Cellular Agriculture Could Help Save Our Planet

 Right now we are an animal agricultural country.  Cows, for example, account for 9% of greenhouse gases!  1/3 of our planet is dedicated to agriculture.  Can you imagine a future when animal protein is made from farming cells?  Cellular agriculture would require 99% less land and 96% less water.  Imagine how that would help our planet.  At the moment, animal agriculture is funded by the government, so it's hard to imagine cellular agriculture coming to pass in our lifetime.

The big problem is humans concept of eating protein produced from cells, not animals.  Many people have tried products like "Impossible Meat."  Someone must like it because there's lots of it in stores, but many people (including me) don't like it.  At the moment, the cost of producing a meat product from cells is about $50 a pound.  That sounds like a lot, but with the cost of animal products increasing dramatically, it's not as bad as it sounds.  Over time, cellular meat cost will decrease, and animal meat will increase. (click below to view charts describing cellular agriculture more completely)

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Cellular agriculture

Description

Description

Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agriculture products from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology to create and design new methods of producing proteins, fats, and tissues that would otherwise come from traditional agriculture. 

It's a fascinating topic.  Check it out online.  I listened to a TedTalk on the subject, which got me interested in finding out more.  It's amazing what science can do.