Lab-Grown Meat
3 min readMar 7, 2022
- In the modern world, livestock is responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- According to the world economic forum, the global population will rise to 10 billion by 2050. and meat products will have to increase by 88%.
- The concept of lab-grown meat — also known as cultured, cultivated, cell-based, or clean meat emerged over the last two decades. Although it’s not quite ready for consumers, Silicon Valley start-ups are racing to get lab-grown meat on the market. And the stakes are incredibly high. Lab-grown meat has the potential to spare millions of animals from lifetimes of suffering and inhumane deaths in factory farms. Lab-grown meats are made by extracting cells from living animals.
- First, a technician takes cells from a live animal. then these cells are grown up in a lab. then the sample is introduced into a bioreactor which contains all necessary materials the cells need to grow. the cells in the bioreactor will grow and multiply. then they are harvested and shaped into different shapes and sizes which is consumable. lab-grown meat first appeared in the public in the Netherlands in 2013. this technology is partially funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. lab-grown meat lacks the fat that real meat has which gives flavor and texture to the food. science guys working hard on this. they will also have to find an alternative to the fetal bovine serum which is derived from cow fetuses and added to a bioreactor.
- 70 billion land animals, and possibly trillions of marine animals, are killed for human consumption each year. A majority of these animals are raised in factory farms, where they experience brutal forms of abuse in severely overcrowded and putrid conditions for the entirety of their short lives.
- Lab-grown meat is real meat. It has the same animal cells as what we traditionally consider “meat” the flesh of an animal. The difference has to do with how it gets to your plate: lab-grown meat comes from cells harvested from a living animal, while conventional meat comes from an animal that’s raised and killed for human consumption.
- The idea that no animal has to be raised or killed may be enough to convince ethically-minded consumers to opt for lab-grown meat over conventional meat products. And, based on what companies and researchers have already shared about lab-grown meat, additional health benefits and reduced environmental impacts may also make lab-grown meat a more enticing choice for consumers. What also makes lab-grown meat different is that it often doesn’t contain the same growth hormones and saturated fats associated with conventional meat.
- Lab-grown meat isn’t artificial meat. It’s real animal flesh. It just happens to grow in a lab, not on a factory farm. Scientists are even working to ensure that lab-created muscle tissue mimics the exact texture of traditionally-grown meat.
- Thanks to this innovation, meat-lovers can still enjoy the products they already know and love, with the knowledge that no animals were brutally raised or slaughtered for their meal.
