Can you imagine buying your next burger only to realize that the food of which you just sunk your teeth into was brought to you without the killing of any animals? Meat grown in laboratories have contributed to making this situation a reality. There has been significant progress in the development of lab-grown meat from companies such Mosa Meat, Memphis Meat, Super Meat, and Finless Foods.
The process of growing meat in laboratories begins by taking a sample from the muscle of an animal. Technicians will proceed to collect stem cells from the tissue of the selected animal. These stem cells will be dramatically multiplied and allowed to differentiate into primitive fibers that form muscle tissue. Mosa Meat claims that one tissue sample of a cow can produce enough muscle tissue to make up to 80,000 quarter-pounders.
If lab-grown meat one day becomes popular, then it could eliminate a large amount of the cruel treatment that is given to animals that are raised for food. This product could additionally reduce the environmental costs of meat production. Lab-grown meat, as a result, only requires necessary resources for sustaining cultured cells, not an entire organism.
Meat grown in Petri dishes will, therefore, allow people to eat way fewer animals. In the United States alone, 26 million pounds of beef is consumed every year. The demands for a massive industrialization livestock system are very high, and these systems have become problematic for our environment. As stated by G. Owen Schaefer “worldwide, livestock may be responsible for 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And the system rarely has the animals’ best interests in mind.” Lab-grown meat, furthermore, will offer a way to potentially grow meals worth of meat from just a handful of cells.
