Energy

The Cost Of Lab-Grown Hamburgers Has Fallen 3 Million Percent

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Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
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Growing artificial beef for a lab-grown hamburger just got 3,080,885 percent cheaper.

Making enough artificial beef in a lab for a burger cost $325,000 as recently as 2013, but further development of the process has cut the price to just $11.36.

Mosa Meat, the company developing the lab grown-burger, intends to sell its product to environmentalists and vegetarians.

“I am confident that when it is offered as an alternative to meat that increasing numbers of people will find it hard not to buy our product for ethical reasons,” Peter Verstrate, head of Mosa Meat, told the BBC.

Environmentalists constantly worry that eating meat is hurting the planet, and may think lab-grown beef could ultimately reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

“Studies are emerging that whether the meat is grown locally or far away, it still requires a lot of resources, including carbon resources,” Mike Tidwell, head of the environmental group Chesapeake Climate Action Network, told The Baltimore Sun. “If you really want to have a low-impact diet in terms of change, then you just have to eat a lot less.”

Tidwell claims raising beef generates the most CO2, but also says farm-raised fowl, like turkeys, are “still high-impact.”

Activists claim at the rate we’re munching through burgers alone, the world will need to use 42 percent of all land to meet future demand.

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Tags : bbc
Andrew Follett