Many inventions and innovations in science and technology are being prepared today in laboratories and by brilliant minds around the world. And among many of the innovations that the future holds, there is something extremely attractive because of the environmental, social and economic impact it will bring, and which is literally being prepared just like a delicious, juicy steak: lab-grown meat without slaughtering any animals!
A group of British scientists from Bath (England) have embarked on an important mission: to produce cultured meat in the laboratory. This is why, if these scientists were to achieve their goal of producing the protein on an industrial scale, anyone could eat a piece of meat without the need for the animal in question to have been slaughtered.
Lab-grown meat? This is what it’s all about
Dr. Marianne Ellis, a chemical engineer at the University of Bath, believes that:
” Lab-grown meat is an alternative protein source to feed the world.”
Nick Shorten, from Aberystwyth University in Wales, explains how to make a replica of the animal protein:
“You take a sample of pig tissue, isolate the stem cells to grow new ones and then put them in a bioreactor. Then they can expand massively. The result is that the pig is still alive and happy, at the same time you can get a lot of bacon.”
However, achieving the identical taste and texture of bacon will take many years of research, so for now in Bath they are experimenting with something very natural: grass.
So, in their tests, the British researchers grow rodent cells (because they are cheaper and easier to use) on grass structures that function as a scaffold.
So explains Scott Allan, a graduate student in chemical engineering:
“The idea is, instead of feeding a cow grass and then eating the meat, why not feed grass to our cultured cells? The scaffold made of grass is used to grow the cells, and then this can be incorporated into the final product, which would be pure muscle tissue.”
This type of initiative is very attractive to animal lovers and all those concerned about the environmental problems associated with livestock production. However, lab-grown meat is still at least five years away from being available. In addition, we do not yet know what acceptance it would have among people.
And you, would you eat it?
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