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In vitro meat essay
In vitro meat essay
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Meat - The Next Generation of Food
Humans throughout history and even dating up to today have relied on meat consumption for the simplest daily activities and bodily functions. In fact, Harvard University anthropology professor and researcher claims, “The story of evolution is one that is intimately tied to meat." From the earliest stages of life, people relied on meat to get energy, which allowed them “to become physically, anatomically, human” (R. Wrangham). Humans evolved so that meat has basically become an essential in every day life. However, with such a huge growing population, feeding the world has become a big problem in and of itself. In order to maintain a population of millions many resources are needed and used every day. Each year, more and more resources are becoming scarce for the never-ending need for food. “We’re emptying the oceans, turning the rainforest into ranches, and raising animals factory-style to satisfy our appetites”(NextNature). As the human race continues to rapidly increase to close to 9 billion, there needs to be an alternative to the resources we are using to acquire food, especially meat. There has been an abundance of research on what the next step is to creating a more sustainable food source. Since animals are being exhausted and there is more production of meat than reproduction of animals, scientists have turned to the petri dishes and have started producing in-vitro meat, which could be the stepping-stone towards a more sustainable society in the future. In-vitro meat is going to be a transformative solution that will work to combat the problems of food production and food scarcity worldwide due to the rapidly increasing population that is going to shock our society around 2050 if precaut...
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...in its massive population and continue to in the future as well. There are other innovations and alternatives on the way in the future as well, including entomophagy, which is the practice of eating insects. Scientists see this as a viable alternative as well because insects are full of protein and would evidently take up way less space than the cattle does already. Although this is additional idea to solve the food crisis, many people are more squeamish about eating animals than eating cultured meat. Therefore, in-vitro meat will definitely become more popular to the general public once people are truly aware of the toll food production is having on society. Even though cultured meat is many years from being commercialized, people should really start realizing what is happening to society and look towards an future that could include many new ambitious food options.
My Year of Meats (Ozeki) tells the story of two women in two very different parts of the world, and their tumultuous, life-changing journey with meat over the course of a year. Both characters come face to face with situations that test their beliefs and morals, as well as their resolve. There are many themes and lessons that come out of the two women’s’ journey regarding the media, meat products and capitalism, but one of the majors themes that is present in all aspects of the story is the idea of how ideals are carried through society. At one point or another, both women are faced with a choice to either continue on the path their life is currently on, or go against society and change their course. Ruth Ozeki supports the idea in her book that in order to be truly happy and have a less stereotypical society, each individual member of society must be willing to look at their own lives and change it themselves; otherwise, true change will never happen, and society will never be able to move past its limiting views.
The next time you go to sit down and enjoy a nice juicy steak, take a moment to think about how that piece of meat came from a cow and became your rib eye steak. Many people in our nation have no idea where their food comes from, what exactly is in the food they consume, and the effects it has on their health and the health of our environment. This is largely due to the industrialized, factory farming way of producing our meat and poultry. It has left our bodies sickened and our earth battered but with an elimination of animal products and an addition of a more plant based diet we can begin to restore …..
In price, cultured meat is cheaper. In 2010, the simple high in total savings was $243,240. (N. Fiala) This doesn’t seem like much but the first “steak” was made in 2003 at Harvard University. In 2008, PETA offered a $1 million prize to the first company to bring lab-grown chicken meat to consumers by 2012.(Levine) It is projected that in the years 2010-2020 the savings will jump to $2,432,400.(N. Fiala) This jump is just because the growth of the cultured meat. In the prediction for 2010-2030 the savings would be $4,864,800 and 2010-2040 estimated to be $7,297,200. (N. Fiala) This is a huge saving in just the production in meat. There is a down side to cultured meat. If they were to go with in vitro meat the farmer that raise the cows for the conventional meat would lose their jobs. This would cost the government to pay for them until they find a new job. Also, if you think that the prices for the lab equipment is high and the supplies need for synthetic meat, but the prices for livestock are almost as high. They have to pay for the feed for the animals and the time and space for them to roam. If they do not treat them right and pay for these things the right way, they could be...
The is limited to ground meat only. That means you won't be able to eat any other type of meat just a hamburger. Then there is the animal activists. They everyday to get the slaughtering of animals. Lab-produced meat might seem cruelty-free but it isn't according to The Independent Magazine(Connor 2012). So, you are slaughtering the animal for the bovine stem cells then just disposing of the corpse. The animal could be used for a benefit if you stayed with the traditional way. A tissue-engineering researcher ebem said “if you ask anyone who has worked in a lab, will tell you it will never going to happen.” Scientist and engineers don't even believe the product will make it to the public as a main source of meat because of the amount of energy and resources that go into it. It will take more energy to produce lab meat and which we most likely burn fossil fuels to get that energy which will contribute to Global Warming. This meat will not help our environment any more and it will only supply us with one type of meat.
