The United States Congress may have finally given the United States Department of Agriculture permission to govern the process of lab-grown meat. While companies inch forward to releasing the meat before the end of the year, Congress had not proclaimed how the meat was to be governed. A single sentence in a recent appropriation bill seems to have given the power to the department who will have to now develop guidelines for the meat’s inspection before it can be sold to consumers in restaurants, grocery stores and other places.
Companies Producing Clean-mean
Lab-grown meat is different from vegetarian meat choices because genes from animals are used to grow the meat in the lab. There are various processes being experimented with by companies like Memphis Meats that Tyson Foods owns a share of currently, California-based Just and Finless Foods who is experimenting with growing fish in the lab.
How Clean-meat is Produced
The process of growing meat in a lab varies from one company to the next. Some are collecting cells from live animals and feeding them with nutrients to get them to grow and produce muscle tissue. Others are creating a blood serum that is like a starter dough and encouraging it to grow. Scientists working in the field, however, say that it is not as easy as it sounds.
Advantages of Clean-meat
Those who are experimenting in the field say that there are many advantages to lab-grown meat. They point out that producing meat in this way produces fewer greenhouse emissions. They also say that less land is needed to produce meat in the lab. They also say that transportation costs could be reduced because meat could be grown anywhere.
Problems for Clean-meat
Economically producing the meat, however, remains a major problem. The first clean-burger was produced in 2013, but it cost $330,000 to produce the meat for just one hamburger patty. The second major problem may be convincing consumers that clean-meat tastes like the real thing.
