Price of Lab-Grown Burger Falls from $325K to $11.36
Lab-grown meat will be on our plates sooner than we may realize.
Natalie has been writing professionally for about 6 years. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Feature Writing, she snagged a job at PCMag.com where she had the opportunity to review all the latest consumer gadgets. Since then she has become a writer for hire, freelancing for various websites. In her spare time, you may find her riding her motorcycle, reading YA novels, hiking, or playing video games. Follow her on Twitter: @nat_schumaker
Lab-grown meat could be on your plate within the next five years. For the past few years, the barrier to getting test-tube meat into the hands of consumers has been the cost of production. In 2013, it was around $325,000 to make this stuff in a lab, but the process has been refined, and the cost now is just $11.36.
"And I am confident that when it is offered as an alternative to meat that increasing numbers of people will find it hard not to buy our product for ethical reasons," Peter Verstrate, head of Mosa Meat, told the BBC.
Their plan is to make a minced meat that's just as good as any you'd get from a slaughtered cow (and at a competitive price).
It's uncertain how the story of our food would change across various countries who use meat as a celebratory centerpiece.
Eating meat is a part of our cultural and personal identity — think Christmas hams or Thanksgiving turkeys — but the factory farming system is not sustainable.
People love their real meat; it's hard to say if people would really give it up. Even when confronted with the moral implications eating meat has on animals and our environment, people still find an excuse to defend their carnivorous indulgence. So, when a comparable product comes on the market, what will we do?
Verstrate is confident consumers will have no choice but to give in and purchase lab-grown meat. There may be some who go out of their way to get the "real stuff," but that trend may only last so long as the prices stay competitive. But if the cost to manufacture test-tube meat continues to fall and there's enough demand, science may edge out factory farms.
The only question left is what will happen to the cows once we no longer want to eat them?
***
Natalie has been writing professionally for about 6 years. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Feature Writing, she snagged a job at PCMag.com where she had the opportunity to review all the latest consumer gadgets. Since then she has become a writer for hire, freelancing for various websites. In her spare time, you may find her riding her motorcycle, reading YA novels, hiking, or playing video games. Follow her on Twitter: @nat_schumaker
Photo Credit: JOHANNES EISELE / Getty Staff
Human skeletal stem cells isolated in breakthrough discovery
It's a development that could one day lead to much better treatments for osteoporosis, joint damage, and bone fractures.
- Scientists have isolated skeletal stem cells in adult and fetal bones for the first time.
- These cells could one day help treat damaged bone and cartilage.
- The team was able to grow skeletal stem cells from cells found within liposuctioned fat.
How exercise helps your gut bacteria
Gut bacteria play an important role in how you feel and think and how well your body fights off disease. New research shows that exercise can give your gut bacteria a boost.
- Two studies from the University of Illinois show that gut bacteria can be changed by exercise alone.
- Our understanding of how gut bacteria impacts our overall health is an emerging field, and this research sheds light on the many different ways exercise affects your body.
- Exercising to improve your gut bacteria will prevent diseases and encourage brain health.
Giving octopuses ecstasy reveals surprising link to humans
A groundbreaking new study shows that octopuses seemed to exhibit uncharacteristically social behavior when given MDMA, the psychedelic drug commonly known as ecstasy.
- Octopuses, like humans, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters.
- Scientists gave MDMA to octopuses to see whether those genes translated into a binding site for serotonin, which regulates emotions and behavior in humans
- Octopuses, which are typically asocial creatures, seem to get friendlier while on MDMA, suggesting humans have more in common with the strange invertebrates than previously thought
SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by The Big Think, Inc. All rights reserved.