According to scientist, meat grown in vats are necessary as meat are no longer sufficient to feed 9 billion people (without destroying our earth) who are expected to be alive by the year 2050.
Do you know that:
- even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption.
- feeding the 3 billion extra people could require twice as much water by then. This, says Professor Kenneth Strzepek of the University of Colorado, could mean an 18% reduction in worldwide water availability for food growing by 2050.
- If developing countries had better storage facilities and supermarkets and consumers in rich countries bought only what they needed, there would be far more food available.
What is artificial meat?
Artificial meat also known as vitro meat or cultured meat, is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete, living animal. Several current research projects are growing in vitro meat experimentally, although no meat has yet been produced for public consumption. The first generation products will most likely be minced meat, and a long-term goal is to grow fully developed muscle tissue. Potentially, any animal’s muscle tissue could be grown through the in vitro process.
A few scientists claim that this technology is ready for commercial use and simply needs a company to back it. Cultured meat is currently prohibitively expensive, but it is anticipated that the cost could be reduced to about twice as expensive as conventionally produced chicken.
In vitro meat should not be confused with imitation meat, which is vegetarian food product produced from vegetable protein, usually from soy or gluten. The terms “synthetic meat” and “artificial meat” may refer to either. In vitro meat has also been described, somewhat derisively, as “laboratory-grown” meat. [wiki]
PETA Offers $1 Million Reward to First to Make In Vitro Meat
Scientists around the world are researching or seeking the funds to research ways to produce meat in the laboratory—without killing any animals. In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but we’re still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.
PETA is now stepping in and offering a $1 million reward to the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.
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