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Article: Cultured Meat
Cultured meat is meat produced by in vitro cultivation of animal cells, instead of from slaughtered animals. It is a form of cellular agriculture.

Cultured meat is produced using many of the same tissue engineering techniques traditionally used in regenerative medicine. The concept of cultured meat was popularized by Jason Matheny in the early 2000s after co-authoring a seminal paper on cultured meat production and creating New Harvest, the world's first non-profit organization dedicated to supporting in vitro meat research.

In 2013, Mark Post, professor at Maastricht University, was the first to showcase a proof-of-concept for in-vitro lab grown meat by creating the first lab-grown burger patty. Since then, several cultured meat prototypes have gained media attention: however, because of limited dedicated research activities, cultured meat has not yet been commercialized. In addition, it has yet to be seen whether consumers will accept cultured meat as meat.

The production process still has much room for improvement, but it has advanced in most recent years, leading up to 2018, under various companies. Its applications lead it to have several prospective health, environmental, cultural, and economic considerations in comparison to conventional meat.

Nomenclature:
Besides cultured meat, the terms in vitro meat, vat-grown , lab-grown meat, cell-based meat , clean meat, and synthetic meat have all been used by various outlets to describe the product.

Clean meat is an alternative term that is preferred by some journalists, advocates, and organizations that support the technology. According to the Good Food Institute, the name better reflects the production and benefits of the meat and surpassed "cultured" and "in vitro" in media mentions as well as Google searches.

Production:
There are three stages in the production of cultured meat: selection of starter cells, treatment of growth medium, and scaffolding.

Starter cells
The initial stage of growing cultured meat is to collect cells that have a rapid rate of proliferation (high cell reproduction rate). Such cells include embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, myosatellite cells, or myoblasts. Stem cells proliferate the quickest, but have not yet begun development towards a specific kind of cell, which creates the challenge of splitting the cells and directing them to grow a certain way. Fully developed muscle cells are ideal in the aspect that they have already finished development as a muscle, but proliferate hardly at all. Therefore, cells such as myosattelite and myoblast cells are often used as they still proliferate at an acceptable rate, but also sufficiently differentiate from other types of cells.

Growth medium
The cells are then treated by applying a protein that promotes tissue growth, which is known as a growth medium. These mediums should contain the necessary nutrients and appropriate quantity of growth factors. They are then placed in a culture medium, in a bio-reactor, which is able to supply the cells with the energetic requirements they need.

Scaffold
To culture three-dimensional meat, the cells are grown on a scaffold, which is a component that directs its structure and order. The ideal scaffold is edible so the meat does not have to be removed, and periodically moves to stretch the developing muscle, thereby simulating the animal body during normal development. Additionally the scaffold must maintain flexibility in order to not detach from the developing myotubes (early muscle fibers). Scaffold must also allow vascularization (creation of blood vessels) in order for normal development of muscle tissue.

Other considerations
Scaffold-based production techniques can only be appropriately used in boneless or ground meats (processed). The end result of this process would be meats such as hamburgers or sausages. In order to create more structured meats, for example steak, muscle tissue must be structured in directed and self-organized means or by proliferation of muscle tissue already existing. Additionally, the presence of gravitational, magnetic, fluid flow, and mechanical fields have an effect on the proliferation rates of the muscle cells. Processes of tension such as stretching and relaxing increased differentiation into muscle cells.

Once this process has been started, it would be theoretically possible to continue producing meat indefinitely without introducing new cells from a living organism. It has been claimed that, conditions being ideal, two months of cultured meat production could deliver up to 50,000 tons of meat from ten pork muscle cells.

Cultured meat production requires a preservative, such as sodium benzoate, to protect the growing meat from yeast and fungus. Collagen powder, xanthan gum, mannitol and cochineal could be used in different ways during the process.

The price of cultured meat at retail outlets like grocery stores and supermarkets may decrease to levels that middle-class consumers consider to be "inexpensive" due to technological advancements.

Challenges
The science for cultured meat is an outgrowth of the field of biotechnology known as tissue engineering. The technology is simultaneously being developed along with other uses for tissue engineering such as helping those with muscular dystrophy and, similarly, growing transplant organs. There are several obstacles to overcome if it has any chance of succeeding; at the moment, the most notable ones are scale and cost.


 * Proliferation of muscle cells: Although it is not very difficult to make stem cells divide, for meat production it is necessary that they divide at a quick pace, producing the solid meat. This requirement has some overlap with the medical branch of tissue engineering.
 * Culture medium: Proliferating cells need a food source to grow and develop. The growth medium should be a well-balanced mixture of ingredients and growth factors. Scientists have already identified possible growth media for turkey, fish, sheep and pig muscle cells. Depending on the motives of the researchers, the growth medium has additional requirements.
 * Commercial: The growth medium should be inexpensive to produce. A plant-based medium may be less expensive than fetal bovine serum.
 * Animal welfare: The growth medium should be devoid of animal sources (except for the initial "mining" of the original stem cells).
 * Non-Allergenic: While plant-based growth media are "more realistic," will be cheaper, and will reduce the possibility of infectious agents, there is also the possibility that plant-based growth media may cause allergic reactions in some consumers.
 * Bioreactors: Nutrients and oxygen need to be delivered close to each growing cell, on the scale of millimeters. In animals this job is handled by blood vessels. A bioreactor should emulate this function in an efficient manner. The usual approach is to create a sponge-like matrix in which the cells can grow and perfuse it with the growth medium.

