Implications of Cellular Agriculture for Hospitality and Tourism Management Research: Sustainable Development Goal Perspective

Abstract

The global agricultural sector is facing a disruption driven by economics, emerging technology, and environmental and personal well-being. In particular, advances in cellular biology, along with the emergence of novel production techniques such as precision fermentation, are making the mass-cultivation of alternative proteins in vitro for human consumption an economically plausible proposition. Along with technical and ethical questions, for example on the choice of growth medium or policy implications, the prospect of a decentralised, cultured protein supply chain opens up interesting avenues of future research for hospitality and tourism management. How will hospitality and tourism stakeholders react when new technologies give rise to food service and food tourism that is less reliant on conventional animal husbandry and where properties such as taste, texture, mouthfeel, or tolerability can be cultivated from the molecule-up? Using United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as a backdrop, this conceptual viewpoint article adopts an applied integrative review methodology to discuss megatrends driving the adoption of a cellular agriculture -based food production system, and puts forward an agenda for future research into cellular agriculture in the context of hospitality and tourism management.