One of the biggest environmental impacts of a meat-eating diet is the depletion of natural resources, particularly the consumption of vast amounts of water for livestock production. Today, there are more than 17 billion livestock in the world; that’s about triple the number of people. Raising these animals requires huge amounts of water, most of it used to irrigate the grains and hay fed to the animals. According to the Water Education Foundation, it takes 2,464 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef in California. This is the same amount of water you would use if you took a seven-minute shower every day for six entire months. In contrast, only 25 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of wheat. Present human water consumption drains aquifers around the world. Water tables
Kessler, Rebecca. "Search." Genetically Engineered Meat — An Update. Cuinate, 21 July 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
With the ever-growing population of animal lovers on earth, a more viable, humane solution for food consumption needs to be made, but why make a solution when there has already been one? Meat consumption has been proven time and time again to be unnecessary, but that doesn’t stop the average person from eating a double cheese burger with bacon. Unfortunately, many people are apathetic to what happens to animals in farm factories and continue to support them by buying their products, however, consumers should consider switching to a vegetarian diet because it’s more humane to animals, less farm factories being built can save the planet from deforestation, and with a proper balanced vegetarian diet anyone can maintain a healthy life without the
According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, "Fast food has had an enormous impact not only on our eating habits but on our economy, our culture, and our values"(3). According to Roni Rabin on any given day, about one quarter of U.S. adults visit a fast-food restaurant. The typical American now eats about three hamburgers each week (2). Schlosser also writes that “thirty years ago Americans spent about six billion dollars annually on fast food. In the year 2000 they spent over one-hundred and ten billion dollars, more than on higher education, personal computers, or new cars (3). The reality of fast food is regarding the spreading and feeding of illness and disease; as well as the inhumane treatment of animals through modern meat farming practices. Our society imagines images of happy animals living on farms where the cows graze in lush green fields and the chickens run around as they please. This vision of free-roaming animals living out their days in sunny fields is very far from the reality. A majority of the animals that are raised for food live miserable lives in dark and overcrowded facilities. These facilities are commonly called "factory farms"(Maguire 5).
In the article “The Six-Legged Meat of the Future”, authors Marcel Dicke and Arnold Van Huis explain that due to the environmental effects that is caused by meat, people should begin to consume insects instead of meat. They also argue that due to the rise in production costs of livestock, the rise of human population and using insects in our food would solve some of the problems that are “associated with livestock” (Dicke and Van Huis 345. In addition, the article is not persuasive because even though both Dicke and Van Huis use statistics and evidence to establish their credibility and to build a bridge to their audience and make the audience emotionally involved, their argument is weakened by the use of fallacies.
There is much to be said about how exactly meat is being produced. In the present day, there are hardly any farms out there that still practice the traditional and environmental - friendly way. Animal agriculture is widely used all over the world and greatly contributes to climate change. Meat production leads to global warming because of the combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The process of raising animal is the major source to these harmful gases. It is vital to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change by reducing meat consumption. However stopping this meat eating system is extremely difficult, given that we had been consuming meat ever since our ancestors domesticated animals for that purpose. Over the decade Animal agriculture has been getting worse and worse. In 1973 when the Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced ‘’ what we want out of agriculture is plenty of food’’, overproduction was encouraged and lowering the price of meat was carried out; this originally started when there was a massive increase in corn (Wolfson). In order to keep up this mass production of meat, multiple pounds of grains are fed to livestock. Livestock industries depended on corn and soy based food and used over half of the artificial fertilizer used in the United States (McWilliams).
Chiles, Robert Magneson. "If They Come, We Will Build It: In Vitro Meat and the Discursive Struggle over Future Agrofood Expectations." Agriculture and Human Values 30.4 (2013): 511-23. Print.
One of the biggest controversies with livestock production is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that get released into the atmosphere. Its assumed that cars produce most if not all the greenhouse gas emissions however livestock has a big say in air pollution. According to Cassandra Brooks, writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, 18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock production. This is nearly 20% and can be greatly reduced if people reduced their demand for meat. The Environmental Working Group used a tangible variable for Americans stating “if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road” (Goffman 9). Instead of taking the bus to work, switching your diet around could make just as much of an impact on the environment.
Every person has the ability to make their own choice of whether to eat meat or not. However, eating meat is directly tied to negative health effects, pollution leading to a depletion of ozone, and the depletion of hundreds of thousands of acres of land “wasted” on animal production when they could be used to solve the hunger crisis or lower emission levels. What humans eat is no longer a matter of choice; it has become a matter of life and death. Literally, the future of the whole planet rests on the decision of whether or not to eat meat. If humans chose to eat less meat the world that wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences (outlined above.) Vegetarianism is one possibility, as is Veganism; however the world would be
However, many people still refuse to be a vegetarian for different reasons. Some people prefer the taste of meat, and some people believe that they are born to eat meat. Despite that about 2 billion people in the world live basically on the meat diet, around 4 billion people live mainly on a plant-based diet because of food shortage(Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). As everyone knows, the number of population is growing. For example, the total U.S. population doubled in the previous 60 years, and it may double again in the next 70 years (Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). People won’t have enough meat to eat in the future. On the other hand, a well-planned vegetarian diet offers many health benefits. Therefore, people should become vegetarian because it benefits to huma...
Meat itself is not a very sustainable food source. It is not guaranteed that we would always have the same meat forever. The reason to that is the reduction of forests and plants. Every year there are more forests burnt down to make room for more pastures, and more animals. There are plants that humans consider as a part of their own diet, but not to forget these resources are used by all animals that produce meat for humans. From the first day humans were born they stored food in two way huntting and agriculture. They are using almost the same method and ideas they used thousands of years ago. Back then they used smaller areas for their animals and also their population was much more less than today. From the humans first hunt for food to this day, they have