Lab-Grown Chicken Approved For Sale In The United States
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On June 21, 2023, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted
As you might have guessed, lab-grown meat is not sourced from traditional animal farming. Instead, it is produced by collecting cells from live animals and cultivating them in a controlled laboratory environment. The process involves nurturing the isolated cells with vitamins and amino acids. This helps them multiply and develop into muscle tissue. The resulting product replicates the taste and texture of conventionally farmed meat.
The USDA approval comes at a crucial time in our quest to slow the impact of global warming. According to the United Nations, livestock production is responsible for 14.6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. A 2022 study from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that phasing out animal agriculture could help halt the increase of greenhouse gases for 30 years. This would provide us enough time to repair the damage we have caused thus far.
Livestock farms also contribute to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water pollution. Additionally, animals raised for food production are often treated inhumanely. Lab-grown meat may help alleviate all the issues and provide an environmentally-friendly way to make meat.
However, before you dash out to your nearest supermarket in search of the new chicken, note that neither company is ready for mass production. UPSIDE Foods, which has the country's largest production facility, currently makes only 50,000 (22,680 kg) pounds of meat per year. This is the equivalent of about 10,000 chickens — only a fraction of the eight billion birds Americans consume annually. Hence, for now, the products are only available at a select few restaurants around the country.
But there are currently over 100 companies working on various iterations of cultivated meat. They range from beef to seafood. So, we can all be assured that sustainable and cruelty-free meat production is in our future.
Resources: Smithsonian.com, NPR.com, Dcist.com, Yahoonews.com, Time.com
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86 Comments
- smartydkabout 1 yearNO NO NO NO NO! I PPERFER NATERAL MEAT!
- maybelee5555about 1 yearWeird, but now we don’t have to kill everything in our way.
- brielle2011about 1 year@techfashion0315 I agree, and I am also disgusted and intrigued.
- mico14about 1 yearid prefer to eat a chicken found on a farm not the lab meat
- mico148 monthsactually now i change my opinion a bit i still love real chicken but i also like vegan chicken so maybe i would give the lab grown chicken a try
- fobawuvy-169169230804about 1 yearGreat article with detail and great writing.
- dennyr0seabout 1 yearWait so is this like sorta like vegetarian??
- in8thgradeabout 1 yearNo, it is real chicken. Vegetarian "meat" is plants and plant protein. This lab grown chicken is made with cells from the animal and is actual meat. A vegetarian could not eat it.
- catgirl104about 1 yearNot really It is pretty much meat Just without killing an animal
- user5897about 1 yearHow similar are the tastes? I mean, if I didn’t know would I be able to taste the difference between lab grown meat and authentic meat?
- in8thgradeabout 1 yearThe article says that it perfectly replicates the taste and texture. So you still get chicken, just not from an animal that was ever alive.
- drpandaabout 1 yearI like that I have a lot of robots since I have no avatar.
- drpandaabout 1 yearIt was fun My brother read it He asked my mom about it It will be expensive for a while I like chicken I eat it a LOT. Thanks for reading! DRPANDA
- drpandaabout 1 yearI read a story about this a while ago