Crisis averted: Scientists grow bacon from stem cells

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Crisis averted: Scientists grow bacon from stem cells

Before you start stockpiling every pig product you can get your hooves on, you should know that science is busy trying to solve the looming worldwide bacon shortage. With what? With what else? Stem cells. There isn’t anything stem cells can’t do.

Dutch researchers have developed a way to grow edible meat in the laboratory from the stem cells of pigs. Although the lab-grown strips of meat don’t yet taste or look much like pork (researchers say it has the consistency and feel of scallop), the ramifications for the new technology on the world’s food supply could be significant.

“If we took the stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a factor of a million, we would need one million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat,” said Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University involved in the project.

That means the technology could provide food for more people while making the slaughterhouse obsolete. Furthermore, since meat production is such a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, switching to lab-produced meat could theoretically lower the industry’s impact on global warming by up to 95 percent.

Of course, the technology does have its share of critics. Some health experts caution that consuming lab-made meats could have unforeseen dangers to human health. Furthermore, there are concerns that such radical plans to reduce our dependency on livestock and farm animals could harm agricultural ecosystems.

Via