The Benefits Of Lab Grown Meat

Scientists work around the clock trying to improve daily living. Lab grown meat has yet to hit the market but is without a doubt going to be in our near future. It is said to be healthier than traditional meat and better for the environment. Lab grown meat does offer plenty of significant advantages over traditional meat but never would be able to overcome the ick factor. Lab grown meat will be able to cut down on a few resource costs that traditional meat can not. Animals take up a great deal of farmable land, food that could be used for human consumption, and drinkable water. “Livestock in the US consume more than 7 times as much grain as the American population—enough grain to feed about 840 million people” (Stone, Maddie). When scientists

“The beef, pork, and poultry grown by Memphis Meats provides all the same nutrients and flavor as the meat you get from the supermarket, but without all the unnecessary consequences of the contemporary livestock rearing process” (Manoogian, Jack). If meat is being made in a lab it is less likely for greenhouse gases to occur and for bacteria to form on the meat. Greenhouse gases would be less likely to occur since lab grown meat is produced by cells being joined together and with traditional meat the animal would be alive for some time and produce waste which releases gases. Also, bacteria are less likely to occur since it would be made in a more sterile environment and labs are able to control the process and what goes into the meat when creating it. Such as heme iron, which is most commonly found in meat and can cause breast cancer. Yet, lab grown meat such as beef and pork can be made free of heme iron. Regular meat has an abundance of saturated fat, but this too can be reduced in a lab. Although, if scientists were to remove all of those things the grown meat would become very unappealing. It would become yellowish, the texture would be different, and it would lose its juiciness. But, if they do not remove the fat or heme iron the meat will look and taste similar to traditional meat. Being grown in a lab there is room for many unhealthy aspects to be

It is not being made directly from a living animal since they are extracting cells from a donor animal and people are very skeptical about the method. The process is taking muscle cells, combining them together and growing it until they have something that looks similar to meat. “The regulatory situation gets more complicated with cell-cultured meat, in which cells taken from animal muscle are grown on special scaffolds until they form enough tissue strands (about 20,000) to make a meatball or hamburger. It is not quite animal, not exactly a food additive—yet intended as food” (Devitt, Elizabeth). When with traditional meat the animal lives and breathes and when it becomes the required size it is slaughtered and taken to be processed for eating. “How natural is it to raise thousands of animals, pump them full of drugs and run them through death machines to get that filet mignon you love?” (Manoogian, Jack). The way animals are killed today for eating is very inhumane, but many people suppress the knowledge they have since it would make eating a burger less appealing. People may never want to give up eating traditional meat since that is what they are used to. The meat made from cells is very tough and does not have the same quality as livestock. Livestock can move around and cells can not, so the lab grown meat becomes very stiff. Individuals eat McDonald