The Pros And Cons Of Food Shortage

Food shortage is one of the major issues in the world today. Worldometers.info states that according to the U.N. the human population is expected to reach eight billion people by the year 2024. As long as the population keeps on rising this dramatically, food shortages will just become more of an issue. But what if you could make food in a lab instead of on a farm or in a factory? Dutch scientists Mark Post did just that. Post and his team of scientists at Maastricht University created the first, tasted, lab made meat in the form of a hamburger. The results were an edible piece of in-vitro (cultured) meat, pretty close to the real thing. Another name for this lab-produced meat is “Schmeat”.

Austrian nutritionist Hanni Ruetzler and U.S journalist Josh Schonwald did the taste test in London in August 2013.They both agreed that the lab-made burger had a texture extremely similar to the real thing, but was lacking something, perhaps some toppings. Still this was a major step for lab-processed food.

But how was this burger created? An article from CBC news titled “World’s First Lab Grown Burger Cooked and Eaten” covered the process. The first step was gathering enough funds to make the burger. Sergey Bring, co-founder of Google, funded the $330,000 project out of concern for animal safety. Once funding was taken care of the next step was to take muscle- stem cells from an organically raised cow. These cells are taken through a small biopsy that is absolutely harmless to the cow. Then the cells were placed into a nutrient- solution in which they grew into small strands of meat. Twenty-thousand strands of meat later and you have a five-ounce burger patty ready for eating.

But what does this actually do to help us as humans? CBC news ...

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... Google Co-Founder Sergey Bring’s funding, marked the beginning of the cultured hamburger project. Finally in August of 2013 the first cultured Hamburger was tasted in London, In Vitro’s meat advocates greatest accomplishment so far.

Mark Post’s hamburger could change the world for the better. Compared to the conventional meat industry, the cultured meat industry is more environmentally friendly, more efficient and is much less cruel to animals. Unfortunately, most people I know could not afford a three hundred thousand dollar burger, but the next step is solving this issue. Once efficient industrial reproduction is created, cultured-meat could be offered to the public at an affordable price. According to Mark Post and team, cultured-meat is estimated to be available commercially within the next decade or two, and I believe once it does, it will be world-changing.