“No Kill” Meat is Coming Closer to Being Sold in the U.S.
By: Gabby Pribisich
“No kill” or cultured meat is a very new concept that has recently been expanding among the scientific world. This meat is not from a living animal, but actually grown in a lab using a small sample of animal cells and then cultivating it to grow outside of the animal’s body using bioreactors. This lab-made meat is still real meat, however, its only difference from traditional meat is in the way it is produced. Lab-grown meat could be a very impactful solution for the negative effects of live-stock production on the environment. Currently around 60% of animals on the earth are livestock and only 4% are wild animals, heavily affecting the climate crisis. Although the relatively small amount of curated meat being produced currently produces comparatively high carbon-emission, with a higher demand of curated-meats, this should significantly decrease. In comparison to the production of livestock, lab-cultivated meats need much less water and land resources to be produced. High meat consumption can also lead to many chronic illnesses, and lab-manufactured meats could have less harmful health impacts and be a much better alternative. Scientists have the capabilities to control how much cholesterol or fat is in each product, eliminating some of the health concerns of meat consumption. The sale of cultivated meat began in Singapore around two years ago, but this market is still very new and is nowhere near being accessible world-wide yet. Recently, the FDA has taken a big first step towards the sale of cultivated meat in the United States. They have officially approved the products of Upside Food, a San Francisco based startup that believes in producing meat from animal cells rather than slaughtering them. This is a very important advance for Upside Foods, and brings them closer to putting their products on the market. This new science is truly the beginning of a revolution of the food industry that could be key to slowing climate change and saving our planet.
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