[HN Gopher] Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming - and save ...
___________________________________________________________________
Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming - and save the planet
(2019)
Author : science4sail
Score : 72 points
Date : 2021-07-03 16:57 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| jhgb wrote:
| I'm still waiting for my zymosteak.
| ggm wrote:
| Zymoveal surely?
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| And here we are two years later with farms and the planet still
| in peril :-).
|
| FWIW, and I think I said this when this came up before, farming
| in the west, and particularly in California, _has_ to change
| because the drought will destroy farming. It already has put a
| number of farmers into default in the central valley. So any
| effort that can make that many acres of land even half to three
| quarters as productive with the water that is projected to be
| available will be needed.
| ub99 wrote:
| The change is happening right as we speak. Just several weeks
| ago the first cultured meat factory has been launched in
| Israel. It produces just 500kg per day - but it's a huge step
| for the industry. Cultured chicken is already being sold to
| consumers in Singapore. Cultured dairy is being sold in the US
| (right now only 2 ice cream companies - but it's also a
| significant cultural milestone). There is a growing number of
| startups producing all kinds of cultured products - so the
| cultured meat revolution is coming, soon.
| ipaddr wrote:
| Followed by the rise of cancer then lawsuits.
| Centigonal wrote:
| That's a huge reach.
| hunter-gatherer wrote:
| I'd be interested to have an expert in this space comment on
| these lab grown meat startups. I'm all for it, but the
| pessimist in me thinks this all sounds too good to be true.
| smackeyacky wrote:
| Not a factory expert but work in agriculture.
|
| There are lots of issues with farming animals for meat and
| carbon output but most can be mitigated. The pathways are
| reduction of cattle in favour of sheep and goats, changing
| the gut biome of livestock and removing inefficient breeding
| stock so the farmers produce the same output with fewer
| animals. Genetic solutions are available now to address the
| last two.
|
| Factory meat will augment our supply of protein but they
| won't scale. The farmland used for livestock is mostly
| useless for the plant matter needed by the meat factories and
| the factories themselves are hardly going to be carbon
| neutral when you add in fertiliser and fuel for all that
| extra harvesting.
|
| I wouldn't be too keen on eating an extruded factory carrot,
| not sure I personally want to replace another natural product
| in my diet with some chemical mess. I am not alone on that.
|
| Full disclosure: my company makes a product that can be used
| to reduce carbon output of livestock farming.
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| This read to me, lab-grown food will soon destroy farming - make
| richer another multinational and give a product/together with
| most chemicals that is not fully tested for consumers on the long
| haul. Save the world is just marketing
| NullPrefix wrote:
| What if those chemicals will depopulate some humans in the end
| saving the world?
| hcurtiss wrote:
| Sounds great, so long as it's not me or anyone I care about.
| NullPrefix wrote:
| I should have worded that as "all humans" instead of "some
| humans"
| oivey wrote:
| Population isn't the problem. Consumption is.
| jw1224 wrote:
| It won't destroy farming, it will just encourage farmers to use
| their land for different purposes. We still need to eat fruit,
| vegetables, and grains.
|
| The land use required to rear cattle is phenomenal, not to
| mention the carbon footprint associated with the animals. This
| is more than just "marketing".
| treeman79 wrote:
| Seems like the startups that focus on this eventually just switch
| to pot. Pays a lot better.
| watertom wrote:
| Agriculture produces 10% of the greenhouse gases emitted by
| humans.
|
| Let's say we can make a wish, and snap our fingers and have all
| the necessary factories in place to replace *ALL* food farming
| for the globe.
|
| I doubt the entirety of the 10% of green houses gases will be
| eliminated, probably cut in half, however then we'll need to take
| into account the electricity needed to run all the new food
| factories, which will probably add back in another 3%, so once
| the dust clears we'll see a reduction of about %2 of green house
| gases, that's assuming all food agriculture is automatically
| replaced, via a wish.
| lkramer wrote:
| Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Where did the first 5% come from if
| not electricity to run factories?
|
| Also climate impact is more than just greenhouse gasses, water
| usage is huge and if it can be optimized can be a huge win.
|
| I'm also not sure about your 10% figure, 25% is the first
| figure I stumble across, of which animal production for food
| consists of about 50%: https://ourworldindata.org/food-ghg-
| emissions
| [deleted]
| ollifi wrote:
| Where is the 10% figure from? IPCC puts agriculture, forestry
| and other land use at 24%
|
| https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...
| Ma8ee wrote:
| There's no contradiction between only agriculture at 10% and
| agriculture, forestry and other land use at 24%.
| awillen wrote:
| First off, removing 2% of greenhouse gases isn't something to
| scoff at - it would be a really important accomplishment.
|
| Secondly, your back of the napkin math doesn't seem great -
| you're just making up that gases would be cut in half with
| nothing to back that up. You seem to ignore the fact that
| electricity for agriculture would disappear but then you factor
| in electricity that would be added back for food factories, so
| that doesn't make sense either.
|
| Then of course there's the fact that lab-grown meat doesn't
| require the vast swaths of land required by traditional
| agriculture. That means you can put food factories closer to
| urban centers, so now you've eliminated a lot of emissions from
| transportation.
| burtonator wrote:
| I want lab grown FISH... I'm a fisherman and LOVE fish and we're
| ruining the ocean. Are there any firms working on artificial
| fish?
|
| Fish are seriously underrated because we can't really connect
| with them like we can with dogs or cats but they're VERY
| intelligent.
|
| I've been a fisherman for 30+ years (since I was a boy) and they
| constantly surprise me with their behavior.
| detaro wrote:
| From a quick look, a company called Wildtype is doing lab-grown
| salmon: https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/S-F-is-
| getting-the-... (EDIT: article seemed interesting enough I
| submitted it)
| ub99 wrote:
| Yup - Wildtype is already producing and testing (with famous
| chefs) great looking salmon. Check out their Instagram for
| product photos.
| burtonator wrote:
| The other reason this is awesome is because domesticated
| trout/salmon are really sad.
|
| When you catch them they just don't look happy. :-/
| awillen wrote:
| The other one I'm aware of is BlueNalu:
| https://www.bluenalu.com/
| agumonkey wrote:
| Very slightly related, I've spent more time in the forest since
| ~covid, and even squirrels I found seriously fascinating (they
| move over branches like superheros in movies) .. i'm kinda
| "regressing" into animalism.
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| What kind of behavior?
|
| I presume when you say you're a fisherman, you're doing this
| professionally, i.e. have a boat and go out to see etc?
|
| If so, what brought you to HN? Are you programming?
| fogdart wrote:
| Not OP but I was recommended to HN by my brother as an
| alternative to Reddit, which we've both mostly moved on from.
| I'm not a programmer in any capacity. I work in chip
| manufacturing, but on the factory floor. Never completed any
| formal education past high school. So, very different from
| most of you guys. I just like reading, and this site is
| absolutely wonderful for that. I love that comments are
| highly encouraged to have some "meat" to them. No overused,
| hacky jokes or quibbling arguments. Anyway, my two cents.
| Plenty of non programmers in here.
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| Thanks for that insight.
|
| I was just curious how folks outside of startup & tech find
| their way to HN.
|
| I haven't got further than high school education either and
| I'm sure many on here neither.
|
| There is a difference between education and learning.
|
| Seth Godin has a good episode about this on his latest
| podcast in the QA section.
|
| Listen from 14:00 onwards.
|
| https://podcasts.podinstall.com/seth-godin-akimbo-podcast-
| se...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-07-03 23:01 UTC)