So… let’s make this a short and simple one, shall we?
From the Miami New Times’ Short Order food blog:
The cows that make up our burgers consume 80 percent of the planet’s farmland, generate 20 percent of our greenhouse emissions, and consume 10 percent of our fresh water. Also, cows don’t like getting killed. Feel bad? You could go vegetarian, but that takes sacrifice. Luckily, modern science has a way around almost every dilemma. At universities in the U.S. and Europe, researchers are busy cultivating meat in petri dishes.
Dr. Vladimir Mironov, whose name seems well-suited to a Frankenfood scientist, is an associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. He’s been working toward developing lab-grown meat from stem cells bathed in a nutrient-rich bioreactor mixture for the past decade, according to ABC News. He and Nicholas Genovese, a research associate backed by funding from PETA, are working on customizing the taste, texture and nutrient content of “in-vitro meat.” The going is slowed by lack of funding and high costs (right now, a single lab-hatched burger would cost tens of thousands of dollars to create), but their goal is to get their meat from the agar jelly to your plate as soon as possible.
Short Order asked two locals — one who loves cows, and one who loves to cook cows — what they thought about the initiative.
Thoughts?