http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_in-vitro_meat_is_good_for_you/P2/
http://www.new-harvest.org/faq.htm
The article I found was a Seed Magazine interview with Jason Matheny, the co-founder and director of New Harvest, a company that is striving to develop meat that is grown in a laboratory. The goal of New Harvest is to educate people on the world’s meat addiction and to produce a meat substitute that would help create a solution to the problems associated with the production of meat. The nonprofit company was founded in 2004.
Cultured meat has the potential to completely change the way people live. According to Matheny, worldwide meat consumption will double by the year 2040. He says that meat production currently accounts for an entire fifth of the world’s carbon footprint. Additionally, he points out, meat accounts for many diseases that are transferred through the animals we raise to eat. If this is true, then we need to find ways of producing meat that are not only more humanely produced and safer to eat, but also less polluting to the environment. This is what New Harvest hopes to accomplish through their work.
In-vitro meat is created, according to the New Harvest website, by “taking a number of cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient-rich medium. Cells are capable of multiplying so many times in culture that, in theory, a single cell could be used to produce enough meat to feed the global population for a year. After the cells are multiplied, they are attached to a sponge-like ‘scaffold’ and soaked with nutrients. They may also be mechanically stretched to increase their size and protein content. The resulting cells can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat, such as sausage, hamburger, or chicken nuggets.” If researchers were able to discover a way of industrialize this process, the cost of meat could potentially be lowered. However, at the moment cultured meat is only able to occur on a small scale in a laboratory setting under observation from skilled workers. It is not yet commercially available.
Matheny also pointed out the many challenges that New Harvest faces in developing its product. He pointed out that it is extremely difficult to make in-vitro meat appealing because it is hard to get the correct textures and flavor profiles. However, if they were able to make a passable alternative to meat, it would be great for consumers. This meat is not genetically modified in any way, making it healthier. Also, instead of meat causing diseases, it could actually become better for us. Fat content could be closely controlled so, says Matheny, we could be consuming “hamburgers that prevented heart attacks rather than causing them.”
Overall this is a technology that is still being developed but has enormous potential for the future. I encourage you all to follow the links I posted and read the articles because there are a lot of points that I didn’t bring up here that will enhance the class discussion.
Sources:
Billings, Lee. "Why In-Vitro Meat is Good for You." Seed Magazine. Seed Media Group, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2009.
New Harvest: Advancing Meat Substitutes. New Harvest, 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2009.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post because it is such a huge topic that many people suffer with when eating/not eating meat. To actually produce meat-like food that would taste and be meat (except the fact that it was created in a different manner) I would imagine to be a widely accepted and used thing because it would save the killing of mass amounts of animals while still providing meat and food substances to those who eat it and need it.