Increasing attention is turning towards the what could become the sustainable alternative to livestock – test tube meat. Speculation that the current food market will be unable to provide for the world’s growing population, projected at 9.3 billion by 2050 by the U.S. Census Bureau, has led to the development of in vitro meat.

Experts in Holland were the first to use cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish, resulting in the advent of “in vitro” or cultured meat. The break through is hypothesized to reduce billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals, solve world hunger and put an end to the ethical impacts of the meat industry.

So far the biggest slab of meat grown is about the size of a contact lens which contains millions of cells. The next step is to try turning these cells into muscle tissues through the use of biodegradable scaffolding platforms which will be the same sort of meat taken from the flesh of an animal.

However, muscles require stimulation or else the atrophy and die. To solve this problem with lab-cultured meat, scientists are currently using electrical impulses to stimulate the muscle cells grown in the lab, but have yet to discover a mass-factory scale solution.

Eventually there should be no differential between the taste of animal meat and test-tube meat, leading from the production of mincemeat to that of steak. While the product may be initially unappealing to many, the statistics make a compelling case for the animal substitute.

This more sustainable method of producing protein promises to increase the changes of food security for the world’s poor while simultaneously protecting the environment. The projected resource savings from artificial meat in an Oxford study estimated that it could be engineered to use only 1 percent of the land and 4 percent of the water required for conventional meat.

According to the scientists from Oxford University and Amsterdam University, that means that lab-grown tissue would reduce greenhouse gases by up to 96 percent in comparison to raising animals. The link between meat consumption and climate change have been widely acknowledged for years, due to the deforestation which often comes along with livestock farming.

In an increasingly crowded world where there are 925 million chronically hungry people, according to the UN’s World Food Program, a more sustainable approach to food is desperately needed. More than one in seven people do not have enough protein and energy in their diet, with 98 percent living in the developing world.

Increased meat-eating has long been associated with a country’s rising affluence, but perhaps man-made meat could change all of that. Hanna Tuomisto, a researcher at Oxford University, believes that aside from the environmental benefits, lab-cultured meat would also provide cheap nutrition.

Tuomisto also predicts that if more resources were put into the research, the first commercially lab-grown meat could be available within the next five years. Due to the interconnected nature of the potential problem solving test tube meat, groups such as the anti-meat organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are already contributing to more research.

To Read 8 Ways In Vitro Meat Will Change Our Lives, visit http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/11/17/eight-ways-vitro-meat-will-change-our-lives/

Sources:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/30/139786731/tube-burgers-the-world-of-in-vitro-meat

http://www.globalenvision.org/2011/08/03/test-tube-meat-could-it-feed-world-one-day

http://www.npg.org/facts/world_pop_year.htm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6936352.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/20/artificial-meat-emissions

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The Pope, during his weekly blessing to pilgrims, claimed from his summer residence in Castel Gondolfo, south of Rome, the only way for all of the victims to escape from the tragedy in the Horn of Africa is with “compassion” and “fraternal solidarity.”

The catastrophic drought has affected more than 11.8 million people and cover so large an area where both the populations of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are suffering from hunger.

Relief organizations still don’t know how they can deal with the worst drought in the last 60 years. United Nations’ humanitarian affairs coordination says: “The crisis in southern Somalia is expected to continue to worsen through 2011, with all areas of the south slipping into famine.”

It is estimated that half of Somalia’s people are in need of relief assistance after large periods of civil conflict and drought.

“The drought is the reason I left Somalia, I had a deaf husband and between us we had cows and goats,” said Halima Korone Une, a Somalia’s refugee in Dabaab, Kenya. “Because of the drought we had to eat all our goats and my husband went to look for pasture for the cows but never came back so I decided to leave my home with our five children.”

That is the reality. Korone lost one of her children on their way and now she has only four children with her.

Meanwhile, the Pope is giving blessings far from the devastating situation, in his summer residence in Rome.  While The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia and stated that the effects of the drought have been felt more widely across the war-torn country, as well as in parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, Pope Benedict XVI says: “It is an immense task. In this time of holiday, let us not forget to open our hands and our hearts to come to the aid of those who need it,” and he added: “Let us give food and share our bread with the needy.”

The Vatican’s official daily keeps saying that it is difficult to save the people of Somalia. Furthermore, their official daily will refer to the international community for the hard job. Sources in the Vatican also believe the international community should take a more active mediation role between rival and Somali clans:

“If international players do not manage to do this, then even a massive humanitarian effort by UN agencies, including the WFP’s airlift, and by non-governmental organisations will at best slow the emergency,” the Vatican’s official daily said.

Last week, the UN World Food Programme has started an airlift of food into the capital Mogadishu. Even though they are taking any possible action, WFP said: “our feeding centers continue to operate in spite of the difficult security situation.”

Despite the Vatican’s official daily opinion, charities have already said that more international donations are needed and relief efforts have been hampered by the combat, and also a ban on some humanitarian agencies by the Islamist group “Al Shabab” which controls much of southern Somalia.

The African Union is scheduling a further donor conference in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia’s capital during this month. The Pope claims a lack of “solid institutions” on the country, but the world is interested in knowing when a solid institution as the Vatican is going to start helping the people in Somalia.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/

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