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Lab-grown meat may be better for livestock, but not necessarily for the environment
BBC Science Focus|October 2024
The move to put alternative protein on our plates is gathering pace but there are still questions to answer
Lab-grown meat may be better for livestock, but not necessarily for the environment

On my morning walk with the dog, my path takes me past a field where a small herd of cattle grazes. I usually pause there, partly because my dog is utterly fascinated by cows, and partly because it's a pleasingly bucolic scene.

This is what I picture when I think of livestock farming: cows or sheep wandering around munching grass in a field. Then, like a lot of us who don't work in farming or meat production, I probably don't dwell as much as I should on what happens between the grazing animals and the meat we see on the supermarket shelves.

But there's a burgeoning meat-production industry that looks very different from this, which is set to offer us an innovative alternative using science: meat grown not in an animal, but cultured from a single cell, in a vessel inside an industrial production facility.

I'm curious to try it. And if there's a way I can indulge my appetite for meatballs and sausages without the need for an animal to be slaughtered, I'm keen to explore it.

But lab-grown-meat companies are already making environmental claims that have yet to be borne out by evidence.

Denne historien er fra October 2024-utgaven av BBC Science Focus.

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Denne historien er fra October 2024-utgaven av BBC Science Focus.

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