To show the possibilities of meat made from cells without animal murder, Vow designed the gigantic meatball. Lind, Aico As part of the Climate Desk partnership, this article was originally published by the Guardian and is being reprinted here.
A business that produces cultured meat has revived the flesh of long-extinct species by creating a mammoth meatball.
The initiative aims to emphasize the relationship between large-scale livestock production, the extinction of wildlife, and climate catastrophe as well as to show the possibility of meat being produced from cells rather than actual animals.
The enormous meatball was created by Vow, an Australian business that is uniquely using cultured meat. Several businesses are developing alternatives to traditional meats including chicken, hog, and beef. But Vow wants to develop new types of meat by fusing cells from unusual animals.
Read More: According to A Un Report, The Number of City Dwellers Without Access to Clean Drinking Water Will Double by 2050.
The Goal Is to Transition a Few Billion Meat Eaters Away from Eating [conventional] Animal Protein.
The business has already looked at the possibility of over 50 species, including peacocks, alpacas, buffalo, crocodiles, kangaroos, and various fish. Japanese quail, which the business anticipates will be available in Singaporean restaurants this year, will be the first domestic meat to be marketed to diners.
According to George Peppou, CEO of Vow, we have a problem changing our behavior when it comes to eating meat. A few billion people who consume meat should switch from eating [traditional] animal protein to foods that can be generated using electric technologies.
And we think that creating meat is the greatest method to achieve that. To produce exceptionally excellent meat, we mix and match cells that are simple to grow, incredibly palatable, and nutrient-dense.
Cofounder of Vow with Peppou, Tim Noakesmith, stated: “We chose the woolly mammoth because it’s a symbol of biodiversity loss and climate change.” The creature is believed to have perished as a result of human hunting and global warming following the last ice age.
Bas Korsten, a creative director at Wunderman Thompson, came up with the original concept: “Our goal is to create a conversation about how we eat and what the future alternatives can look and taste like.” Cultured meat is still meat, but not the same kind.
Although meat substitutes made of plants are already widespread, cultured meat mimics the flavor of traditional meat. Currently, consumers in Singapore are the only country where Good Meat’s chicken is sold as cultivated meat, but two businesses have recently completed an approval process in the US.
2018 saw the creation of gummy bears derived from the mastodon, another elephant-like mammal, using DNA from an extinct animal.
The mammoth muscle protein was developed by Vow in collaboration with Prof. Ernst Wolvetang at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland. His team used elephant DNA to fill in the few gaps in the Genetic sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a crucial muscle protein that contributes to the flavor of the meat.
Cultivated Meat Uses Much Less Land and Water than Livestock, and Produces No Methane Emissions.
This sequence was introduced into sheep myoblast stem cells, which multiplied to expand to the 20 billion cells that the business subsequently utilized to generate the mammoth meat. Wolvetang said that it was absurdly simple and quick. In a matter of weeks, we completed this. He claimed that the original plan was to manufacture dodo meat, but the required Genetic sequences are lacking.
The enormous meatball has yet to be tried. Since thousands of years ago, we haven’t seen this protein, claimed Wolvetang. So, we are unsure of how eating it would affect our immune system. But if we did it over again, we could undoubtedly do it in a way that regulatory authorities would find more acceptable.
Wolvetang stated that he could understand people being initially apprehensive of such meat because it is initially weird and unfamiliar. But I believe [cultivated beef] makes a lot of sense from an ethical and environmental standpoint.
Several studies have found that a significant drop in meat consumption in wealthy countries is necessary to halt the climate disaster because the large-scale production of meat, especially cattle, causes significant environmental damage.
Compared to livestock, meat from farms consumes far less land and water and emits no methane. Fetal bovine serum, a growth medium made from cattle fetuses, is not utilized in any of Vow’s commercial goods, the company claimed, and all of the energy it utilizes is derived from renewable sources. To date, the company has received investments totaling $56 million.
According to Wolvetang, there will be more and more overlap between the technology employed in cultured beef production and medical and human stem cell research. For instance, it is possible to train cells to respond to their local environment, enabling the growth of meat cuts with muscle, fat, and connective tissue.
Read More: Researchers Warn that By 2030, Global Freshwater Demand Would Outpace Supply by 40%.
I hope this unique research will spark fresh discussions regarding cultured meat’s incredible potential to generate more sustainable food, according to Seren Kell of the Good Food Institute Europe.
Yet, because agricultural animals like cattle, pigs, and chickens are the most popular sources of meat, the majority of the sustainable protein industry is concentrated on accurately simulating meat from these species, according to Kell. We can have the biggest impact on lowering emissions from traditional animal agriculture by growing beef, hog, poultry, and seafood.
On Tuesday night, the gigantic meatball will be exhibited at the Nemo scientific museum in the Netherlands.
