Topic > In vitro meat as a sustainable solution

The world population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, with an estimated 48.6% increase in agricultural production to meet food demand. Traditional livestock farming, which has now become highly industrialised, involves the painful slaughter of millions of animals and contributes to 12.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, in addition to soil and water degradation. With issues like natural resource depletion, animal welfare, global warming and the possibility of future food shortages, it's time to think about a sustainable solution. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The concept of in vitro meat is to extract stem cells called myosatellite cells from an animal's muscle and plant them in a culture medium that leads to its proliferation in a bioreactor. Over a period of 10 weeks, these cells form myotubes that contract to produce muscle fibers that can be further processed using common food technologies to create meat. Being ethical, potentially environmentally friendly and with adequate interest and appropriate regulatory bodies mandated in the EU (Khan, n. d), this technology seems promising. But how will IVM technology compete with the established livestock sector? Despite the positive opinions, there are some social, technical and political challenges to overcome for the technology to reach the market. IVM is a technology that has been talked about for a long time, with Willem van Eelan's first patent on cultured meat and NASA's work on Turkey Cells since the early 2000s. On the other hand, animal cloning, another direction of biotechnology, has been widely criticized due to the negative health effects of clones. With advances in the field of biotechnology, the biggest breakthrough in IVM technology occurred in 2013, when the first lab-grown beef burger was created by Mark Post and received positive feedback from critics. Using the TIS Framework for IVM, the following actors were identified: government bodies such as the European Commission, EFSA, research universities such as Maastricht University, the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven and startups such as Mosa Meats in Netherlands. In 2005, the Dutch government funded studies on culture media, muscle cell generation and bioreactor development at some research universities and with funding from the Swiss Bell food group and Merck's M initiatives and NGOs such as the Cultured Meat Foundation, The European Science Foundation, Scientists from Google and PHW are working to make IVM technology a reality. Other important stakeholders include dairy and meat companies, farmers, animal welfare groups, media, religious groups and the general public whose opinions determine the social acceptance of this technology. One of the major obstacles to bringing IVM to market today is cost. Mosa Meats created the first hamburger at a cost of $331,000 per pound in 2013, and in 2017, Memphis Meats of California reduced the price to $2,400 per pound of cultured chicken. Although some progress can be seen in reducing costs, the price is nowhere near the price of regular meat. Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists speculates that the energy requirements of extensive cultured meat production could be harmful to the environment, although studies from the University of Amsterdam and Oxford show that this technology could instead reduce energy consumption. Although groups for theAnimal welfare like PETA support this technology, there have been concerns about the culture medium used in the process. Is it completely cruelty-free? The answer is no, the current growth medium includes fetal calf serum and the process may cause pain to the donor animal but certainly involves fewer animals than in slaughterhouses. Additionally, experiments are being conducted to replace the culture medium by plant-based substitutes such as Ultroser G. Taste and safety are major concerns for end consumers. The tested IVM was found to be quite firm compared to regular meat, and Mark Post of Mosa Meats is working on adding fat cells to improve its texture. While the technology promises to reduce the negative health effects of regular meat consumption such as heart disease, diabetes, etc. and to prevent animal diseases such as swine flu from affecting humans by controlling growing conditions, people are still worried about possible allergic reactions. , the risk of contamination and the aspect of "unnaturalness" associated with it. Since meat is a part of most cultures, the consumption of IVM has been a controversial topic in some religions. Although Islamic and Jewish perspectives suggest that this meat can be considered Halal and Kosher respectively, religious sentiments need to be further addressed once the product hits the market. News media promoted this technology by covering a TED talk on the topic and live in vitro hamburger tests at the London conference in 2013, and social media platforms conducted online polls to gain public opinions. A negative impact of this technology is on meat and dairy companies and on farmers whose livelihoods depend on raising livestock. It was found that 4.4% of the EU's GDP and 8.3% of total employment in Europe depend on agriculture and livestock. Cargill and PHW's investment in this technology means that not all of the meat industry is opposed to its growth and a panel discussion involving two farmers in the US in 2017 found that farmers were looking at the positives and they understood that it is still in development. In the future, pastures recovered from livestock farming could be used as feed for biofuels or could be converted back into their natural habitats. Government funding such as subsidies or grants could help R&D and small startups contribute to this technology. Mark Post predicts the cost will drop to 9 euros for a lab-grown burger if produced industrially, and with further advances in technologies such as genetic engineering and 3D printing it could even become cheaper than regular burgers. However, studies show that nearly 1,450 million people in the world are vegetarians by necessity and such cost reduction could lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem as more people could afford it and could eventually again lead to the industrialization of highly processed foods. . Are we prepared for this? More research will need to be done to understand people's needs and predict the future market so that this technology becomes socially responsible. To improve the ethics of current growing methods, the technology may be subject to the regulations of the Animal Welfare Act and Regarding the safety of meat, IVM is now considered a novel food under the newly approved Novel Food Regulation in 2015, which means once you pass the assessment?