Society 21(11-12): 2483–2504.
Pang N, Ho SS, Zhang AM, et al. (2016) Can spiral of silence and civility predict click speech on Facebook? Computers in Human Behavior 64: 898–905.
Pilařová L, Kvasničková Stanislavská L, Pilař L, et al. (2022) Cultured meat on the social network Twitter: Clean, future and sustainable meats. Foods 11(17): 1–15.
Post M, Levenberg S, Kaplan D, et al. (2020) Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat. Nature Food 1: 403–415. DOI: 10.1038/s43016-020-0112-z.
Rijksoverheid (2023) Code of Practice for Safely Conducting Tastings of Cultivated Foods Prior to EU Approval, 5 July. Available at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2023/07/05/bijlage-cop-safely-conducting-tastings-cultivated-foods-prior-to-eu-approval (accessed 8 April 2026).
Ryynänen T and Toivanen A (2023) Hocus-pocus tricks and moral progressions: The emerging meanings of cultured meat in online news comments. Food, Culture & Society 26(3): 591–620.
Sabelli C (2023) Scientists protest Italy’s ban on cultivated meat. Nature Italy. DOI: 10.1038/d43978-023-00050-7.
Saha S (2023) Why don't politicians talk about meat? The political psychology of human-animal relations in elections. Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1021013. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1021013.
Siegrist M and Hartmann C (2020) Perceived naturalness, disgust, trust and food neophobia as predictors of cultured meat acceptance in ten countries. Appetite 155: 104814.
Siegrist M and Sütterlin B (2017) Importance of perceived naturalness for acceptance of food additives and cultured meat. Appetite 113: 320–326.
Specht AR, Rumble JN and Buck EB (2020) ‘You call that meat?’ Investigating social media conversations and influencers surrounding cultured meat. Journal of Applied Communications 104(1): 1–18.
Szejda K, Bryant CJ and Urbanovich T (2021) US and UK consumer adoption of cultivated meat: A segmentation study. Foods 10(5): 1–18.
Van der Weele C and Driessen C (2013) Emerging profiles for cultured meat: Ethics through and as design. Animals 3(3): 647–662. DOI: 10.3390/ani3030647.
Verbeke W, Marcu A, Rutsaert P, et al. (2015) ‘Would you eat cultured meat?’ Consumers' reactions and attitude formation in Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Meat Science 102: 49–58.
Weinrich R, Strack M and Neugebauer F (2020) Consumer acceptance of cultured meat in Germany. Meat Science 162: 107924.
Wilks M, Phillips CJC, Fielding K, et al. (2019) Testing potential psychological predictors of attitudes towards cultured meat. Appetite 136: 137–145.
Wu TY, Oeldorf-Hirsch A and Atkin D (2020) A click is worth a thousand words: Probing the predictors of using click speech for online opinion expression. International Journal of Communication 14: 1–20.
Xie Y, Cai L, Ding S, et al. (2025) An overview of recent progress in cultured meat: Focusing on technology, quality properties, safety, industrialization and public acceptance. The Journal of Nutrition. DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2025.01.010.
Baum CM, Bröring S and Lagerkvist C-J (2021) Information, attitudes, and consumer evaluations of cultivated meat. Food Quality and Preference 92: 104226.
Boereboom A, Mongondry P, Aguiar LK de, et al. (2022) Identifying consumer groups and their characteristics based on their willingness to engage with cultured meat: A comparison of four European countries. Foods 11(2): 1–18.
Böhm I, Ferrari A and Woll S (2018) Visions of in vitro meat among experts and stakeholders. NanoEthics 12(3): 211–224.
Boykin K (2019) Chew on this: Investigating public perceptions of lab grown meat. [Unpublished thesis/report].
Bryant C and Barnett J (2020) Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: An updated review (2018–2020). Applied Sciences 10(15): 5201.
Changing Markets Foundation/Ripple Research (2023) Truth, lies and culture wars: Social listening analysis of meat and dairy persuasion narratives.
Chen Y and Zhang Z (2022) Exploring public perceptions on alternative meat in China from social media data using transfer learning method. Food Quality and Preference 98: 104530.
