Meat production has long been an issue in the public eye. Animal rights and environmental activists alike have long disapproved of the production and use of animals for food. New research and methods may have led to a breakthrough that wouldn’t require normal farming processes where animals are slaughtered for meat.
Revolutionary Food Production
San Francisco based food company Hampton Creek kitchen, has been known to create animal-free products. So far, these include: mayonnaise, dressing, cookies, cookie dough and eggs. The company’s next venture is “clean meat”, a new way of coveting meat without slaughter. The product is created by extracting cells from an animal, then nourishing those cells in a lab so that they can be grown into a substance that can be consumed.
No Animals Were Harmed in the Creation of this Product
The product is still meat as it isn’t plant based. The only difference is the way substance is created. Instead of killing an animal and harvesting the meat, cells are taken away from an animal which is completely painless and harmless. A multitude of cells can be taken, for example from the root of a detached feather.
Hampton Creek is currently known as JUST and holds the aim of making “clean meat” products available to the mainstream. This could be a revolutionary way of how people view and consume animal products. Creating meat products whilst not harming animals is a ground-breaking technology created by academics and the medical field. Several start-ups and innovators are already trying to make this technology accepted commercially.
Making Meat Mainstream
If these start-ups and innovators are successful, they could offer a promising solution to the various problems caused by the rising global population. Although the necessary technological advances have been made to create the product, there is now a new set of challenges. Funding, regulatory approval and consumer acceptance are essential for marketing JUST products to the masses.
CEO Josh Tetrick intends to invest millions of dollars per year to commercialise clean meat. JUST is currently valued at over a billion dollars so such extensive funding is possible.
