Cultured Chicken Will Reduce Methane Gas

The raising of farm animals  for human consumption amounts for 20-30% of the methane gas spewed into the air every year.  How can we help control climate change and reduce (maybe eliminate) tightly packed warehouses that are a public health hazard, a fire hazard and a worker safety hazard?  We can produce cultured, or lab grown meat.  

Several start up companies have been working on producing cultured chicken, and it has finally been approved for use in Singapore.  Israel also has an experimental restaurant where lab grown meat will soon be available.

Lab-grown chicken is meant to be physically identical to chicken slaughtered in the traditional way.  It is made from genuine chicken cells, but it is grown on a cell-scaffold in a factory instead of growing in a live animal.  It differs from plant-based meats, which are not identical to the real thing on a cellular level.  

The same approach can be used for beef and pork, but chickens seem the best place to start.  Here's what they do.  Chicken cells are taken from a real live chicken.  No killing is involved.  The chicken cells are then immersed in a liquid solution that encourages the cells to multiply.  This product is aimed at meat eaters, not vegetarians.  Imagine being able to eliminate factory farming and the deplorable conditions for workers and animals alike!

Of course every great idea has a negative side.  Lab grown chickens would eliminate chicken farms and processing plants for thousands of workers.  If cultured chicken becomes popular, the same process could be used to produce beef and pork.  Would that be the end of ranches and farms that produce these animals for meat?  That's decades down the road.  I won't be here to see it, but it is a way to significantly reduce the destruction of our planet.

Beyond Meat and other plant based products are now mainstream and found in every supermarket and many restaurants, so over time the same may happen with cultured chicken.  Singapore is the first to approve it, but others will follow.  It's all so fascinating, but it has great implications for commerce that have to be dealt with.