Lab Grown Meat Will Be A Game Changer To Protect Environment
There is a perennial debate on the merits and demerits of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. But a recent report released by United Nations definitely goes heavily in favor of vegetarian food.
It says that people must adopt a more plant-based diet to protect the environment, with taxes on meat helping to deliver the shift in habits needed.
United Nation's Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report recommends to grow meat in laboratories which can reduce the impact of live stock production, which accounts for 77 per cent of agricultural land globally. It further emphasizes that an emission tax on food could be transformative in reducing the greenhouse gases and loss of wildlife habitat linked to eating red meat.
It quotes evidence that imposition such tax can save one billion tonnes of carbon-di-oxide-equivalent next year and deliver significant global health benefits 'due to reduced consumption of meat. It is interesting to note that beef generates at least six times the greenhouse gas emissions per kilo of protein as soya-beans. Red meat requires 28 times more land to produce than chicken and one of the main reason for deforestation in the Amazon.
There were 250 scientists and experts from seventy countries prepared GEO report. It says that food production needs to rise by 50 per cent to feed the projected nine to ten billion world population in 2050, up from the present 7.7 billion.
But probably the lab grown meat may be a game changer . It may be a source of clean meat without adversely affecting the environment.
It was Bruce Friedrich, who has shown that without sacrificing taste the meat can be grown in laboratory. His organization Good Food institute has shown very encouraging results. Many more players entered in market, companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are becoming brand names. Sales of meat alternatives rose 22 per cent last year in USA.
Initially Friedrich advocated plant based protein as he was the one who strongly supported vegan way of life, faced lot of criticism for promoting plant based protein and branded as 'self righteous claptrap'. But of-late his Institute started supporting meat developed in laboratory with the help of stem cells as the process does not involve animal slaughter.
Last year Food and Drug Administration (FDA) USA made headlines when it approved the plant-based 'Imossible Burger' , which relies on an ingredient from genetically modified yeast for its meaty taste. In fact European Union (EU) sparked controversy by extending heavy restrictions on genetically modified organisms by classifying them as gene-edited crops.
I am sure many among you in India might have not heard about “cultured meat” — meats that don’t come directly from animals but instead from cell cultures. Lab-grown meats aroused lot of public interest in USA.
Opinion polls conducted in American media seem to indicate that public attitudes about cultured meat( read lab meat) are all over the place, depending on who’s asking and who’s being asked. Overlooking the details may spell trouble for its acceptance in the United States and internationally.
This emerging biotechnology captured attention in 2013 with a live tasting of a lab-grown burger that had a $330,000 price tag. Production has gone largely under the radar since then, but researchers and companies have been racing to affordable price and, they say, are finally on the cusp of it.
Production of cell-cultured meat involves retrieving a live animal’s adult muscle stem cells and setting them in a nutrient-rich liquid. Proponents claim future techniques could allow these cells to make many burgers without collecting more cells from an animal. Groups of these multiplying cells eventually look like patties or nuggets because they grow around a scaffold which helps the meat take on a desired shape. The result is a product that looks and tastes like meat because it’s made from animal cells, rather than plant-based products that lack animal tissue but try to look and taste like,
So how is this chicken made? Memphis Meats’ in-house senior scientist Eric Schulze explains the process that they started by harvesting cells from high-quality, living chickens that might otherwise go into conventional meat, The chickens are not killed in the process. They look for cells that have potential to renew, put them in environment where they can grow and feed them water and nutrients — vitamins, minerals, proteins, sugars — and let them grow. It takes between four and six weeks for harvested cells to grow into a fleshed-out chicken tender. It is comparable to the time a chick takes to reach adulthood in today’s modern poultry industry.
The San Francisco Bay Area-based company crowdfunded its mission in 2015 to grow “clean meat.” Since then, it’s introduced a lab-grown meatballs. It now plans to grow Thanks Giving Day Turkey also in lab.. The company has raised a total of $3 million, and plans to continue conversations with more investors Memphis Meats’ lab-grown poultry and beef will be available in supermarkets by 2021.
Both Memphis Meats and Mosa Meat — which is based in the Netherlands and counts Google co-founder Sergey Brin among its investors — have produced lab-grown burger-like meat patties from bovine cells. Memphis says they are the first to grow poultry cells in a lab.
As the cultured meat doesn’t involve livestock and thus avoids the associated environmental impacts and ethical issues, it’s been highly anticipated by environmental groups, animal welfare advocates and some health-conscious consumers. Producing cultured meat will consume fewer natural resources, avoid slaughter and remove the need for the growth hormones used in the traditional meat industry.
