On what basis is it agriculture? A qualitative study of farmers' perceptions of cellular agriculture

Changes in agriculture and food production are essential in a transition towards sustainable food systems. The challenge is to ensure sufficient, healthy and sustainable nutrition for the growing global population with limited natural resources. Current agricultural policies in Western countries favour specialised large-scale farms that are associated with negative impacts on animal welfare, food safety and the environment. One proposed solution for organising sustainable food systems in the future is cellular agriculture, a food production method based on in vitro cell cultivation techniques. However, the impacts of cellular agriculture on livestock farmers have not been extensively studied. This study explores livestock farmers' perceptions of cellular agriculture, as it will potentially impact farming and rural development in the future. The data consists of 22 semi-structured interviews with livestock farmers in Finland. A grounded theory approach and data-led qualitative analysis were used to construct emerging themes from the farmers' perspectives. The results show that the farmers' perceptions of cellular agriculture are multifaceted and interconnected. In the study, six emerging themes were recognised: i) farmers' outlook on cellular agriculture; ii) the role of farmed animals in cellular agriculture; iii) the market potential of cellular agriculture; iv) relationships between conventional and cellular agriculture; v) rural development and vi) support for farmers. The themes reflected the farmers' future projections, the anticipated uncertainties and potential consequences of cellular agriculture, and the drivers for its development. These novel food technologies were identified as being simultaneously a challenge and an opportunity for conventional livestock farmers and rural areas in the future. However, farmers evaluated the short-term potential of cellular agriculture to be implausible or idealistic due to current food system structures and the early state of cellular agriculture technologies.