Additionally, there is no dedicated scientific research discipline for cellular agriculture and its development. The past research undertaken into cellular agriculture were isolated from each other, and they did not receive significant academic interest. Although it currently exists, long-term strategies are not sufficiently funded for development and severely lack a sufficient amount of researchers.

Environmental
Research has suggested that environmental impacts of cultured meat would be significantly lower than normally slaughtered beef. For every hectare that is used for vertical farming and/or cultured meat manufacturing, anywhere between 10 and 20 hectares of land may be converted from conventional agriculture usage back into its natural state. Vertical farms (in addition to cultured meat facilities) could exploit methane digesters to generate a small portion of its own electrical needs. Methane digesters could be built on site to transform the organic waste generated at the facility into biogas which is generally composed of 65% methane along with other gasses. This biogas could then be burned to generate electricity for the greenhouse or a series of bioreactors.

A study by researchers at Oxford and the University of Amsterdam found that cultured meat was "potentially ... much more efficient and environmentally-friendly", generating only 4% greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the energy needs of meat generation by up to 45%, and requiring only 2% of the land that the global meat/livestock industry does. The patent holder Willem van Eelen, the journalist Brendan I. Koerner, and Hanna Tuomisto, a PhD student from Oxford University all believe it has less environmental impact. This is in contrast to cattle farming, "responsible for 18% of greenhouse gases" and causing more damage to the environment than the combined effects of the world's transportation system. Vertical farming may completely eliminate the need to create extra farmland in rural areas along with cultured meat. Their combined role may create a sustainable solution for a cleaner environment.

One skeptic is Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who speculates that the energy and fossil fuel requirements of large-scale cultured meat production may be more environmentally destructive than producing food off the land. However, S.L. Davis has speculated that both vertical farming in urban areas and the activity of cultured meat facilities may cause relatively little harm to the species of wildlife that live around the facilities. Dickson Despommier speculated that natural resources may be spared from depletion due to vertical farming and cultured meat, making them ideal technologies for an overpopulated world. Conventional farming, on the other hand, kills ten wildlife animals per hectare each year. Converting 10 acre of farmland from its man-made condition back into either pristine wilderness or grasslands would save approximately 40 animals while converting 2 acre of that same farmland back into the state it was in prior to settlement by human beings would save approximately 80 animals.

Additionally, the cattle industry uses a large amount of water for producing animal feed, animal rearing, and for sanitation purposes. It is estimated that the water recycled from livestock manure is contributing "33% of global nitrogen and phosphorous pollution," "50% of antibiotic pollution," "37% of toxic heavy metals," and "37% of pesticides" which contaminate the planet's freshwater.

Ethical considerations
The Australian bioethicist Julian Savulescu said "Artificial meat stops cruelty to animals, is better for the environment, could be safer and more efficient, and even healthier. We have a moral obligation to support this kind of research. It gets the ethical two thumbs up." Animal welfare groups are generally in favor of the production of cultured meat because it does not have a nervous system and therefore cannot feel pain. Reactions of vegetarians to cultured meat vary: some feel the cultured meat presented to the public in August 2013 was not vegetarian as fetal calf serum was used in the growth medium. However since then lab grown meat has been grown under a medium that doesn't involve fetal serum.

Cultured meat needs technically sophisticated production methods making it harder for communities to produce food self-sufficiently and potentially increasing dependence on global food corporations.

Requirement for Additional Regulation
Independent inquiries may be set up by certain governments to create a degree of standards for cultured meat. Once cultured meat becomes more cost-efficient, it is necessary to decide who will regulate the safety and standardization of these products. Prior to being available for sale, the European Union and Canada will require approved novel food applications. Additionally, the European Union requires that cultured animal products and production must prove safety, by an approved company application, which became effective as of January 1st, 2018. Within the United States, there is discussion of whether or not cultured meat regulation will be handled by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). The main point of content is whether or not cultured meat is labeled as "food" and regulated by the FDA or as a "meat food product" and regulated by the USDA. Under the FDA, cultured meat would need to follow the FFDCA and have a Food Safety Plan (FSP). Under the USDA, cultured meat would need be regulated by the FSIS who must deem the ingredients safe and usable. It could also be regulated by both government organizations.

Religious considerations
Jews disagree whether cultured meat is kosher (food that may be consumed, according to Jewish dietary laws). However, most rabbis agree that if the original cells were taken from a kosher animal then the cultured meat will be kosher. Some even think that it would be kosher even if coming from non-kosher animals like pigs, however some disagree. Some Muslim scholars have stated that cultured meat would be allowed by Islamic law if the original cells and growth medium were halal. Within Hindu culture, there is significant importance of cattle in religion where the majority of Hindus reject consumption of a cow's meat. The potential of a "meatless beef" has driven debate among Hindus on the acceptance of eating it. A significant amount reject the meat anyways due to the prevalence of a vegetarian diet.

Economic
The production of cultured meat is currently very expensive – in 2008 it was about US$1 million for a piece of beef weighing 250 g – and it would take considerable investment to switch to large-scale production. However, the In Vitro Meat Consortium has estimated that with improvements to current technology there could be considerable reductions in the cost of cultured meat. They estimate that it could be produced for €3500/tonne (US$5424/tonne in March 2008), which is about twice the cost of unsubsidized conventional European chicken production.

In a March 2015 interview with Australia's ABC, Mark Post said that the marginal cost of his team's original €250,000 burger was now €8.00. He estimates that technological advancements would allow the product to be cost-competitive to traditionally sourced beef in approximately ten years. In 2016, the cost of production of cultured beef for food technology company Memphis Meats was 18000 $/lb. As of June 2017 Memphis Meats reduced the cost of production to below $2,400 per pound ($5,280/kg).