It says that people must adopt a more plant-based diet to protect the environment, with taxes on meat helping to deliver the shift in habits needed.
United Nation's Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report recommends to grow meat in laboratories which can reduce the impact of live stock production, which accounts for 77 per cent of agricultural land globally. It further emphasizes that an emission tax on food could be transformative in reducing the greenhouse gases and loss of wildlife habitat linked to eating red meat.
It quotes evidence that imposition such tax can save one billion tonnes of carbon-di-oxide-equivalent next year and deliver significant global health benefits 'due to reduced consumption of meat. It is interesting to note that beef generates at least six times the greenhouse gas emissions per kilo of protein as soya-beans. Red meat requires 28 times more land to produce than chicken and one of the main reason for deforestation in the Amazon.
There were 250 scientists and experts from seventy countries prepared GEO report. It says that food production needs to rise by 50 per cent to feed the projected nine to ten billion world population in 2050, up from the present 7.7 billion.
But probably the lab grown meat may be a game changer . It may be a source of clean meat without adversely affecting the environment.
It was Bruce Friedrich, who has shown that without sacrificing taste the meat can be grown in laboratory. His organization Good Food institute has shown very encouraging results. Many more players entered in market, companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are becoming brand names. Sales of meat alternatives rose 22 per cent last year in USA.
Initially Friedrich advocated plant based protein as he was the one who strongly supported vegan way of life, faced lot of criticism for promoting plant based protein and branded as 'self righteous claptrap'. But of-late his Institute started supporting meat developed in laboratory with the help of stem cells as the process does not involve animal slaughter.
I am sure many among you in India might have not heard about “cultured meat” — meats that don’t come directly from animals but instead from cell cultures. Lab-grown meats aroused lot of public interest in USA.
Opinion polls conducted in American media seem to indicate that public attitudes about cultured meat( read lab meat) are all over the place, depending on who’s asking and who’s being asked. Overlooking the details may spell trouble for its acceptance in the United States and internationally.
This emerging biotechnology captured attention in 2013 with a live tasting of a lab-grown burger that had a $330,000 price tag. Production has gone largely under the radar since then, but researchers and companies have been racing to affordable price and, they say, are finally on the cusp of it.
Production of cell-cultured meat involves retrieving a live animal’s adult muscle stem cells and setting them in a nutrient-rich liquid. Proponents claim future techniques could allow these cells to make many burgers without collecting more cells from an animal. Groups of these multiplying cells eventually look like patties or nuggets because they grow around a scaffold which helps the meat take on a desired shape. The result is a product that looks and tastes like meat because it’s made from animal cells, rather than plant-based products that lack animal tissue but try to look and taste like,
Precisely two years back, Memphis Meats — one of two major technology companies that have created burger patties out of stem cells — hatched a plan to create lab-grown chicken and duck. At a tasting in March 2017, Memphis Meats served lab-grown chicken strips that were battered and fried, as well as lab-grown duck a l’orange. Early tasters of the product swear it tastes just like chicken.
So how is this chicken made? Memphis Meats’ in-house senior scientist Eric Schulze explains the process that they started by harvesting cells from high-quality, living chickens that might otherwise go into conventional meat, The chickens are not killed in the process. They look for cells that have potential to renew, put them in environment where they can grow and feed them water and nutrients — vitamins, minerals, proteins, sugars — and let them grow. It takes between four and six weeks for harvested cells to grow into a fleshed-out chicken tender. It is comparable to the time a chick takes to reach adulthood in today’s modern poultry industry.
The San Francisco Bay Area-based company crowdfunded its mission in 2015 to grow “clean meat.” Since then, it’s introduced a lab-grown meatballs. It now plans to grow Thanks Giving Day Turkey also in lab.. The company has raised a total of $3 million, and plans to continue conversations with more investors Memphis Meats’ lab-grown poultry and beef will be available in supermarkets by 2021.
Both Memphis Meats and Mosa Meat — which is based in the Netherlands and counts Google co-founder Sergey Brin among its investors — have produced lab-grown burger-like meat patties from bovine cells. Memphis says they are the first to grow poultry cells in a lab.
As the cultured meat doesn’t involve livestock and thus avoids the associated environmental impacts and ethical issues, it’s been highly anticipated by environmental groups, animal welfare advocates and some health-conscious consumers. Producing cultured meat will consume fewer natural resources, avoid slaughter and remove the need for the growth hormones used in the traditional meat industry.
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