Meat: Without the Animals

As it is currently over 98% of all meat raised in the US is from factory farms with many animals living in waste. The living conditions are terrible thus allowing bacteria to cultivate and since the animals are in such poor condition their immune systems are not working to their full potential. Tens of hundreds of animals are kept in these factory farms all across the nation. All of the animals have to be fed, as well as their waste cleaned up and disposed of. The factories produce waste and the environment is impacted.

The wave of the future; scientists are currently working on cultivating meat in a lab fit for human consumption, thanks to the use of stem cells. A collective of scientists from the Netherlands, the US, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have a single goal and that is to use a single stem cell to grow muscle tissue. The project is still in its early stages and it could be years before we see anything like this but the possibilities are enormous.

The positives to cultured meat are many. The meat created in labs would be sterile, because the conditions they are created under would be sterile. There would be no way for disease to taint the meat and grow in the animals within the factory farm. The nutrient content of the meat can be customized, so meat with different vitamin / protein content could be produced.

Why cultured meat is good; meat production is hard on the planet. A cow consumes 6 pounds of plant protein to produce 1 pound of meat protein. Livestock also pollutes and harms the atmosphere and as the earth continues to be populated, meat demand will rise and rise and soon we will not be able to keep up.

"Each cell could, in principle, be turned into 220 pounds of meat, so a handful of pig umbilical cords could be sufficient to make enough meat for the whole world. (Stig W. Omholt of Norwegian University of Life Sciences)"
information from science illustrated nov/dec 2010