What is lab grown meat and what is the science behind the biotechnology being used?

Introduction:

Ever since Alexis Carrel introduced the idea of lab grown meat, society has been asking the same questions: How do scientist make in vitro meat? How long will it be before it is available to the public? Most importantly, will this stuff even taste like actual food? Lab grown hamburgers were created by a team of Dutch scientists and are animal-flesh cells from a fetal calf that are cultured with stem cells in order to produce fake meat. In vitro meat will become commercially available for a while due to the fact that a single patty can cost up to $250,00. Although there has been limited public tasting of the meat, the few panels that have rated the taste claim that it tastes “almost like a hamburger.” With a little over a 100 years a research and millions of dollars spent on funds, lab grown meat is definitely going to make an impact on day to day food consumption in the future.

What is the history of lab grown meat?

Up until recently, the idea of having in vitro meat available for public consumption has strictly been that of science-fiction; however, scientists all over the world are creating new, innovative ways to slowly incorporate lab grown meat into our daily diets. Believe it or not, the idea to produce lab grown meat, or shmeat, was introduced in January of 1912 when Alexis Carrel placed cultured embryonic chicken heart tissue in a test tube and attempted to keep it alive. Much to the shock of skeptics, the tissue stayed alive for approximately 34 years of routine nutrient supply and regular waste product removal. This experiment later went on to become known as the “immortal” cell strain where Carrel persistently tried to prove that tissues were capable of existing outside of their original organism.

Winston Churchill

It was not until Winston Churchill’s essay titled “50 Years Hence” that the concept of in vitro meat was brought back into the view of society. He predicted a futuristic world where, “we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” Although this idea was innovative and frankly a little outlandish for the time, scientists and skeptics a like both actively pursued the idea of in vitro meat. As quickly as lab grown meat seemed to enter prominent public view, many people were discouraged when scientists Hayflick and Moorhead determined that Carrel’s original concept of “cell immortality” was false and that cells actually have a very limited lifespan even when inside the original organism. In fact in August of 1967, Carrel’s cultured chick cell experiment allowed Hayflick to prove that embryonic chicken cells are actually limited to 2 months in culture.

When December of 1981 finally approached, Churchill’s prediction for in vitro meat to hit the shelves in 50 had expired and the pursuit of “shmeat” went out of the public view. Although the attempts to produce IVM were not as public as they were in the 60s, in 1995 NASA received FDA approval to conduct experiments involving in vitro meat in order to find protein solutions for long space voyages. In addition to the previously mentioned task, NASA also helped to fund a research project called “An In Vitro Edible Muscle Protein Production System” or MPPS. This project was headed up by Morris Benjaminson of Touro College in New York City. Parts of his experiment included harvesting goldfish muscle explants and isolating them with cultured in vitro. He later oiled, breaded and deep-fried his mock “shmeat” fish patty and had a panel analyze the appearance and smell. Unfortunately the panel was not able to consume the fish because US laws prohibited the consumption of risky experimental products at that time. Soon after the success of Benjamin Son's experiment in 1999, that year scientist Willem van Eelen received the first cultured meat patent called “Industrial Production of Meat Using Cell Culture Methods.”

It was not until 2009 that the first in vitro meat sample was actually made available for human consumption. The BBC Documentary called “Hot Planet” featured University of Western Australia scientist Oron Catts’ cultured lamb grown from sheep muscle cells. After this occurrence, IVM meat has been making appearances all over the world from a workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden regarding the production of the meat to Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society in Vienna integrating cultured meat into educational studies. Some ambitious scientists such as Gabor Forgacs, co-founder of Modern Meadows, have even given lime demonstrations using 3D bioprinting

Scientists at NASA examine cultured meat samples.

technology. Regardless of the amount of work currently being put into IVM studies, the truth of the matter is that in vitro is very expensive; however, when IVM finally becomes readily available at a reasonable price, it is going to greatly benefit our world as a whole.

What is the science behind the biotechnology and how is it being used?

An example of scaffold.

Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering, biochemical, and physiochemical factors to replace or improve biological functions. This can repair or replace parts of or entire tissues (like cartilage, bone, blood vessels, skin, muscles, and some organs). The process uses living cells as engineering materials. For example, fibroblast cells make collagen and other fibers needed in skin, so they would be used to repair skin. Extracting cells from blood and fluid tissues is easier than solid tissues, because they can be extracted in bulk using centrifugation, the process of separating substances of different densities using a centrifuge. Solid tissue has to be minced and digested using enzymes in order to remove the extracellular matrix holding the cells. Once the cells are floating free, they can be extracted with the centrifuge method. When the cells have been extracted, they need to be implanted into a scaffold, an artificial structure capable of supporting three-dimensional tissue formation. They allow cells to attach and migrate to one another. The scaffolds need to be very porous to allow diffusion throughout the whole structure of cells and nutrients. They must also be biodegradable, so they can be completely covered in the tissue without needing to be removed surgically. The tissue needs culturing to survive and grow. The cells need a controlled environment including oxygen, pH, humidity, nutrients, temperature, and pressure. In the past, tissue engineering has been successfully used to grow bladders, cartilage, and of course, meat. The bladders were successfully implanted in 7 out of 20 human test subjects. The cartilage was also a success, when it was grown and used to repair knee cartilage.

The process of growing in vitro meat:

1. Take stem cells from an animal such as a cow, pig, or turkey.
2. Add proteins that promote tissue.
3. Make sure the cells are in a stable environment and in a scaffold structure that allows for them to.
4. Theoretically, once the process of tissue engineering has started, it would be possible to continue producing meat without introducing new cells each time. 

The first in vitro beef hamburger was cooked and eaten on August 5, 2013.  The patty weighed 5 oz., and cost more than $330,000 to make. The burger was the result of a five year project, funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The time it took to make the meat was less than that to raise a cow. The stem cells used were satellite cells, which are responsible for muscle regeneration after injury. The cells were placed in a petri dish with a nutrient mixture that helps the cells proliferate. They eventually grew into very, very thin muscle strands. Months were spent experimenting on how to make the strand of muscle into a burger. The meat was colorless; therefore, the tissue engineers had to color it with saffron and beet juice, which wouldn't affect the taste.

Tissue engineering has been used to replace organs and tissue in the body, and it is also being used to develop edible meat, which has the potential to become the future of meat.

What is the controversy surrounding the biotechnology? Pros and Cons?    

With any new scientific innovation, there will always be multitude of differing opinions. Because the idea of serving lab grown meat is widely considered to be extremely radical and dangerous, many scientists and nutritionists have weighed in on the various pros and cons regarding this issue. As quickly as lab grown meat, or Vitro Meat, became a hot topic for conversation amongst the scientific society, it is expected to replace natural meat in approximately three to ten years as a cheaper, healthier and more eco-friendly alternative to

other proteins. Due to its innovative nature, Vitro Meat is anticipated to be as socially transformative as previous breakthroughs such as vaccines, automobiles and electricity.

Vitro Meat, or IMV, is much cheaper than the meat found on the hoof or claw of various animals. When lab grown meat reaches general consumers, poultry and slow-grown red meat will completely vanish from the marketplace, similarly to how the use of whale oil was discontinued when kerosene became popular in 1870. Scientists predict that IVM will sell for less than half the cost of its rivals. With all the money saved from the implication of lab grown meat, the country is anticipated to save approximately $2 trillion in our live-meat industry. It will save 500 billion pounds of meat annually, and this number is expected to double by 2050.

Additionally, Vitro Meat is made up of 100% muscle which will eliminate the artery-clogging saturated fats that cause humans severe health problems. In replace of the saturated fats, heart-healthy Omega-3 salmon oil will be used as a substitute. IVM will also not contain hormones, e. coli, mercury, campylobacter, salmonella, dioxin and antibiotics that infect primitive meats. Vitra Meat will reduce influenza, TB, dioxins and Mad Cow

In vitro meat samples.

Disease. Certain genetic problems found in cows such as kwashiokor, or protein deficiency, that causes large amounts of meat to be inedible will be conquered when compact IMV kits are delivered to famine-plagued nations and used as a replacement for actual meat. Finally, the globe’s water crises will partially be alleviated due to the fact that 8% of our water supply was being used to support livestock. If livestock are no longer necessary, then we will gain that 8% of H20 back.

