Photo from open sources
Four years ago, the so-called “test tube meat” It was considered the greatest, and therefore completely unjustified luxury. Just imagine: then the cost of a hamburger with a patty from cultivated beef exceeded 300 thousand dollars! But also harder to believe that today this figure has dropped to 10 dollars. It seems that in the foreseeable future we are expected to develop artificial meat industry.
Scientists are so rapidly improving methods growing meat through culturing cells, not inside living organisms that in five years is available “meat from test tubes “may appear in widespread sale. In most relevant laboratories use animal cells extracted from blood serum. They are placed in a bioreactor, where they are formed the muscles. This muscle becomes the basis of cultivated meat.
A photo from open sources
In 2013, the Dutch biologist Mark Post prepared the first artificial meat sandwich. The production of such a sandwich cost him 325 thousand American dollars. However just four years, technological progress has reduced many times production costs of this product, and today a kilogram “meat from a test tube” costs “only” $ 80, and the price of a standard hamburger with its addition does not exceed 10 dollars.
However, scientists need to bring the cost of a kilogram at least up to $ 7 to appear on the shelves of our stores, for example, beef tenderloin, which has never been part of a cow. There are already 6 private companies active in the world. developments in this field. For example, an American company “Memphis Meats” intends to launch in 2-5 years sales of grown in a laboratory of beef steaks and chicken breasts. And Israeli startup called SuperMeat plans to produce kosher chicken liver – about the same time.
Why is cultured meat better than usual?
Traditional animal husbandry is causing huge damage to our planet. harm.
So, the production of one hamburger cutlet is spent in an average of 2.5 thousand liters of water. Colossal stands out for pastures land area, and the livelihoods of cows are the main source of methane in the atmosphere. According to agroecologists, obtaining artificial beef will allow the meat industry to cut land use is 99%, water – 95%, energy – 70%. At this greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 90%, and therefore global warming can be solved by the simplest way – the rejection of the traditional cultivation of meat.
Do not forget about the ethical side of the issue. Wide the public has long known that large meat industry keep livestock in terrifying conditions, and slaughter methods are just barbaric. However, the creation of “test tube meat” does not cause anyone pain, because this meat is devoid of the nervous system and even more so – consciousness, and therefore not able to feel. It, by the way, also cannot suffer from ailments, unlike full-fledged organisms, so the consumer of such a product will be sure that its meat is as safe as possible.
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