The Research Essay. Only for Quality!

Jones 1

Jones 1

Barnes 1

Bucky Barnes

Ms. Allegra Hanna

ENGL 1302

December 13, 2018

Closing the Gap to Sustainability with Lab-Grown Meat

The term sustainability is generally thought to be associated with transportation and energy production and their effects on the atmosphere. However, meat production in the cattle industry releases more toxic gas emissions than both sectors combined accounting for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Penn, 2018). With growing populations worldwide, the demand for meat is increasing which simultaneously leads to an increase demand for natural resources. Greater allocations of water, grain, and land are directed towards raising cattle for slaughter. Livestock production affects environment in various means ranging from erosion, deforestation, and toxins from growth hormones, antibiotic, and steroids in water run-off seeping into water supplies. Human health concerns from consuming conventionally produced meat range from parasites, antibiotics, growth hormones, cancer, and heart disease. Current methods of meat production also include poor living conditions of animals and inhumane killing. Labgrown meat also known as, cultured meat can provide sustainability in many aspects lessening or eliminating the current negatives effects of conventional meat production.

Lab-grown meat production easily yields large quantities and are created with far less resources. Cultured meat is antibiotic and growth hormone free as it is grown in sterile environments. The creation process of lab-grown meat is illustrated in Jennifer Penn’s journal as:

Stem cells are extracted from bovine muscle tissue. Those cells are then placed in a petri dish for the first cycle of growth, where they grow, divide, and replicate on their own. The result is a myotube of muscle cells that is then placed around a cylinder of gelatin with other myotubes. This donut-shaped ring of muscle cells attaches to the gelatin and then “exercises”; it expands, and contracts on its own, causing the muscle cells to grow and produce muscle tissue just as it would if it were part of a cow’s shoulder muscle

(Penn, 2018).

The production of lab-grown meat in this manner eliminates the need for inhumane animal cruelty. Cultured meat can bring sustainability worldwide by providing cleaner environmental production methods, exhausting fewer natural resources, provide healthier meats for

Figure 1: World’s first cultured hamburger (2013). From consumption, easily produced to provide food security for growing https://www.mosameat.com/ population demands, and save animal lives.

Conventional agriculture and livestock production of meat for consumption comes with harsh penalties for the environment. Livestock production is responsible for some of the most potent and heat-trapping GHGs, including 37 percent of anthropogenic emissions of methane, 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions, and 64 percent of anthropogenic ammonia emissions (Penn, 2018). Increases of emissions affects the planet by the way of climate change leading to frequent natural disasters such as floods, droughts, melting of polar ice caps, and hurricanes. One pound of cultured meat requires no feed, 43.6 gallons of water, less than 1 square foot of farmland, and up to 45 percent less energy. In comparison, one pound of conventional meat requires 26.8 pounds of feed, 232 square meters of farmland, and 4,144

British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy to produce (Penn, 2018). By substituting conventional

meat with lab-grown meat consumers could save 26.8 pounds of feed which could be repurposed to feed the growing populations, or create ethanol. Additionally, this would free 167.6 gallons of water per pound for use in other sectors (Penn, 2018).

Livestock production accounts for the vast majority of deforested land and for 70 percent of all agricultural land, and is responsible for 8 percent global human water use. It produces animal waste and antibiotic/hormone runoff from the farms in addition to the chemicals from the tanneries and those added to soils for feed crops. It is also a significant contributor to water pollution with effects including: eutrophication, ‘dead zones’ in the coastal areas, degradation of coral reefs, human health challenges, [and] emergence antibiotic resistance (Penn, 2018).

Livestock production accounts as of the largest consumers of natural resources. Currently 80% of the world’s agricultural land is used directly or indirectly used for animal production (Clarke, 2015). With growing populations and demand for conventional meat, more land will be allocated towards production. The main land degradation problems associated with beef and dairy systems are erosion, compaction, soil contamination, and the pollution and eutrophication of water systems (Bosnjak, Prpic, Ugarkovic, Konjacic, & Ivan, 2018). Livestock production consumes a large majority of the planet’s water resources. Currently 70% of all available water goes to agriculture (Clarke, 2015). Lab-grown meats require much less land and water to produce enabling it to provide sustainable alternative now and for future generations.

As Paul Kingsnorth says in his book Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist “society needs to go about its business without spewing stuff out. It needs to do it quickly, and by any means necessary” (70). Lab-grown meats could be produced in facilities ran by solar power decreasing energy consumption during production. These facilities can be placed in any location regardless of climate or terrain to feed communities, providing a sustainable option for lowering greenhouse emissions, energy use, conserving water, land, and reducing the effects of climate change. By exchanging lab-grown meat for conventional, land previously allotted towards meat production could be used to farm crops and close the gap on food scarcity. The amount of grain produced in the world today is enough to feed the world’s population twice over, 70% of this grain is fed to livestock (Clarke, 2015). Although lab-grown meat is not able to solve all of the world’s sustainability issues it can contribute to significant decreases in consumption of natural resources and reducing negative effects of current livestock production on the planet.

