TISSUE ENGINEERING
from petri dish to patient
SYNTHETIC MEAT
SYNTHETIC MEATS
Lab grown meat, or in vitro meat, is one of the many applications of tissue engineering that has profound effects on society, which can better our society and environment. By taking a few cells from the muscle tissues of animals, whether pork, beef, or chicken, scientists can grow these cells to fully form a slab of meat. Although still in its early developmental stages, in vitro meat combines the best of food production and biotechnology to change the world for good.
In vitro meat provides food availability to everyone with ease. With more efficient means of production, lab grown meat may become cheaper and more available to everyone. 10 cells from the donor animal can grow exponentially to 20,000 to form a normal sized hamburger. By using only the animal’s cells, we can end animal cruelty.
Producing meat in the lab is also beneficial for the environment. Farmers will not have to use natural resources to raise livestock. Cows, for example, not only use large amounts of water, but they also release methane into the air which is a greenhouse gas 84x more potent than carbon dioxide. If beef can be raised in a lab rather than in a field, it will benefit nature as a whole and us as humans.
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In vitro meat, however, is a threat to farmers as many raise livestock for a variety of reasons other than sending it to the slaughterhouse. Labs may come to the point where they can easily produce in vitro meat which may threaten the livelihood of farmers.
One example of this engineering feat is Cultured Beef, meat created by a Dutch company, that simulates meat obtained naturally. The Cultured Beef is made from muscle cells, that are taken from a living cow. Scientists feed and nuture the cells, so that the cells will grow and multiply, and create a muscle tissue. The muscle tissue is the main component of the beef that people eat today, and biologically, the resulting Cultured Beef is the same as the meat tissue from a cow, providing an alternative to the traditionally obtained meat that is found in stores today.
