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Unlike at any other moment in history, we now have the ability to blend imagination with design to improve the world around us. An array of inventions has improved lives for billions of people across the globe. Smartphones allow farmers and textile workers in the developing world to start small businesses and move out of desperate poverty. Modern air travel and the internet have made travel and information more accessible than previous generations could have even imagined. Now, that same spirit of innovation is coming to our dinner plates. Just as modern automobiles replaced the horse and buggy, better alternatives will replace conventional animal agriculture. They will also help us supply affordable protein to our growing population, and provide market opportunities for the growth of our farmers and manufacturing industries.
United Nations scientists state that raising animals for food is “one of the major causes of the world's most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.”
Growing crops to feed them to farm animals is vastly inefficient, driving up the price of grains and legumes, and entrenching global poverty; to produce enough food for 9 billion people by 2050, we will need a more efficient system.
The current production of animal products subjects tens of billions of thinking, feeling animals to lives of extreme confinement, emotional trauma, painful mutilations, and inhumane slaughter.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, tens of millions of Americans get sick every year from eating contaminated meat, and thousands die. Similarly, a study by the Centre for Science and the Environment found that 40 percent of animal samples in India contain antibiotic residues. Failure to act on antimicrobial resistance and superbugs could cost us 10 million extra deaths and the global economy $100 trillion by 2050.
Cell-based meat is one breakthrough solution to the problems associated with raising animals for food. Cell-based meat is created by growing meat outside of an animal from a small cell sample, eliminating the need for factory farming and slaughter. The result is 100-percent real meat, but without the antibiotic residues and bacterial contamination that come standard in conventional meat production. And the process is efficient, reducing land and water costs and slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Companies all over the world are already producing cell-based hamburgers, poultry, and pork sausage, plus cell-based milk and egg products. There is also incredible innovation underway in the world of plant-based foods. Food scientists are examining animal products at the molecular level and sourcing plants with matching proteins and nutrients to create delicious plant-based meats, eggs, and dairy products that are healthier and more sustainable than conventional animal products.
The result is 100-percent real meat, but without the antibiotic residues and bacterial contamination that come standard in conventional meat production. And the process is efficient, reducing land and water costs and slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Companies in the U.S. and Europe are already producing clean hamburgers, steak bites, and pork sausage, plus clean milk and egg products.
There is also incredible innovation underway in the world of plant-based foods. Food scientists are examining animal products at the molecular level and sourcing plants with matching proteins and nutrients to create delicious plant-based meats, eggs, and dairy products that are healthier and more sustainable than conventional animal products.
© 2020 - The Good Food Institute India
