By Lara Kimbrell of The SNSPost

Dutch scientist, Mark Post, announced Sunday that the world’s first test-tube hamburger may be ready this fall. Post’s lab is using stem cells from a cow to grow skeletal muscle tissue to be used for beef. The goal of the program is to invent an efficient way of producing meat in a laboratory and eventually replace the entire meat animal industry.

Deborah Jones of AFP reported that Post, chair of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said his project is funded with 250,000 euros from an anonymous private investor motivated by “care for the environment, food for the world, and interest in life-transforming technologies.” Conventional meat and dairy production requires more land, water, plants and disposal of waste products than almost all other human foods, but for many people, meat and dairy are parts of our diet that we are not willing to give up.

A United Nations report from the Food and Agriculture Organization states that the livestock sector is “responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions” .The production of cattle to feed and clothe humans stresses ecosystems around the world and is one of the top three environmental problems in the world.

Cattle have microbes in their guts which respire anaerobically, producing large amounts of methane gas. Cows emit 95% of this methane through burping as they chew their “cud.” A minimal amount of methane is released by flatulence despite the common perception that “cow farts” are the huge environmental problem. The carbon in methane comes from the carbon in the plant matter that cattle eat, so it should be a wash. Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and returned to the atmosphere as methane. However methane has a warming effect 23 to 50 times greater than carbon dioxide, so it is a more potent greenhouse gas.

The global demand for meat is expected to rise by 60 percent by 2050, said American scientist Nicholas Genovese, who organized the symposium titled “The Next Agricultural Revolution” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver. Post’s team is hoping to stem the environmental effects of increased meat demand by laboratory production because it has a much lower environmental impact. Will consumers care if their burger started out on a cow or in a test tube? If scientists can produce meat with a taste and value that matches current production methods, it probably has a good shot. Will you be first in line to try it?

Lara Kimbrell, AKA GreenTXmom & Physicschick, is a wife & mother to three precious little boys. Her family is her whole world & inspire her in so many ways. Alsoa regular contributor to The SNSPost & a published childrens author, she’s a physicist w/ a degree from Texas A&M & taught H.S. physics for years.  She became interested in environmental health due to her oldest son’s asthma & inspired by her curious children she writes to engage all children in the amazing world of physical sciences.