Thank you to Dr. Lucy Lee for her informative presentation on cellular agriculture as part of the Faculty of Science greenSPEAK Series. As a researcher who has been studying fish cell lines for over 35 years, she is an expert in her field. She shared her experience working with cell cultures and how this research can provide an answer to some of the world’s biggest food and environmental challenges.
Lab grown, or clean meat is meat grown by cell culture rather than grown by an animal. It is slaughter free and potentially more eco-friendly because it uses less land, water, and energy.
Food production is responsible for up to a third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world and as we face critical food shortages, lab-grown meat is a first step in finding a sustainable alternative to meat production. There are a growing number of companies who are working towards offering sustainable meat alternatives. Although there are no final products on the market yet, they expect the first clean meat product to be available in early 2019.
Dr. Lee shared a few videos including one from a rainbow trout muscle cell line dividing over an 18 hour period in her research lab here at UFV. https://www.facebook.com/834369136649930/videos/726614231031115/?t=16
We met Ian, the chicken, who provided a single feather. Cells were extracted, cultured and chicken nuggets were enjoyed while Ian continues to “kick back at a sanctuary in Northern California”. https://youtu.be/_GgP6jo5DTM
As production costs go down and the benefits become clearer, the big question will be, would you like fries with that?
DOWNLOAD Dr. Lee’s greenSPEAK presentation in PDF Format: Lee.greenSPEAK.2018
Visit Dr. Lee’s Fish Cell Lines Facebook Page
View Dr. Lee’s UFV Profile Page
