A Dutch Dairy Farm Grows the World's First Cultivated Meat — Without Slaughtering a Single Animal

2026-06-09 bio

Schipluiden, Tuesday, 9 June 2026.
On June 5, 2026, a working dairy farm in Schipluiden, Netherlands, became the world’s first site to grow cultivated meat alongside traditional livestock farming, backed by €2 million in EU-linked funding.

Agritech Meets Cellular Agriculture in a South Holland Village

The opening of what has been confirmed as the world’s first cultivated meat farm sits at the intersection of agritech and food technology — two sectors that, until now, have largely operated on separate tracks [1][2][3]. The facility, run by Dutch start-up RespectFarms, is not a sterile urban laboratory or a sprawling industrial complex. It is a working dairy farm owned by fifth-generation farmer Corné van Leeuwen in Schipluiden, South Holland, Netherlands [1][2]. The pilot installation was first put in place in November 2025, and on June 5, 2026, the ribbon was formally cut at the inauguration ceremony, marking the farm’s transition into a fully public-facing demonstration and knowledge-sharing site [3][4].

What Cultivated Meat Actually Is — and How It Works

Cultivated meat — sometimes called cell-cultured meat or lab-grown meat — is produced by extracting a small tissue sample from a living animal, isolating muscle cells, and then growing those cells in a controlled environment inside a vessel called a bioreactor [6][GPT]. No slaughter is required at any stage of production. At the Schipluiden facility, the process begins with stem cells drawn from Van Leeuwen’s own cows [5]. Those cells are then placed into bioreactors ranging in capacity from 20 to 200 litres, where they are supplied with nutrients, oxygen, and a carefully regulated temperature to encourage growth into muscle tissue [2][4]. As RespectFarms co-founder and director Ira van Eelen has explained: ‘The cells produced here can become meat products or ingredients for meaty products’ [1]. The production model is deliberately small-scale and decentralized — a conscious departure from the large industrial bioreactor plants that have dominated the cultivated meat investment landscape to date [1][3].

A Family Farm with a History of Firsts

The choice of Van Leeuwen’s farm as the site for this world-first is not incidental. It carries its own technological heritage. As the farmer himself noted at the inauguration: ‘In 1993, my father installed the first milking robot in the world. Back then, that was a huge step as it meant you didn’t need your own hands anymore to milk the cows. Looking back, it’s really obvious how significant that was’ [1]. This generational appetite for innovation has made the farm a fitting backdrop for RespectFarms’ ambition. The start-up’s core philosophy, as articulated by Van Eelen, is that ‘farmers remain at the centre of food production, not replaced by factories’ [3][6]. The company’s very name reflects this ethos — RespectFarms was chosen because the vision is explicitly for farmers to become producers of cultivated meat or fish cells, not to be displaced by them [1].

The Funding Architecture Behind the Project

The Schipluiden pilot has been assembled through a layered funding structure involving both regional government and European Union-linked sources. The Province of South Holland is investing €500,000 (approximately US$576,000) in the project to support knowledge exchange, public outreach, education, and the creation of an experience center on the farm [1][2][4]. Beyond that, RespectFarms has received a €2,000,000 grant co-funded by EIT Food, an EU-backed innovation accelerator [3]. The project was also developed as part of the CRAFT (Cellular Revolution in Agriculture and Farming Technology) Consortium, which includes Wageningen University & Research, poultry farming venture Kipster, engineering firm Royal Kuijpers, and cultivated meat companies Mosa Meat, Aleph Farms, and Multus [3]. The total confirmed public and EU-linked funding across these strands amounts to 2.500 million euros. Meindert Stolk, the provincial deputy for Economy and Innovation in South Holland, offered a clear statement of intent at the opening: ‘With our support, we are making room for innovation. Innovation made Dutch agriculture great, and that is still true today. Progress happens when entrepreneurs, science, and government invest together in new ideas’ [2][4].

The Netherlands as a Global Cultivated Meat Testing Ground

The Schipluiden inauguration did not happen in a policy vacuum. The Netherlands has been quietly positioning itself as Europe’s most permissive and forward-thinking regulatory environment for cultivated meat [1][2]. It is the first country in the European Union to allow controlled tastings of cultivated meat — a status that Regional Minister Stolk highlighted directly: ‘The Netherlands is also the first country in Europe where controlled tastings of cultivated meat are possible. This underlines the strength of our innovation climate and our competitive position’ [1]. The Netherlands has also backed an eight-year, open-source cellular agriculture research programme funded by a Dutch public grant described as ranging from €60 million to over €100 million (approximately US$115 million) [1][alert! ‘The source provides a range of €60 million to over €100 million without specifying the exact final figure or a single confirmed total’]. This contrasts sharply with the regulatory climate in parts of the United States and the European Union, where outright bans on cultivated meat have been enacted — including in the state of Indiana and in Italy [1].

What Comes Next — and What Still Stands in the Way

Despite the milestone, the Schipluiden facility remains a proof-of-concept pilot, not a commercial production site. Cultivated meat has not yet received approval for sale anywhere in the European Union, meaning the cells grown on Van Leeuwen’s farm cannot legally enter the food market in Europe at this time [4][5]. Looking ahead, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is expected to issue its first regulatory opinion on cultivated meat in 2027, following a dossier submission by cultivated duck company Gourmey [1][alert! ‘The source states EFSA is expected to issue its first regulatory opinion in 2027, but no confirmed approval date has been provided and regulatory timelines can shift’]. On the infrastructure side, an experience center is scheduled to open on the Schipluiden farm site during 2026, and a fully operational pilot farm is targeted for completion by 2028 [2][4]. On June 4, 2026 — the day before the formal inauguration — RespectFarms and the Province of South Holland co-hosted the first Cell Farmers Symposium at the provincial government building in The Hague, a gathering designed to open the discussion about how the agricultural sector can participate in the cellular agriculture transition [7]. Van Eelen’s framing of the broader challenge is candid: ‘What happened with all that investment money is that it mainly went to first-of-a-kind cultivated meat companies that had to start from scratch’ [1]. RespectFarms’ farm-integrated model is positioned as a direct answer to that problem — reducing barriers to entry, lowering bioreactor costs, and placing the means of cultivated production in the hands of farmers who already have the land, the animals, and, increasingly, the will to use both.

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