Berlin.
A food producer puts primeval elephant meat on the plate. However, the mammoth is not suitable for consumption.
Along with saber-toothed tigers and Neanderthals, the woolly mammoth is probably one of the best-known species associated with the end of the last ice age disappeared from the scene. Because scientists were able to extract large amounts of genetic material from frozen specimens, the dream of resurrection has been alive for a long time. An Australian start-up company has embraced the idea. But not to settle new herds in Siberia. The fabric goes on the plate. However, it was not bred for consumption.
On the contrary: the round piece of meat is on display in the Netherlands. The primeval meatball can be viewed at the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden, which specializes in natural sciences and medicine. The Australian food producer Vow synthesized the fabric to raise awareness of low-emission and non-violent meat products. Does this open up a path to sustainable nutrition without giving up meat for the vast majority?
Laboratory meat: Sustainable nutrition, low emissions
Vow Research Director James Ryall told CNN, “We need to rethink how we source food.” The motivation for the PR coup is “that many people around the world first of all farmed meat hear”.
However, the huge meatball is not much more than an unusual advertising strategy for more sustainable and less cruel meat production. Because to consumption the mammoth meat was never intended. “We usually sample our products,” Ryall said. This time, however, the appetite was very restrained. The reason for this are allergological concerns, which made the scientists shy away from trying it. “After all, we’re talking about a protein that didn’t exist for 5,000 years.”
Also read: Veggie sausages: Öko-Test makes a devastating verdict
Part mammoth, part African elephant, lots of sheep
That the cellular biologist of only one Protein speaks for a good reason. The piece of meat consists mainly of sheep. For the production, the scientists used the gene pool for mammoths that is accessible worldwide and chose a myoglobin from muscle cells for the cultivation. Because the information is only fragmentary, the biological material was supplemented with the genetic material of its African conspecifics and implanted in the muscle cell of a sheep. The start-up company then grew this in the laboratory until it weighed almost half a kilogram.
Also interesting: “Hard but fair”: Özdemir makes a clear statement to meat eaters
Laboratory-grown meat could wipe out the conventional meat industry in the distant future. Finally, farms apply with factory farming among the largest global greenhouse gas producers. Around 1.5 billion cows worldwide are polluting the earth’s atmosphere with extremely climate-damaging methane gas, a pollutant that is 21 times as devastating as CO2.
Pioneer Singapore: when will cultured meat be ready for series production?
The proves that the cultured meat industry is still in its infancy PR-Stunt around the so-called “mammoth meat”. Rowan Rimington, chief cellular biologist at Ivy Farms Technology, is certain that the model offers prospects: “We don’t have to breed the whole animal. We only cultivate the parts that are tasty and provide nutrients.”
More on the subject: Restaurant in Rome sells 3D printed meat
However, the laboratory meat is not produced entirely without expense. To the product in test tube To breed, the scientists of the research project under the umbrella of the renowned British University of Oxford have to supply the tissue with carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins, explains Rimington. “Like a conventional animal, the cells need nutrients to grow.” The British team has been researching cultured laboratory meat for years and is speculating that it will soon be approved in several countries. So far, only the Singapore Food Safety Authority has given the go-ahead.
Good to know: Meat substitutes: Why experts warn against daily consumption
Although only a small portion of the meatball consists of primeval elephant DNA, James Ryall says the addition of the mammoth myoglobin noticeably affected the structure of the sheep’s tissue. Even if the primal elephant part is small, with 400 Gramm Weight, the meatball would deserve the addition “mammoth” anyway, despite the proportion of sheep.
More articles from this category can be found here: Life
