Americans love protein. Each year they eat an average of 210 pounds of meat per capita, more than double the global average. It’s a figure that many believe is unsustainable if the agricultural industry is to feed a growing planet on less land and using fewer resources.
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In the seafood department, startup AquaBounty has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fast-growth salmon that have been genetically engineered to get to market weight in about half the time as unmodified fish. Memphis Meats is commercializing what it says is the “world’s first chicken produced without the animal.” The company grows meat in tanks by feeding living animal cells oxygen, sugar, and other nutrients. The process uses about 1% of the land and 10% of the water needed for conventional animal agriculture.
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Related on the SLP
A complicating factor in all of this has nothing to do with the science. It’s that the target market for these products—people who care about the carbon footprint of what they eat—is also resistant to mixing technology with food (e.g., the backlash against genetically modified organisms).
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Can You Innovate Your Way to Better Beef, Chicken, or Fish?
For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia
