US Government Invests $3.5 Million In Lab-Grown Meat
The first ever government grant for lab-grown meat has been awarded to researchers at the University of California.
Pictured - a burger made from cultivated meat brand Mosa Meat. Credit: Mosa Meat.
The U.S. Government has invested in lab-grown meat for the first time, as it awards a $3.5 million grant to researchers at the University of California.
Cultivated meat - essentially, animal protein grown under lab conditions - is expected to transform the future of the food industry, by producing animal protein in a much quicker, more efficient way, and without harming millions of animals and damaging the planet.
Now, the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, has tasked leading scientists at the University of California with examining the long-term sustainability of cultivated meat as part of a $3.55 million investment in the cultivated meat sector.
As the current food system, particularly animal agriculture, is repeatedly blamed for its unsustainable, and inefficient use of the world’s resources, the researchers are hopeful that cutting-edge innovations like lab-grown meat are the solution.
“The societal need is to feed 9 billion people,” says principal investigator David Block, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology. “What we want to know is, will cultivated meat be a viable supplement to traditional agriculture?”.
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