Clifford S (2018) How emotional frames moralize and polarize political attitudes. Political Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/pops.12507.
Dai X, Leung AK and Chong M (2024) The link between people's social perceptions of cultivated meat eaters and their acceptance of cultivated meat. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 27(3): 473–486.
Driessen C and Korthals M (2012) Pig towers and in vitro meat: Disclosing moral worlds by design. Social Studies of Science 42(6): 797–820.
Dürnberger C (2019) Normative concepts of nature in the GMO protest: A qualitative content analysis of position papers criticizing green genetic engineering in Germany. Food Ethics 4(1): 49–66.
Gebauer (2020) AFD sagt veganer Ernährung den Kampf an. Available at: https://www.vegan.eu/afd-gegen-vegan/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2023) Deutscher Markt für pflanzenbasierte Alternativprodukte wächst 2022 um 11% und trotzt der Inflation. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/de/blog/deutscher-markt-fur-pflanzenbasierte-alternativprodukte-wachst-2022/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2024a) Neue Umfrage zu kultiviertem Fleisch und pflanzlichen Alternativen. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/de/blog/umfrage-plantbased-und-kultiviertes-fleisch/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Good Food Institute Europe (2024b) New survey finds 3 out of 5 Dutch people are ready for cultivated meat, 1 July. Available at: https://gfieurope.org/press/new-survey-finds-3-out-of-5-dutch-people-are-ready-for-cultivated-meat/ (accessed 8 April 2026).
Goodman M, Wylie A, Sexton A, et al. (2024) Analysis of the narrative grammars of cultured meat in UK food and farming media. The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food 30: 1–20.
Goodwin JN and Shoulders CW (2013) The future of meat: A qualitative analysis of cultured meat media coverage. Meat Science 95(3): 445–450.
Grünhage T and Reuter M (2021) What makes diets political? Moral foundations and the left-wing-vegan connection. Social Justice Research 34(1): 18–52.
Kirsch M, Morales-Dalmau J and Lavrentieva A (2023) Cultivated meat manufacturing: Technology, trends, and challenges. Engineering in Life Sciences 23: 2300227. DOI: 10.1002/elsc.202300227.
Kouarfaté BB and Durif F (2023) Understanding consumer attitudes toward cultured meat: The role of online media framing. Sustainability 15(24): 16879.
Laestadius LI (2015) Public perceptions of the ethics of in-vitro meat: Determining an appropriate course of action. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28(5): 991–1009.
Laestadius LI and Caldwell MA (2015) Is the future of meat palatable? Perceptions of in vitro meat as evidenced by online news comments. Public Health Nutrition 18(13): 2457–2467.
LANDTAG NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN (2018) *Antwort der Landesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage 1260 vom 3. Juli 2018 des Abgeordneten Dr. Christian Blex AfD Drucksache 17/3094*. Available at: https://www.landtag.nrw.de/Dokumentenservice/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD17-3325.pdf (accessed 8 April 2026).
Leong AD (2022) Framing in the social media era: Socio-psychological mechanisms underlying online public opinion of cultured meat. New Media & Society: 146144482211222.
Léonie de Jonge (2024) Extreme Rechte - Die Angst vor Insekten im Essen. Deutschlandfunk Nova.
Lewisch L and Riefler P (2023) Behavioural intentions towards cultured meat: The role of personal values, domain-specific innovativeness and distrust in scientists. British Food Journal 125(5): 1769–1781.
Mau S, Lux T and Westheuser L (2023) Triggerpunkte: Konsens und Konflikt in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Mayring P and Fenzl T (2014) Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. In: Baur N and Blasius J (eds) Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, pp. 543–556.
Mohorčich J and Reese J (2019) Cell-cultured meat: Lessons from GMO adoption and resistance. Appetite 143: 104408.
Muiruri SW and Rickertsen K (2024) Norwegian consumers’ willingness to try cultured meat. Future Foods 10: 100409.
Neubaum G and Krämer NC (2018) What do we fear? Expected sanctions for expressing minority opinions in offline and online communication. Communication Research 45(2): 139–164.