A recent report called “Livestock and Climate Change” done by the Worldwatch Institute said that at least 1.5 billion livestock in America are responsible for 51% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. There are at least 130 times more cattle feces alone than human feces, creating approximately 64 million tons of sewage in the United States alone that flushes out into the Mississippi River, killing fish and coral along the Gulf of Mexico. A similar issue exists with a hog farm in Utah that secrets more waste into rivers than the entirety of Los Angeles. Around 68% of the ammonia in the atmosphere comes from livestock with 65% of that being nitrous oxide, 37% methane, 9% CO2 in addition to another hundred pollution gases. Also, big meat animals take up large portions of land and 80% of

Inside a slaughter house.

Amazonian deforestation is due to beef ranching. Additionally, cattle farming is a large source of water consumption as it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of beef.

Although there may be negative implications of vitro meat, there are many positive impacts of IVM. The lab grown meat hamburger is in various ways more cultured due to it’s human ingenuity and consideration towards animals and plants. While many IMV critics have declared the hamburger dry and inedible, they are missing the larger point of the invention. Vitro meat may not be available for commercial purchase soon; however, it is a concept prototype and evidence that it is physically plausible to create meat via cell culture. This whole process is one step closer to a day when factories can produce time-efficient, economical and completely animal-free manner.

The process of culturing healthy animals in a sterile environment will bypass inhumane treatment and grow pseudo animal muscle. Society will be able to establish a safer food supply due to the fact that we could avoid certain conditions that further the spread of disease. By doing this, the entire food-producing market will be taking a significant step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With that said, the most radical aspect of vitro meat is that thus far the vast majority of its funding has been solely philanthropic as it is

Scientists examine in vitro meat.

funded by foundations and individual donors. The funds that provided as the initial startup for IMV hamburgers came from the co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, not the government or a private company.

Additionally, all of the research that has been conducted regarding vitro meat has been done strictly in public domain and is available for civilian access anytime. Because the information is very available, the implications promise less corruption. At first glance, IMV hamburgers might come off as being quite homogenizing to traditional food selections; however, other beverages such as beer are biotech products similar to that of vitro meat. The production of beer requires live organisms such as yeast in addition to grain that nourishes the yeast. The process of creating beer and vitro meat is actually quite similar and nuanced in practice with varied products. Simply put, IMV meat requires only a cell line and proper sustenance for those cells. The fact that processes and materials can be altered specifically for each production allows vitro meat to take on different textures, forms and flavors.

The first full in vitro hamburger patty. It cost $250,000.

One of the biggest reasons why IMV meat has not made more progress is due to lack of sufficient funding and public understanding. The public is not accustomed to the idea of food technology being a positive solution that is also nonprofit. While some people may have the initial “yuck” reaction when thinking about lab grown meat, traditional farming is equally as gross due to bacterial contamination and the fact that the animals we consume literally live in their own feces. Although this new way of thinking about common meat may seem controversial, it prompts a more in depth discussion regarding the implication of food technology in the future.

What is the future potential for lab grown meat?

Tissue engineering has a strong potential to be the next alternative and solution for transplants when organ and tissue failure occurs. When organs and tissue fail, there are a couple of options to attempt and fix the problem, including transplantation, surgical repair, mechanical devices, and drug therapy. These, however, do not fully repair major damage, whereas tissue engineering builds new tissue, thus presenting an all new and ‘better’ solution to the trouble. Tissue that has been grown can be created to address significant needs, such as helping those with muscle dystrophy. The range of human tissue that can be grown will expand in the future, making it even more of a solution for organ failure. 
As far as meat, many vegetarians, vegans, and animal rights activists are advocating for lab-grown meat to become the (almost) sole source of it. If scientists could succeed in creating lab-grown meat, also known as shmeat, it could solve an incoming food crisis, due to the fact that there is now less and less land to raise animals. The shmeat would be cheaper than farm-fresh meat, because the process would become more efficient as time went on. Greenhouse-gas emissions would be reduced by 80%, as well as water use by 90%. Scientists could potentially replace the saturated fats with omega-3 fats, making the shmeat healthier. The president and co-founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, stated, “There is no future in conventional food production. The future is in in-vitro meat… There will be health benefits for human beings because the meat will be clean; it’s not raised on a dirty floor in a feedlot. It’s the beginning of the end of the shameful era of conventional meat production. There couldn’t be a more glorious development.” Mark Post, a scientist that worked on the first shmeat burger project, said it was their goal to "come up with a way to produce meat in an ethically and environmentally friendly way," Tissue engineering could be the future of meat, as well as organs and tissue.

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