The Magazine of The Sierra Club
The Art of Cultured Meat
"Cellular agriculture" is on its way to producing consumable meat products from a lab
Supporters of "cellular agriculture"—the production of food such as eggs and meat from cultures—say it has the potential to replace the practice of rearing animals for food. A 2011 theoretical study found that lab-based meat would require less water and land as well as prevent the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, while swapping pastures for petri dishes might be better for animals, growing the cells can suck up large amounts of heat and energy, a 2015 study suggests. Eager to get a taste of cultured meat fresh off the grill? Pros and cons aside, lab-created burgers like the one below—created by Dr. Mark Post, a tissue-engineering expert at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands—may take a decade or two before they hit the supermarket.
A scientist extracts muscle tissue from an adult cow. Then stem cells are taken from the sample and placed in a petri dish on a nutrient-rich foundation that helps them grow. This mimics the role of blood in a live animal.
Infographic by Brown Bird Design
Next, the stem cells divide—and increase in number—inside a heated bioreactor that pipes in oxygen. Most of the cells are starved so that they turn into a collection of muscle cells, which merge together to form long strings of muscle tissue called myotubes. A smaller amount of the stem cells are coated with fatty acids and turned into fat cells.
The myotubes are put onto scaffolds and fed oxygen and a nutrient-rich solution. Here, the myotubes naturally contract and synthesize protein, which bulks them up. They fuse together to form rings around the scaffolds.
The meat rings are harvested, cut up into small pieces, mixed with the fat that was produced in the bioreactor (to create a more realistic taste and mouthfeel), and then formed into a patty. Bon appetit.
This article appeared in the March/April 2017 edition with the headline "Goodbye Farm, Hello Lab."