Nextnature.net (2014) Cultured future with in vitro meat. Available at: https://nextnature.org/en/magazine/story/2014/the-carnery-a-cultured-future-with-in-vitro-meat?mc_cid=5b5ae01ad1&mc_eid=8ef307f368 (accessed 8 April 2026).
Noelle-Neumann E (1974) The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication 24(2): 43–51.
Ordoñez MAM and Nekmat E (2019) ‘Tipping point’ in the SoS? Minority-supportive opinion climate proportion and perceived hostility in uncivil online discussion. New Media & Society 21(11-12): 2483–2504.
Pang N, Ho SS, Zhang AM, et al. (2016) Can spiral of silence and civility predict click speech on Facebook? Computers in Human Behavior 64: 898–905.
Pilařová L, Kvasničková Stanislavská L, Pilař L, et al. (2022) Cultured meat on the social network Twitter: Clean, future and sustainable meats. Foods 11(17): 1–15.
Post M, Levenberg S, Kaplan D, et al. (2020) Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat. Nature Food 1: 403–415. DOI: 10.1038/s43016-020-0112-z.
Rijksoverheid (2023) Code of Practice for Safely Conducting Tastings of Cultivated Foods Prior to EU Approval, 5 July. Available at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2023/07/05/bijlage-cop-safely-conducting-tastings-cultivated-foods-prior-to-eu-approval (accessed 8 April 2026).
Ryynänen T and Toivanen A (2023) Hocus-pocus tricks and moral progressions: The emerging meanings of cultured meat in online news comments. Food, Culture & Society 26(3): 591–620.
Sabelli C (2023) Scientists protest Italy’s ban on cultivated meat. Nature Italy. DOI: 10.1038/d43978-023-00050-7.
Saha S (2023) Why don't politicians talk about meat? The political psychology of human-animal relations in elections. Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1021013. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1021013.
Siegrist M and Hartmann C (2020) Perceived naturalness, disgust, trust and food neophobia as predictors of cultured meat acceptance in ten countries. Appetite 155: 104814.
Siegrist M and Sütterlin B (2017) Importance of perceived naturalness for acceptance of food additives and cultured meat. Appetite 113: 320–326.
Specht AR, Rumble JN and Buck EB (2020) ‘You call that meat?’ Investigating social media conversations and influencers surrounding cultured meat. Journal of Applied Communications 104(1): 1–18.
Szejda K, Bryant CJ and Urbanovich T (2021) US and UK consumer adoption of cultivated meat: A segmentation study. Foods 10(5): 1–18.
Van der Weele C and Driessen C (2013) Emerging profiles for cultured meat: Ethics through and as design. Animals 3(3): 647–662. DOI: 10.3390/ani3030647.
Verbeke W, Marcu A, Rutsaert P, et al. (2015) ‘Would you eat cultured meat?’ Consumers' reactions and attitude formation in Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Meat Science 102: 49–58.
Weinrich R, Strack M and Neugebauer F (2020) Consumer acceptance of cultured meat in Germany. Meat Science 162: 107924.
Wilks M, Phillips CJC, Fielding K, et al. (2019) Testing potential psychological predictors of attitudes towards cultured meat. Appetite 136: 137–145.
Wu TY, Oeldorf-Hirsch A and Atkin D (2020) A click is worth a thousand words: Probing the predictors of using click speech for online opinion expression. International Journal of Communication 14: 1–20.
Xie Y, Cai L, Ding S, et al. (2025) An overview of recent progress in cultured meat: Focusing on technology, quality properties, safety, industrialization and public acceptance. The Journal of Nutrition. DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2025.01.010.
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How to Cite
Baumann, M.F., Landeweerd, L. and van Baalen , D. (2026) ““Soylent Green 2.0?": A Qualitative Analysis of Online Comments on Cultivated Meat in Germany and the Netherlands”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 32(1), pp. 229–250. doi:10.48416/ijsaf.v31i1.804.
Funding data
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HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council
Grant numbers 101070913