The future of meat: lab-grown meat
Climate Adaptation
Technology

In 2013, Dr. Mark Post of The Netherlands created the first lab-grown burger meat for solving the food crisis. He took stem cells from animals and grew them in a Petri dish. Some food tasters said it tasted like a real burger while others just found it dry but the texture of it was close to real meat.  Dr. Mark Post explained that adding fat to the cell-cultured meat could increase its juiciness.

 

Apart from solving the food crisis, what are the benefits of eating lab-grown meat? Adam Smith Institute pointed out three benefits: firstly, it reduces carbon emissions caused by rearing animals and the use of farmland up to 96% and 99% respectively; secondly, it reduces food poisoning cases because the meat is produced under controlled laboratory conditions; thirdly, the price of the alternative meat has dropped from 200,000 pounds to 8 pounds since 2013. Some animal welfare groups support this technology as animal suffering could be ended.

 

Many companies are doing relevant research, for example, an Israeli company Jet Eat is aiming to develop a 3D-printing technology to create lab-grown products by 2020. Meanwhile, an American company Just Inc is attempting to grow not only meat but also seafood in laboratory. In future, this technology may tackle the food crisis and environmental problems. Apart from lab-grown meat, there is a new development of plant-based meat. Hong Kong company Right Treat launched Omnipork, a plant-based meat last year. It meets the taste buds of Asian, and are used by many local restaurants now. We can foresee there will be more choice of lab-grown meat or plant-based meat. Hope it helps to tackle the food crisis and environmental problems we are facing now.
 

 

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/29/meat-poultry-sustainable-affordable-solution-lab-grown

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/45356196

https://omnipork.co/