Cultured Meat - A Solution to our Livestock Problem?

Currently, land used for raising livestock takes up 30 percent of the land on Earth. It contributes 14.5 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. It takes 450 gallons of water to produce a single patty of beef.

Lab-grown meat, or cultured meat, offers a possible future solution to this meat crisis. This is meat cultivated in a sterile environment from a just a few cells. As of yet, it is not economically comparable to conventional meat, as one company says their cultured meat costs $18,000 per pound, but within ten years these companies are hoping to have it sell in supermarkets at a competitive price to the meats we know and love.

One company, Memphis Meats, reports that they use three calories of energy to make one calorie of energy in meat. This may sound like a lot, but it is quite efficient when compared to the twenty-three to one ratio that conventional meat has.

Cultured meats also have the potential to be better for us than regular meat. The CDC says that illnesses contracted from eating meat account for most fatal food-related illnesses. Meat grown in a sterile lab would be able to avoid this entirely, as there would be no bacteria on the meat in the first place. This would also reduce the need for the treatment of meat with antibiotics, which would reduce the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Another thing that could be eliminated from cultured meats are saturated fats, which lead to an increased risk of heart disease. They could replace them with omega-3 fatty acids, making them more beneficial and simultaneously taking away something detrimental.

Red meats and processed meats have been identified as “possibly carcinogenic” and “carcinogenic”, respectively, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The suspect substance? Heme-iron. This is found almost exclusively in these meats. Studies have shown links between heme-iron and breast and colon cancer, and have shown that this substance can cause DNA damage. Luckily, cultured meats can be made without heme-iron, making it a possible cancer prevention technique.

Cultured meats may not be on the shelves today, or tomorrow, but they are coming in the near future, and they will likely help us for the better.

Sources: Lab-grown meat is in your future, and it may be healthier than the real stuff, Lab-Grown Beef Will Save the Planet and be a Billion Dollar Business

Photo credit: FurLined via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

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