We are all accustomed to the labels on the packaging of products "Non-GMO", "Gluten-free", "Organic" and so on. It is quite possible that in the future on meat products, in addition to the above inscriptions, we will be able to observe the following: "During the production of this meat, not a single animal was harmed." And all thanks to the fact that researchers of the American company Memphis Meats were recently able to obtain chicken and duck meat in laboratory conditions. At the same time, indeed, not a single bird parted with life.
Leaving aside all ethical and other beliefs, such as cruelty to animals or eating exclusively plant-based foods (which, by the way, we have nothing against), keeping livestock for food has an extremely negative impact on the environment. Animals that are very overstated require care, their breeding requires a huge amount of feed, which requires a lot of fertilizers to grow, acidifying the soil and polluting the groundwater. And this is not to mention the fact that livestock farms "produce" a lot of livestock waste. In general, the creation of artificial meat is not such a crazy idea as it might seem at first glance.
Instead of sending animals to slaughter, the new technology suggests using muscle cells to "grow" meat in huge containers. This process is somewhat akin to cloning a cell culture, but Memphis Meats themselves compare it to brewing. After isolating the cell culture, it is placed in a special medium containing all the necessary nutrients. The "growth of meat" itself takes place in huge vats, where a certain pressure and temperature is maintained. According to Memphis Meats CEO Uma Valeti,
“We presented dishes made from artificial chicken and duck meat. This is a historic moment. Chicken and duck are eaten by people of a wide variety of cultures, but bird farming poses huge environmental challenges and is ineffective. In addition, we managed to obtain a semi-finished meatball by isolating the ingredients from cow muscle cells. We want to produce tasty and inexpensive artificial meat.”
It is worth recalling that back in 2013, scientists created "test-tube beef", but then the public received this news rather coolly, primarily due to the high cost of the final product, which exceeded $ 300,000 per burger. Since then, researchers have worked to improve and reduce the cost of technology. If Memphis Meats' plans are crowned with success, then by 2021 they will be able to establish mass production of "meat, during the preparation of which no animal was harmed."
VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV
