The Not-So-Dystopian Future of Lab-Grown Food on Our Plates

Many science fiction stories about dystopian societies with climate disasters involve some sort of synthetic meat grown in tanks on a large scale in an attempt to feed a hungry world. But is lab-grown food just a figment of our imagination forever, destined to remain a product of science fiction? Or could it soon be available as a mainstream product? 

As biotechnology advances, the ability to manipulate living organisms like bacteria for benefit grows. Just like the development of synthetic insulin has increased the quality of life of diabetic individuals, the biotech industry has turned its attention towards creating cultured or clean meat to limit the environmental impact of the meat industry [1]. The process begins with isolating stem cells from animal muscles and uses a bioreactor to grow the cell samples into tissue fibers and eventually muscle tissues [2]. According to a biotechnology company that is investigating the culturing of meat, the process could theoretically yield up to 20,000 pounds of meat from a simple muscle biopsy [2]. The process of growing meat in bioreactors has been independently examined by various biotech startups in the United States with some companies venturing out to culture other meat products such as pork and fish [2]. 

Now, let’s address the elephant (or cow?) in the room. How would this cultured meat taste? Reports from biotech companies report that the meat tastes fairly similar to normal meat as the fat and muscle tissue composition is closely monitored in the culturing process to ensure that the synthetic meat is as similar as possible to real meat [3]. 

There are many obstacles that cultured meat producers must overcome before the products will be available for mass consumption, including FDA approval [1]. However, cultured chicken products made their debut for public consumption at restaurant 1880 in Singapore to much fanfare [3].

Although modern biotechnology could support the mass production of cultured meats, there are many legal and social barriers that need to be addressed before we see lab grown meat on our plates. Despite the many obstacles that are in the way of cultured meat production, science continues to advance, and we may be eating cultured meat from the serveries before we know it. 

References

1. Rogers, K. Lab-grown meat could make strides in 2022 as start-ups push for U.S. approval https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/23/lab-grown-meat-start-ups-hope-to-make-strides-in-2022.html (accessed 2022 -03 -12).

2. Lab-Grown Meat - Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/ (accessed 2022 -03 -12).

3. Lab-Grown Meat Could Feed the Planet | Time https://time.com/6109450/sustainable-lab-grown-mosa-meat/ (accessed 2022 -03 -12).

4. Lab-grown meat’s promise for cutting climate warming depends on an… https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/news/cultured-meat-climate-impact/ (accessed 2022 -03 -12).

Composting: Fad Trend, or Way to Give New Life to Food Waste?

We produce a lot of trash. This sheer amount of waste produced places enormous pressure on waste management systems. In response, composting aims to provide a way of decreasing food waste and has steadily grown in popularity over the past decade. Sometime over the last few semesters, you’ve probably seen the Moonshot composting bins accompanied by instructional posters by the trash cans in the serveries. The mission of Moonshot Compost Services is to divert excess food from landfills and return the nutrients back to the soil [1]. Rice students are welcomed to be a part of this mission by discarding their plates, food, and any other acceptable biodegradable items into a Moonshot composting bin.

Let’s zoom out from our campus and take a look at large-scale composting operations as a whole. What is the fate of the food waste once it’s out of our hands?

Once compost is collected and sent off for processing, there are a few commercially viable methods in practice to break it down into usable organic materials: windrow, aerated stack pile, and in-vessel composting [2]. In windrow composting, compost is piled in long rings and the organic material is rotated at regularly occurring intervals. Downsides of this method include the need for large amounts of land and constant supervision of the composting process. In aerated stack pile composting, wood chips are layered in with the compost to create spaces for airflow throughout the compost pile; pipes are often used to provide an upward stream of air from the base of the pile. Although this method is able to degrade compost fairly quickly, the machinery and equipment required to set up the system are quite expensive and labor-intensive. Finally, in-vessel composting shifts away from exposing compost to open air and opts to place compost into a temperature- and moisture-controlled environment within a container. This in-vessel composting may turnout compost quicker than the other two methods, but is fairly expensive [3].

If done in an efficient manner, these methods of composting food waste can provide a viable and continuous pipeline from food waste to nutrient-rich soil that can be used to grow crops. A key take away from all of this is that regardless of the method used for composting, there are some drawbacks to the composting process, whether it be high costs, large amounts of land use, or the production of foul odors (yikes!). Zooming back into our campus serveries, it’s important to recognize that although we don’t have control over what exactly happens to our compost, decreasing the amount of food waste by taking advantage of our Moonshot bins is an easy way to decrease Rice’s waste.

References

[1] Impact. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from http://www.moonshotcompost.com/impact/.

[2] Alexander, G. How commercial composting works. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from https://earth911.com/business-policy/how-commercial-composting-works/.

[3] Sustainable Management of Food: Types of Composting and Understanding the Process. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from http://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/types-composting-and-understanding-proces s#aeratedstatic.

[4] Image: https://images.app.goo.gl/3oPXQsGWQVnNS1858