Meat is a staple in any meal for most people but, would you eat genetically grown meat to save the lives of countless animals and help stop global warming? That’s the dream of scientist Vladimir Mironov, M.D, Ph.D. Dr. Mironov is hard at work in his laboratory at the University of South Carolina Medical School, trying to fully reproduce and grow cultured meat.
This is not a new concept by any means, the Dutch are hard at work also trying to grow meat and have the funding to one day do so, Dr. Mironov on the other hand has been working for over a decade with little or no funding trying to grow meat in the US. “The new National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, won’t fund it, the National Institutes of Health won’t fund it, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded it only briefly”, Mironov said. And without proper funding cultured meat may never be, at least no grown here in the good ol’ USA. The reason for no funding, “There’s a yuck factor when people find out meat is grown in a lab. They don’t like to associate technology with food,” said Nicholas Genovese, 32, a visiting scholar in cancer cell biology working under a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals three-year grant to run Dr. Mironov’s meat-growing lab.
Now, this may all sound a bit on the crazy side but there are many studies that show that the production of farm meat does have a negative impact on our enviroment, causing about 18% of the earths green house gases and believe it or not around the world animal farmers are also to blame for depleating the earths fresh water supply by the demand for more and more animals to be raised then slaughtered. Not to mention, the negative effects on ones health by having a diet with too much meat, especially red meat.
So, would you eat meat grown in a lab to save the earth for future generations? I guess, the number one factor in that decision would be, if it tastes like real meat and was cheaper then people might just say farewell to “real meat”.
Photo Credit: Void ManufacturingTags: FDA, meat, PETA, University of South Carolina, Weird News