July 13, 2005 -- Number 27, Volume 5
"1. Tissue Engineering Study Says Animal Flesh Can be Grown in Labs
An article in the latest edition Tissue Engineering discusses the feasibility of producing "cultured meat" in laboratories as an alternative to raising and slaughtering farmed animals. (The full text is available online, see link below). Authored by a team of international researchers, the article describes two possible methods of generating edible animal flesh based on tissue engineering. The first method is described as a "scaffold-based" technique that involves layering sheets of engineered tissue to replicate various types of processed meat products. The second, more complex method involves culturing progenitor (parent) cells on small beads in a nutrient-rich medium. Cultured meat has been produced on a small scale by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to maintain food supplies during longer space flights. Three research teams have examined the subject closely in the past.
The current article's authors cite several potential benefits to finding an affordable way to produce in vitro meat: "With cultured meat, the ratio of saturated to polyunsaturated fatty acids could be better controlled; the incidence of foodborne disease could be significantly reduced; and resources could be used more efficiently, as biological structures required for locomotion and reproduction would not have to be grown or supported." According to one physicist quoted separately, 21% of the carbon dioxide produced by humans is attributable to our consumption of animals. The article also notes that cultured meat may help reduce human dependency on farmed animals, providing a more humane alternative to breeding, raising, and slaughtering billions of animals for food. The authors' "back-of-the-envelope calculations" suggest that the world's demand for animal flesh could be generated from a single cell. However, the technology faces several potential hurdles, including affordability of the process and acceptability among meat consumers. "
1. "In-Vitro Cultured Meat Production," Tissue Engineering, May 2005
Full article (PDF file, 54k):
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf...en.2005.11.659
2.
http://www.farmedanimal.net/
Would YOU eat meat grown in a lab?
How do you personally feel about it?
If this were to be economically feasible and comsumers enjoyed this product, i could see how it could become an important product in our society, having a positive effect on the enviroment, the fat intake of individuals and discontinue the suffering that occurs at many ill managed farms.
Sweetpea