The 'Who's Who' and 'What's What' of Cultured Meat

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Post #4

Research companies have been experimenting with the idea of cultured meat, or in vitro meat as it is also called. Cultured meat relies on living cells taken from animal stem cells or biopsied cells, avoiding the killing of animals. These cells are allowed to multiply in a nutrient-rich medium. The In theory, one of these animals cells could be cultured to feed the entire world for one year "without any genetic modification or animal slaughter. 

There are multiple reasonings why companies have started looking into cultured meats. Memphis Meats started because of their love of meat, but their awareness that the current agricultural methods are not conducive to sustainability. Land and water could be more sustainably used to grow crops for the rapidly growing world population since more land and water resources are needed for one steak than are needed for one pound of grain. SuperMeat emphasizes more of the vegan/vegetarian side of cultured meat. They recognize the importance of meat in our society and that convincing everyone to stop eating meat is not a realistic expectation or goal. New Harvest is a non-profit organization that helps fund research to develop synthetic animal products. Besides funding research for developing synthetic meat, they are also funding development of synthetic eggs, milk, and cheese.

The FDA has not stated yet whether or not they are looking into this process in hopes of approving it. Some dietitians are against synthetic meat, citing that people should be moving more towards plant-based proteins rather than eating meats and animal products that are contributing to some of the costly chronic conditions affecting society. Other dietitians agree with the concept that synthetic meat would have a large positive on the environment, especially the dietary carbon and water footprint.

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/news/exclusive0217.shtml

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