The absence of conventional livestock production and benefits of lab-grown meats not only positively impacts the planet; human health is also positively impacted. Humans are physically affected by disease, parasites, steroids, antibiotics, cancer, and conventional livestock is also an unsustainable source food security for the growing population.

With the growing population desiring more meat in their diets, livestock production has become demand-driven. Livestock are given hormones and steroids to expedite their growth. They are also given antibiotics due to poor condensed unhealthy living conditions in order to prevent illness until they are of size for slaughter. Growth hormones, steroids, and antibiotics have ill effects on humans. “Such adverse effects of hormones on humans according to a report from a European Commission, include “developmental, neurobiological, genotoxic and carcinogenic effect.’ One of these hormones, estradiol, has been banned in farm animals in

Europe since 2003 but still in use in the United States” (Penn, 2018). Overuse of antibiotics “contributes to the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including those dangerous to humans.” (Penn, 2018), making human subjectable to disease. “Contamination of water with microorganisms and parasites from manure” (Bosnjak, Prpic, Ugarkovic, Konjacic, & Ivan, 2018) is also an issue tangled within the production of livestock. Lab-grown meats are created and grown in sterile environments which allows them to be hormone, steroid, and antibiotic free. They also consume significantly less water which do not pollute water supplies. The risk of cancer, stroke, and heart disease in humans are also associated with meat consumption. An additional benefit of growing meat in a lab rather than a traditional livestock farm is that those components that make red meat harmful to human health may be eliminated. Red meats are classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans’ and processed meats as ‘carcinogenic to humans.’”…One of the meat components pinpointed by scientists as contributing to an increased risk of cancer in heme iron, which is a particular type of protein of iron found almost exclusively in meat. It creates potent carcinogens, such as Nnitroso compounds, and damages DNA in the human body. It is also linked to increased risk of both breast and colon cancer. This harmful component…is absent in cultured meat as blood circulation, where the protein is found, is unnecessary. The consumption of saturated fat, which increases the risk of stroke and heart disease, can also be eliminated. Cultured meat even requires much less of the preservatives nitrite and nitrate, which are potentially carcinogenic (Penn, 2018).

Scientists are not only able to grow meats hormone, steroid, and antibiotic free; they are able to modify its composition, developing it as an overall healthier option.

Food security for growing populations and human nutrition are both issues lab-grown meat can counter and provide benefits. Large allocations of grains are currently driven towards livestock production withholding them from people in need that are suffering from starvation and malnutrition. “In developing countries it is estimated that 16-28% of the population are consuming insufficient energy-rich foods, compared to less than 5% in developed countries” (Clarke, 2015). By deploying crop resources away from feeding livestock and towards feeding people contributes to inching closer to sustainability. Lab-grown meats require zero grain to create expanding food allocations out to populations dramatically. Revitalizing land currently used in livestock production into farm land will eliminate clearing of additional land and forests which will lesson environmental damage and increase food supplies.

Livestock lives will also benefit from lab-grown meat production. Livestock are raised in inhumanly in poor living conditions, given antibiotics, hormones, and steroids to be slaughtered for portions of meat. Lab-grown meat produces meat products of the only parts of cattle humans consume. There would be no need for current livestock production processes and useless killings.

Lab-grown meat is capable of providing sustainability across a broad-spectrum decreasing the environmental footprint of meat production and provide food security. From lowering greenhouse gas emissions, conserving water supplies, reversion of land to farming of crops, eliminating antibiotics/steroids/hormones, provide food security, and save animal lives. Lab-grown meats should be considered a logical replacement as their benefits far outweigh current methods of livestock production.

Works Cited

Bosnjak, R., Prpic, Z., Ugarkovic, N., Konjacic, M., & Ivan, V. (2018). Possibilites for mitigating the enviromental footprint of dairy ruminants. Mjekarstvo / Dairy, 68(3), 155-

168.

Clarke, A. (2015, June/July). Vegetarian and sustainability. Journal of the Australian

Traditional-Medicine Journal, 21(2), 106-111.

Doering, C. (2016, MAY 31). LAB-GROWN FOOD MAY SOON BE ON THE MENU. USA

TOAY, p. 5.

Kingsnorth, P. (2017). Confessions of a Recovering Enviromentalist and Other Essays.

Minneapolis: Faber & Faber Limited, London.

Penn, J. (2018). "Cultured Meat":Lab-Grown Beef and Regulating the Future Meat Market.

UCLA Journal of Envriomental Law & Policy, 36(1), 104-126.

Schaefer, G. O. (2018, September 14). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grownmeat/. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/. www.mosameat.com. (n.d.). Mosa Meat. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from https://www.mosameat.com/: https://www.mosameat.com/

Zaraska, M. (2016, May 2). Retrieved from The Washington Post (WP Company LLC) US:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lab-grown-meat-is-in-yourfuture-and-it-may-be-healthier-than-the-real-stuff/2016/05/02/aa893f34-e630-11e5-a6f3-

21ccdbc5f74e_story.html?utm_term=.000c5aaf2a5d