Artificial Meat : Can it Replace Natural?
11:14 PM Science 0 Comments

Until yesterday, I used to be extremely unaware of our over-dependency on animals for food till my friend asked me regarding. Astoundingly, it accounts for forty kg of meat a person on an average per year worldwide. This made me ponder that almost of us are able to eat meat just because of slaying animals and came to know about other ways of production of meat. Is there any way to produce artificial meat? Are there any disadvantages to that? What is it's necessity?

Around the world, it is estimated that around 1 billion rely on animals to feed their mouths. In line with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this accounts for a worldwide consumption of three hundred million tons per year and is estimated that this may increase to double by 2050. By 2025, around 90% of the population in this world would begin to consume meat. This attracts some extent that we need to produce artificial meat and additionally stop slaughtering animals to meet our desires or end up without meat.

Steps were laid for the development of In-Vitro Meat, the popular name of artificial meat in the early 90's when tissue culture started to revolutionize the field of medicine. A somatic cell (especially taken from main organs) is collected from the animal that is liked to be proliferated in a specially designed bio reactor and is supplemented with proteins and nutrients that is necessary for proper and healthy formation of meat tissues. It is estimated that around 5 tons of meat can be produced with just a single cell!

A great advantage has been summed up after bio-technologists discovered that the addition of nutrients such as omega-3-fatty acids and many minerals is possible without causing any harmful effects on our body. In natural meat, there is a wide possibility to be afflicted with diseases, whereas this almost points to zero in the case of In-Vitro Meat. As the qualities of meat are extremely selective, we may easily grow muscle tissues to desired softness, protein and fat content. These muscle cells proliferate at a very quick pace even reducing the time of growth. The effectiveness of this meat is proving to be appreciably higher. Researchers say that around 20,000 tonnes of meat can be produced by a single sample.

Even this meat proves to be both economical and eco-friendly. Growing poultry and animal husbandry require massive acres of land and water. Artificial meat is highly economical when compared with natural farming. Tissue culture allows us to save 99% of the land and 55% of the energy when compared with natural meat. Even environmental pollution is found to be very less. The main challenge faced in this aspect is the cost of production. Technologists guarantee to reduce the cost of production with the advancement in technology.

As the crisis in our natural resources is reaching its peaks day by day, this artificial meat proves itself to be a better solution to this problem, ensuring good quality and quantity. Hope one day this production grows to a large scale and even animals are gifted back their liberties .

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