(Inside Science) — Growing meat without animals may one day become easier using scaffolds made of soy, a new study finds.
In 1932, Winston Churchill predicted that "we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately." Increasingly, scientists are making this vision a reality by growing meat from cells in labs.
As Churchill argued, one potential benefit of such "cultured meat" is that many of the calories that livestock consume go not to building up edible tissues but to keeping the animal alive. Moreover, lab-grown meat might prove environmentally friendlier -- livestock currently take up 30% of the world's land surface and 8% of its freshwater, and also generate 14.5% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
Furthermore, cultured meat could prevent animal suffering by reducing the slaughtering of ...
