In our whole life, we have been buying meat from grocery shops. Isn’t it? But have you ever wondered what if we eat lab-grown meat? How would it be? In laboratories, scientists work with microorganisms but what if they start growing meat?
Would it be a blessing or curse? Let’s read about this!!!!
Meat produced outside of animal cells is referred to as cultured meat and goes by various other names. It is a form of cellular agriculture. Lab-grown meat is grown using animal cells, so it is nearly identical to meat taken from an animal raised on a farm, except the animal did not have to die for us to eat it.
Those who have tried lab-grown meat frequently comment on how similar it is to farm-raised meat. Currently, two types of lab-grown food are being developed: meat and dairy. These are made either directly from animal cells or through fermentation with microorganisms.
Evolution of Lab-grown meat
Plant-based meat substitutes, on the other hand, are now available and have grown in popularity over the last five years. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat products are now available in restaurants and grocery stores all over the world, sometimes fooling meat eaters into thinking they’re eating actual beef.
And there’s a long history of veggie burgers made from peas, soy, beans, grains, mushrooms, and vital wheat gluten that don’t try to fool the palate as much as they do to provide a hearty, tasty, and convenient alternative to “real” burgers.
Since 2013, there has been an increase in interest and funding for lab-grown food, specifically cultured, “clean meat.” Mark Post, a tissue engineering professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, invented the first lab-grown burger in 2013.
When two food critics ate and reviewed it at a London news conference, it sparked speculation about a potential solution to the issues surrounding animal agriculture. Then, by the end of 2020, Singapore became the first country to authorize the production of cultured meat, approving Eat Just’s GOOD Meat branded lab-grown chicken.
The cell-cultured chicken was first served in a single restaurant in 1880, but it has since spread to food stalls and even delivery services in Singapore. Eat Just has been in talks with Qatar and the United States, with approval for lab-grown meat on the horizon.
How expensive lab grown will be?
If lab-grown meat becomes commercially viable, it will almost certainly be more expensive than conventional meat — at least at first. The first lab-grown hamburger, a five-ounce beef patty grown in a petri dish, took two years to create and cost approximately $325,000 at the time.
This is not unusual, as new technologies almost always undergo an expensive research and development phase. When people begin to buy and production volume increases, costs almost always fall. (This was also true for plant-based burgers like the Impossible Burger.)
They used to cost around $20 per burger and were difficult to find. They’re now available everywhere and sell for around $8 per pound.
Is it healthier or beneficial?
There are also other factors to consider. Traditional animal products are a major contributor to foodborne illnesses, outbreaks, and recalls.
Bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli live in the guts of animals and can enter the food system via fecal contamination.
This poses significant food safety risks to consumers. Cultivated meat, which is produced in a sterile and controlled environment, may be a safer option in this regard.
Why is lab-grown meat good?
Lab-grown meat has the potential to significantly reduce the agricultural sector’s environmental impact. This is because growing meat reduces the time and resources required to raise and slaughter animals.
Land would not need to be cleared to grow food in a cultivated meat supply chain, and cattle would not emit methane by the ton. While cultivated meat would have its own energy requirements and would still emit greenhouse gasses, it would be easier to power with renewable energy than conventional meat production.
Another significant advantage of lab-grown meat is that millions of animal lives could be saved because the new product does not necessitate the death of animals in the production of meat.
Though the term “artificial” is frequently used in discussions about lab-grown meat, the truth is that the cells grown are the same as those produced by animals.
The only real difference between lab-grown meat and animal-derived meat products is that lab-grown meat is produced in a facility similar to a brewery rather than a factory farm. That, and the environmental advantages of lab-grown meat.
Is lab-grown meat good to mitigate hunger?
Saving the planet will require more than simply switching to lab-grown beef instead of animal-derived steak.
However, shifting toward lab-grown meat and away from factory farms has the potential to have a significant environmental impact by mitigating some of the significant negative impact of animal agriculture.
Considerations of Religion
One aspect of lab-grown meat worth considering is whether or not it is halal or kosher. There has been much discussion about this topic, with one solution being that harvesting stem cells from an animal slaughtered according to religious practice would make the resulting lab-grown meat permissible as well.
This method necessitates the death of the original animal but saves thousands of others from a similar fate.
For many of us, the prospect of eating lab-grown meat is unsettling. One of the most important things you can do is conduct your own research to learn more about lab-grown meat and the advantages it has over traditional animal-derived meat products.
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Writer
Fahima Akter
Content writing intern
YSSE