An extraterrestrial spacecraft approaches our solar system, making its way to Earth. The captain silences the eager crew and turns to the science officer.

“Any updates?” the captain inquires.

“Good news, captain. We’re detecting signs of life, and long-range scans show that a single species has significantly altered the planet,” the officer replies.

“Fantastic. Establish contact.”

Soon, a cow grazing in an Iowa field notices a drone fluttering above, emitting nonsensical noises.

While whimsical, this scenario reflects a profound reality of our planet.

A newcomer to Earth would observe that one-third of its land is occupied not by humans but by livestock.

This amounts to over 40 million square kilometers designated for domestic animals and the crops needed to sustain them—an area larger than the combined size of Russia, Canada, and the United States.

The map below vividly illustrates this point. A solid red line marks the land in America used for livestock and their feed, while the striped red lines represent feed exported abroad.

This effectively reveals two distinct Americas.

In one, we carry smartphones in our pockets that are 100,000 times more advanced than the computers that facilitated lunar travel.

In the other, livestock continues to roam as it has for over 10,000 years since domestication began.

Despite advancements, we have yet to modernize our oldest industry. We’ve replaced horses with airplanes, yet the cow remains irreplaceable—until now.

Technological innovation is finally reaching the livestock sector. If predictions hold true, the previously mentioned map will soon resemble the one below, with the entire livestock industry contained within a small red dot.

That’s the encouraging aspect.

However, we must first confront some unsettling realities. Conditions may worsen before they improve.

The issue lies in consumption patterns. Much of the world’s livestock is raised to satisfy the appetites of Western populations, who consume over 100 kg of meat annually, in stark contrast to the mere 5 kg consumed by individuals in India.

As developing nations gain wealth, their populations are increasingly adopting Western dietary preferences.

This trend, as demonstrated by the rapid rise in meat production in China, poses significant challenges.

There is insufficient land on Earth to sustain a Western-style diet for everyone; the numbers don’t even come close.

Currently, we are using land comparable to that of Africa to raise livestock, while demand for meat and dairy products continues to surge.

The pressing question is how to transition from this situation to that small red dot on the earlier map.

Let’s begin with ice cream.

Globally, ice cream is beloved. Similar to meat, the demand for dairy products is soaring in developing nations. By 2026, consumption is projected to reach $90 billion, up from $64 billion this year.

This increase translates into a greater need for livestock and grazing land just to satisfy cravings for a scoop of chocolate mint.

Unless we can devise a way to shortcut this process entirely—like producing ice cream without cows.

This innovation actually took place last year. A biotech startup named Perfect Day created the first ice cream for consumers that is entirely animal-free.

The ingenuity behind this achievement is remarkable.

The key to delightful ice cream lies in milk proteins called whey and casein, which impart the creamy texture that attracts consumers to frozen treats.

Instead of sourcing these proteins from cows, Perfect Day’s researchers engineered them using fungi. The resulting proteins are identical to those from cow's milk but produced in large, sanitary tanks, eliminating the need for pastures, animal feed, milking, and other processes.

Perfect Day’s triumph with ice cream has prompted them and similar companies to explore cheese, yogurt, and milk alternatives.

This is how industry disruption occurs—and this is only the beginning.

Perfect Day has secured $360 million in funding from investors who believe that technology is on the verge of transforming the livestock sector. Among their major backers is the Singapore government via its investment arm, Temasek.

It’s understandable why Singapore is keen on companies like Perfect Day. With only 1% of its land available for food production, this densely populated island imports 90% of its calories from distant sources, including the U.S. and Europe.

To reduce reliance on imports, Singapore has initiated an ambitious plan to produce 30% of its food domestically by 2030.

A crucial aspect of this initiative is to replicate Perfect Day’s success with meat production. The process might not sound appealing, but it involves extracting stem cells from animals such as chickens, cows, fish, or pigs and cultivating them in bioreactors until they resemble a pink paste.

This substance is then combined with other ingredients to produce familiar meat products like hamburgers, sausages, and steaks.

The method is anticipated to require just 1% of the land currently utilized by the livestock industry.

And that’s how we envision the small red dot on the map.

Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown meat, is expected to make its retail debut next year. By 2040, bioreactors in Singapore and other locations could be responsible for approximately 35% of global meat consumption.

After millennia of relentless expansion across continents, the era of livestock is finally drawing to a close.

As billions of these domesticated animals vanish from the planet, the resulting transformations will be extraordinary. Let’s explore some of the significant changes.

Transportation

The movement of livestock is deeply rooted in human history and culture. The term “drive” originates from herding animals, and many of England’s historic drovers’ roads evolved into today’s highways. In America, cattle drives shaped the cowboy archetype and contributed to defining American identity.

Today, however, the world spends $21 billion annually to transport 2 billion animals via truck and ship.

This figure excludes air transport; Australia alone exports nearly 100,000 tons of meat by air each year.

Imagine the implications of cultured meat for the trucks, ships, and planes currently transporting billions of animals globally. The need for such transport will diminish, as cultured meat can be produced anywhere, independent of a country’s pasture or climate.

Bioreactor tanks can be established close to consumers, transforming shipping logistics from transoceanic voyages to local deliveries.

We might witness a rise in establishments akin to microbreweries, but instead selling micro-meats, each offering unique and sophisticated products.

Ethics

This area requires little elaboration. The staggering number of animals slaughtered annually for meat (not accounting for dairy and egg production) includes:

• 69 billion chickens
• 1.5 billion pigs
• 656 million turkeys
• 574 million sheep
• 480 million goats
• 302 million cattle

Health

Nearly 80% of antibiotics administered in the United States are given to livestock rather than humans, contributing to a worrying rise in antibiotic resistance that affects human populations.

The CDC labels antibiotic resistance as “one of the most significant public health challenges of our time,” with over 35,000 fatalities each year attributed to it.

Moreover, illnesses from contaminated meat, such as E. coli, mad cow disease, listeriosis, and salmonella, pose serious health risks. Viruses that transmit from livestock to humans, including bird flu and swine flu, are also a concern.

That pink paste from sterile bioreactors doesn’t seem so unappealing now, does it?

Land

The impact on land use will be significant.

We can gauge the changes by examining Europe, where the reduction in grazing has already led to a 90,000 km² expansion of forests in just two decades.

This area is comparable to that of Portugal.

The resurgence of woodlands and other natural habitats has allowed wolves to return to the outskirts of Paris, while bears have been sighted in countries like Switzerland and Portugal for the first time in over a century.

I have witnessed this incredible transformation firsthand.

During my time in Singapore, I resided in an area formerly known as Dairy Farm (though the cows had long since departed).

This area once hosted 600 cows under the relentless equatorial sun.

Before the cows arrived, however, it was covered in forest.

In the 1850s, Alfred Russel Wallace spent weeks here evading tigers and leopards while discovering new species that would later aid him in formulating the theory of evolution concurrently with Charles Darwin.

The introduction of cows replaced the tigers, leading to deforestation. This barren landscape persisted until the 1970s when the cows were removed and some land was converted into a park.

Now, just decades later, the area looks like this.

This is what disruption will look like.

New technologies are finally reshaping our oldest industry, leading to significant improvements in health and environmental conditions.

For thousands of years, we have altered our planet.

In the coming 10 to 20 years, we will begin to restore it.