Scientific advancement introduces us to Lab Grown Meat for the greater good but can it be the future of human diet? Humanity is still dependent on primitive diet system and for protein, we still consume animals meat. Despite the fact that some of the animals are going extinct because of our dietary dependency. But this is the only option we have till now. Though Lab grown meat has not yet been accepted but we can believe that it can be the future of our diet.
A research found out that, each person in average consume 75 pounds of meat every year across the world. Of course this is’t equally spread but this is the scenario in average. According to a report made in 2015, Australian and American people consume huge amount of meat.
Traditionally we all have some specific dietary requirement and some meat are prohibited depending on cultural norm. Beef, Pork, Poultry, Sheep and goat are the main source of natural meat. Some countries like India are mostly vegetarian and some cannot afford enough meat. But the desire for meat is consistently growing. In compare to early 70’s, presently American people eat meat in greater amount than before.
Story of Clean Meat
The consumption of animal meat is destroying our ecosystem and various types of animals are going extinct. So to avoid animal consumption, scientists had to look for alternative. And the Lab grown meat is the ultimate alternative for the animal meat. Winston Churchill predicted in Thoughts and Adventures that “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” Though it still sounds like a science fiction but the science has brought it to the reality.
The term Clean Meat preferred by proponents because its completely safe and Eco friendly. This lab grown meat is even cleaner and safer than the actual meat. The processing of lab meat started in 1971, when a researcher grew guinea pig aortic smooth muscle in Petri dishes. In 1990s NASA funded a project with an intention of providing meat in long space travel. And later on they funded for producing fish “filets” from goldfish skeletal muscle explants. Despite the approval of the judge panel who thought it smells link fish, The US Food and Drug Administration regulations prevented the panelists from actually tasting the experimental food. On August 6, 2013, Mark Post and his colleagues presented the first lab-grown burger at a news conference in London.
How is Lab Grown Meat Processed?
Clean Meat or Lab Grown Meat is produced in cell culture, rather than inside an animal body. Firstly researchers remove starter cells from the animal by a biopsy and then proliferate them in Vetro. After that they identify and isolate the desired cells from the starter cells. It could be difficult to isolate the proper embryonic stem cells which grow rapidly than any other cells. Secondly researchers keep the desired cells in a stir-tank bioreactor which is a culture medium for growing meat. Thirdly, the reactor provides enough nutrients, salts, pH buffers, and growth factors which proliferate properly. Finally, to grow the clean meat they also need to use fetal bovine serum. To collect this bovine serum they need a pregnant cow though various company use different method of collecting this serum but the over all procedure is similar.
Benefits of Clean Meat
Clean meat is not just in name but also it is safer than the organic meat. The cultured meat is clean because it follows a very strict and specific procedure during the production. The most important fact is, it is fat free and harmless. Though the meat is not juicy but it feels like meat. Lab grown meat is a very sustainable solution for satisfying people with their desire and protein.
Our current method of producing livestock is extremely slow in compare to rapidly increasing population. The conversion rate of feed to animal protein is too high and the cost of animal feed is rapidly growing. So it will be very beneficial for achieving a sustainable goal. Day by day meat price is sky rocketing and poor or middle class people highly beneficial if the commercial production goes well.
Our food habit is destroying our environment in various ways and lab grown meat can save the environment by saving animals. Animal slaughtering is highly harmful for our environment. The researchers estimated that the production of 1,000 kg of cultured meat would require 7–45% less energy, 99% less land, and 82–96% less water, depending on the species of meat, compared with the same mass of regular meat produced in Europe.
Another benefit of cultured meat is animal welfare. We don’t have to slaughter any animal for food. We even don’t have to bred more animal for fulfilling our need. Most of the time animals are bred in very unhealthy condition and slaughtered for meat which is very painful. In this process animals will only be living stem cell donors.
