YSM Issue 86.1

FEATURE
GLOBAL HEALTH
Test Tube Meat
It’s What’s for Dinner
BY WALTER HSIANG
Imagine sitting down at the dinner table and staring at a green
algae sludge soup, a grilled grasshopper appetizer, and an entrée
consisting of thin turkey strips grown in a large glass vat. It may
not be an enticing image, but one or more of these cuisines may
grace your family meals sooner than you think.
The issues of food security and of meeting the nutritional
demands of a growing world population are constant challenges that
many scientists and policy makers are trying to address today. But it
is certainly no simple task: at current rates, the global population is
projected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. In other words, science
must act fast if we expect to maintain the health and nutrition of
an already burgeoning society.
No More Room
According to the estimates
of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations, current food production
must be doubled by
2050 in order to keep up with
future demands from population
growth and dietary
changes. But how exactly
can farmers and other food
manufacturers double production?
Agriculture, which
includes croplands and pastures,
already occupies nearly
40 percent of the earth’s
terrestrial surface. The rest
of the planet is covered by
deserts, mountains, and other
lands unsuited for additional cultivation. Radical climate changes
and expanding water shortages further impede agricultural developments.
Simply put, there is not enough space or resources to readily
expand food production in the traditional way.
Algae, Insects, and Genetically Modified Foods
Samples of lab-grown meat in media. Courtesy of Reuters.
Several creative techniques are being developed to find alternatives
for sustainable food production. One idea has been to harness
the simplicity, diversity, and robustness of algae. Commercial algae
farms can be constructed in places unsuitable for conventional
agriculture and can yield enormous amounts of algae with minimal
cost of resources. In addition to providing a source of nutrition
for humans, algae can also act as animal feed, fertilizer, and biofuel.
“Mico-livestock farming,” which involves large-scale insect rearing
farms, is another potential avenue to tackle the food production
problem. Insects are high in protein, calcium, and iron, while low
in cholesterol and fat. In comparison to conventional livestock like
cows and pigs, insects require much less land and resources to grow
and reproduce, emit many fewer greenhouse gases, and can more
efficiently convert biomass into protein. However, it is difficult to
appease the Western palate with beetles, spiders, and worms, even
though hundreds of species of insects are eaten in Asia, Africa,
and South America.
The advent of genetic engineering technologies about two
decades ago has also restructured approaches to food production
and security. Scientists currently use these novel techniques such as
microinjection and bioballistics to modify the genes of crops like
corn, soybeans, and tomatoes. These genetically modified foods
have enhanced traits, whether it is improved crop yield, increased
resistance to plant diseases
and pests, increased shelf life,
or enhanced nutritional value.
While genetic engineering
approaches have permeated
most areas of agriculture to
improve crops (around 90
percent of soybeans, corn, and
canola grown in America are
genetically modified), these
technologies still do not solve
one of the most pressing nutritional
concerns today.
The Protein Problem
“The challenge in feeding a
future 9 billion is not so much
that we lack the land to feed
people in general, but that we
lack land to feed people meat
specifically,” says Mark Bomford,
director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. Bomford has
been involved in creating and managing sustainable food systems
for the last 15 years, specializing in urban agriculture, community
food security, and food systems modeling and research.
“The issue is a growing demand for animal protein,” says Bomford.
Bomford explains that as populations and incomes increase,
especially in cities, the demand for animal protein increases. Currently,
more than one in seven people do not have enough protein
in their diet. The reasons for lack of protein are manifold, from
deficiency of local productive capability to political turmoil, and
can vary from region to region.
Simply increasing the production of livestock will not resolve
the lack of protein in today’s diet. The reason is that the current
meat production business is already one of leading causes of environmental
degradation. Ranches require large open spaces to raise
livestock, which means clearing many acres of land and causing
severe deforestation. This is compounded by the fact that current
livestock populations emit one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas
28 Yale Scientific Magazine | January 2013 www.yalescientific.org