Thursday, February 2, 2017

Synthetic Meat Through Cellular Agriculture

Our desire to eat meat does not give us the right to treat livestock or any animal with cruelty and injustice. Cellular Agriculture, however, may be a fix-all we need to this problem. We still get our meat without taking the lives of others.


"There are two kinds of agricultural products: acellular products and cellular products. Acellular products are made of organic molecules like proteins and fats and contain no cellular or living material. Cellular products are made of living or once-living cells."

Acellular animal products are made without animals by using a microbe like yeast or bacteria. For example, to make milk with yeast, the yeast are altered by inserting the gene carrying "casein," a milk protein. The yeast, now carrying so-called recombinant DNA, makes casein identical to the casein cows make.

"Cellular agriculture allows us to make milk, eggs, meat, leather, fur, rhino horn, and any other animal products from cell cultures rather than from animals. Products harvested from cell cultures are exactly the same as those harvested from an animal or a plant; the only difference is how they are made. Cellular agriculture products have fewer environmental impacts, a safer, purer product, and a more consistent supply. This is because the product is being produced in safe, sterile, controlled conditions. Another exciting aspect of cellular agriculture is the ability to design and tune what you are making. For instance, you could make meat with fewer saturated fats and more unsaturated fats, or you could make leather of different thicknesses. You could make milk without lactose, or eggs without cholesterol."

"Livestock farming is a top contributor to deforestation, land degradation, water pollution and desertification."

Despite the benefits and opportunities presented by cellular agriculture, however, it remains an underfunded area of research.

Read more at new-harvest.org

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