Cultured Meat: Saving Cows and the Environment at ideacity

“Meet the new Meat!!” Daisy Van Der Schaft introduced this tissue-engineered cultured meat to us in 2012 when she highlighted the work she and her colleagues were researching to address the issues of sustainable, environmentally friendly foods.

Cultured meat is a meat product that does not require the use of any living animals. Instead it is grown in a laboratory with the use of stem cells obtained from a cows muscle tissue. Featured all over the news, cultured meat is a concept that can help not only the environment but also many economic issues, including: conserving energy, land and water, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and much more.

Hopefully consumers will embrace the in vitro meat and not dub it a Frankenburger; Daisy will soon know as the first bio-fabricated hamburger was grilled and eaten yesterday in the UK. Reported by The Guardian, the New York Times and the Globe and Mail, the meat was deemed “close to the real beef burger but lacking the fat to create the juiciness”, seemed the conclusion. Below, some choice quotes from trending articles on cultured meat:

“The meat was produced using stem cells — basic cells that can turn into tissue-specific cells — from cow shoulder muscle from a slaughterhouse. The cells were multiplied in a nutrient solution and put into small petri dishes, where they became muscle cells and formed tiny strips of muscle fiber. About 20,000 strips were used to make the five-ounce burger, which contained breadcrumbs, salt, and some natural colorings as well.” – New York Times, Henry Fountain

“If the extremely expensive and time-consuming process that resulted in a single lab-grown hamburger can be transformed into an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way of mass-producing meat protein, there would be obvious benefits: fewer greenhouse gases from the rear ends of livestock; less deforestation for grazing; less need for the monoculture of feed production (although there will still be a need for a nutrient source for the meats cultivated in factories); and, potentially, a cheap supply of protein that could help reduce hunger around the world.” – The Globe and Mail

The real success may be one Gabor Forgacs was optimistic of when he spoke at ideacity 2013, “imagine a world where leather and meats could be made without killing a single animal and doing no harm to the environment.

The production of a whole hamburger made from cultured meat is a success, however scientists involved in this breakthrough have estimated that it will take at least 10 years for this product to be commercially available.

Find out more about this “miracle meat” by watching talks from our speakers, Daisy Van Der Schaft and Gabor Forgacs.