How farming cells instead of animals could reduce greenhouse gases
How cell culture is revolutionising the production of animal-based products to tackle climate change reducing global greenhouse gas emissions
![Clare Trippett Clare Trippett](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/clare.trippett.jpg?w=100&h=100&auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=crop&dm=1576058254&s=f91de680dacc75a308b0f72eb2d4eb21)
Principal Strategic Opportunities Manager
According to projections by Population Reference Bureau (PRB) the world human population is projected to reach 9.9 billion by 2050, an increase of 29 percent from an estimated 7.6 billion people currently.
With the rise in population, increased life expectancy and improvement in worldwide standards of living it is estimated that we will need an additional 40 billion animals. Livestock farming has a significant environmental impact, and is responsible for an estimated:
- 14.5 – 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions
- Occupation of 26% of the earth’s ice free surface
- Use of 27 – 29% of the earth’s freshwater footprint
The urgent need to address climate change coupled with the increased demand for animal products creates a strong motivation to develop new technologies to address the anticipated shortage.
Cellular agriculture is an emerging area of biotechnology that applies advances in cell culture, tissue engineering and synthetic biology to offer an alternative approach to producing agricultural products in bioreactors rather than through raising livestock.
Cellular agriculture aims to revolutionise the supply chain of animal products, providing affordable and sustainable food and materials that have the same sensory and functional characteristics as an animal derived product.
The potential benefits to this approach including increasing food supply to meet the world’s growing population, a positive impact on sustainability, humane farming and environment (less land, water and greenhouse gases), reducing antibiotic use, reduced risk of pathogens and alignment with cultural trends such as the rise in veganism and move towards sustainable fashion.
![Future farming Future farming](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=1920&h=1080&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=242e9c0e1319b298b0ec9809a2d41813 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=1120&h=630&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=0324d21adca9c26ccb01b15d2b9e1c52 1120w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=800&h=450&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=a936058770f3428efb98419ab9ada90f 800w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=1600&h=900&q=45&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=f005ce5ac42f4df7c14384fcf51fff53 1600w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=480&h=270&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=3fa598ecbb2aa703b7e81a32869954fb 480w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/cows-angus.jpg?w=960&h=540&q=45&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769175&s=362d979c64a4cc1e4d25894c49b2a54c 960w)
Cultured meat for lunch, anyone?
“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium”
- Winston Churchill, 1931
In 1931 Winston Churchill predicted that we would eventually move away from growing animals for food, and instead would culture animal parts. Despite Churchill’s early prediction, it wasn’t until 2000 that scientists started to attempt to grow animal cells for food, with first attempts looking at growing goldfish muscle to be used as food for astronauts (Benjaminson et al, 2002)
![The future of food The future of food](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=1920&h=1080&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=175c65772e19160b2ce4de659ee569ce 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=1120&h=630&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=ac1061a5cf4c0e48789dbdc79ce60a7a 1120w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=800&h=450&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=86060e78e62270550a5b9a06429476b9 800w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=1600&h=900&q=45&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=0e0c3ec487e3e96d4591868f6362b52d 1600w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=480&h=270&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=45d5be92243eeb946266e1945f7fd9b4 480w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/smart-hoopoe/production/content/images/chicken-burger.jpg?w=960&h=540&q=45&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1579769205&s=d46336a3136f79c5830208e32dc06d78 960w)
Today there is increasing interest into developing cultured meat, which is meat that is composed of animal cells and looks/tastes like regular meat, however originates from a bioreactor rather than an animal. The process for producing cultured meat has many parallels with the processes used in industries such as biopharma, enzyme manufacture and tissue engineering, and includes tools such as:
- Cell line selection
- High throughput screening for media and bioprocess conditions
- Cell culture techniques (e.g. continuous culture or the use of micro carriers)
- Product purification and processing
- Analytical tools for product characterisation
The first cell cultured hamburger was cooked and tasted in 2013 by Professor Mark Post of the University of Maastricht, showing that creating cultured meat was scientifically possible. The most important innovations in culturing meat are now around bioreactor design and how to enable the huge cell production capacity that is required for cultured meat to be industrialised.
Discover how we support companies in their cellular agriculture innovation.
Reference:
Benjaminson, M.A., Gilchriest, J.A. & Lorenz, M. (2002) In vitro edible muscle protein production system (mpps): stage 1, fish. Acta Astronautica, 51:12, p 879 – 889
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