{"id":673341,"date":"2022-05-26T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenqueen.com.hk\/?p=38908"},"modified":"2022-12-15T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T16:00:00","slug":"10-reasons-why-cultivated-meat-is-the-future-of-protein-the-case-for-lab-grown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/26\/10-reasons-why-cultivated-meat-is-the-future-of-protein-the-case-for-lab-grown\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reasons Why Cultivated Meat Is The Future Of Protein: The Case For Lab-Grown"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lab-grown, cultured, cell-based \u2013 all these terms refer to cultivated meat, whereby animal flesh or byproducts are produced without any animal killing. And no, we aren’t talking about plant-based alternatives such as Beyond Meat or Omnipork. We\u2019re talking about actual animal flesh grown inside bioreactors using cellular agriculture and tissue engineering instead of traditional animal livestock farming methods. For some, this might feel like science fiction, but dozens of companies (including a fair few in Asia) are already working to bring this technology to market within a couple of years so it’s time to get educated about this new sector of food technology. Here\u2019s a rundown of reasons why food scientists and environmentalists are bullish on cultivated meat and its potential to bring about a healthier, safer and more sustainable food system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing meat from cells means that no animal needs to be slaughtered to end up on your plate as a meal. Every year, around 70 billion animals are reared for food, the majority of which are in industrial farms where they live in cramped, dirty and inhumane conditions. Every day, 5 million animals are exposed to cruelty and added risks in transit<\/a> to new countries via land and sea journeys that can span weeks. Whether they are funnelled into the global live animal trade or slaughtered locally, animals reared for food have to face a violent end to their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cultivated meat does not require the slaughter of animals, it is instead grown in laboratories using cells taken from an animal, using a small biopsy done under anaesthesia, and does not subject the animal to cruelty or violence, though it does mean that it is not suitable for vegans as it is still an animal-derived product. And cells from a single cow can produce as many as 175 million quarter pounders \u2013 far more than the 440,000 cows needed using traditional farming methods to produce the same amount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that it is grown in a clean laboratory environment, cultivated meats are also free from any artificial growth hormones that are typically used in the conventional meat industry to make livestock grow and gain weight faster. Synthetic oestrogen and testosterone are the most common hormones used in livestock and in dairy cows, and while industry-funded studies show no risk, there are independent studies<\/a> that suggest a link between injected hormones and cancer. Since they don’t require any hormones, lab-grown versions are therefore safer for human consumption and do not come at the added hormone-related risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All cultivated meats are produced in a sterile environment, which means that they do not require antibiotics either. Slaughterhouses are the opposite \u2013 industrial animal farms pack livestock into cramped, dirty conditions that are hotbeds for contamination. Some cases have led to foodborne illnesses amongst consumers, more serious outbreaks of diseases<\/a> have created mass chaos such as the recent African swine fever that wiped out pork supplies across Asia and multiple avian influenza outbreaks that have affected chickens and other birds in the past years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the demand for meat continues to grow globally, so has the use of antibiotics in the animal meat industry. The overuse of antibiotics to prevent animals from getting sick is so rampant in the industry that to date, over 80% of all produced antibiotics is sold to livestock farms<\/a>, according to the FDA. Experts have long warned that this is leading to the rise of antibiotic resistant superbugs, with a 2019 study<\/a> a tripling of the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in disease-causing bacteria in livestock between 2000 and 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. It’s hormone-free<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. It’s antibiotic-free <\/h3>\n\n\n\n