There are no ifs and buts about it anymore.
The, heretofore, inconceivable concoction is inevitably coming soon – to be ordered, served and eaten.
It is bizarre and probably hard to swallow (literally), but one can learn to enjoy it as the next fast food wonder.
The product’s name? ‘Test-tube’ hamburger or ‘in vitro hamburger!
If you think the technology is akin to the test-tube baby technology that has brought joy to many couples not able to bear a child, well, you are not really far from that reality.
A team of Dutch scientists are currently developing a burger which will be grown from stem cells extracted from cattle and which it has been calculated that an initial ten stem cells could produce 50,000 tons of meat in two months.
Why are these steps taken or why are they heading towards this direction?
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who is behind the project, could not have explained it more succinctly, saying: ‘I don’t see any way you could rely on old-fashioned livestock in the coming decades.
It is predicted that the world’s meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 as the population increases.
Not only that. A relative study on this unprecedented exploit has beneficial effects to the environment in that this technology/process would consume 35-60 per cent less energy, 98 per cent less land and produce 80-95 per cent less greenhouse gas than conventional farming.
Holland is currently leading the world in the production of artificial meat, and the Dutch government has put a huge amount of money into the research.
The scientists involved believe that the ‘in vitro’ burger or any cultured meat, for that matter, is only the first step in revolutionizing food production that would help feed the galloping population.
