Is there any danger in eating lab-brown in-vitro meat?
Burger King introduced the first “meatless” burger in 2019. However, this isn’t 100% vegetarian and it’s also not the same as lab-grown or in-vitro meat, that kind is still being developed.
Lab-grown meat side effects
“Beyond cell-based meat protein,” fake meat, synthetic meat, or in-vitro test-tube meat, may have dangerous side-effects. For example, multiplying animal cells to create meat needs a medium based on foetal blood plasma. The process is delicate and there are many possible scenarios in a manufacturing plant that can occur.
We can’t go there yet because meat plants of this sort haven’t really taken off. However, the mere fact that this kind of meat is genetically modified begs a lot of questions. We do not know what kind of long-term and harmful byproducts it can give humans who ingest it.
Bovine Blood Plasma
Foetal blood is produced by removing an unborn calf from its uterus, and harvesting the blood from this animal source. This is how nucleotide supplements like Imuregen or 4Life’s colostrum are made. Apparently, the immunity of an unborn cow can effectively transfer its “immune” components for humans to utilize.
Matan Shelomi, an Entomologist, said that the problems aren’t from the meat itself, but in anything added to it. The additive or antibiotic would be unique to the one company producing the product. For example, a certain kind of preservative might be added to the lab meat to prevent potential diseases, found in meat, in general.
→ Which is better, egg or meat protein?
Humanitarian Reasons
Those who push for it claims it will help solve the climate change problem by reducing livestock carbon footprint and improve the animal condition. It honestly doesn’t make sense because “fake meat” still has to come from livestock. In addition, climate change may actually be a hoax and has no direct reason to push for laboratory-grown meats.
If there’s any reason for it, it’s really to find a way to increase meat production to a massively growing population that organizations like UN’s Agenda 2030 are directed to.
Clean meat available in the next decade?
Companies like JUST, Memphis Meat, and Mosa Meat, started developing “clean meat,” each with varying techniques but the basic concept is the same. They use stem cells from a live (or alive) animal.
One of the clear side-effects, of course, is the meat price. Current estimates range from $363 to $2,400 cost per pound of lab-grown meat. Thus, it’s unrealistic to have it sold commercially.
