Several Gristmillians, myself included, believe that going veg is one of many ways to help prevent climate change. That belief is now supported by British scientist Alan Calverd, who wrote in the journal Physics World that “carbon emissions could be slashed by an incredible 21% overnight if we all stopped eating meat” (via edie news centre).
Can’t kick the animal flesh habit? Then maybe you want to look into lab burgers — that is animal tissue engineered in a laboratory:
Writing in the journal Tissue Engineering, Matheny said scientists could grow cells from the muscle tissue of cattle, pigs, poultry or fish in large flat sheets on thin membranes. These sheets of cells would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked to increase thickness and resemble meat.
Using another method, scientists could grow muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The resulting tissue could be used to make processed meat such as chicken nuggets or hamburgers.
Sounds appetizing doesn’t it? I’ll stick with good ol’ plant-based foods thank you.
