Genetically engineered food first took hold in the 1970s, when a biologist at Stanford University worked out a way to remove genes among different strains of bacteria. We had previously discovered DNA and cloning, much work accomplished by discovering the double-helix DNA. However, it was China in 1988 that broke into the market by being the first country to commercially genetically modify a crop making it virus resistant.
But in theory our ancestors have been engineering food for thousands of years. They may not have been directly implanting genes by zapping food with gene guns. But they knew how to alter plants genomes through cross breeding and being selective over breeds of crops to achieve characteristics they wanted. Usually the larger the better and greater the yield.
We developed many of the first genetically modified crops for resistance to viruses, and in 1992, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that genetically engineered foods were safe and thus not regulated. That same year, the Flavr Savr tomato became the first genetically engineered food approved for sale in the United States — we developed it to have a longer shelf life. But the Flavr Savr was a flop, mostly because of high production and distribution costs. Genetic engineering’s focus soon shifted to herbicide tolerance and insecticide resistance, and the market exploded. Many seeds engineered specifically for use with certain pesticides or insecticides became popular..
The World Health Organisation announced that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe for human consumption. However, controversy still surrounds the idea that they carry hidden health risks. There is a lack of trust from the people with the corporate agriculture in America.
The Americans have and estimated 70% of processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients. GMO crops such as corn, cotton and soybean yields have been high at 20 to 30 percent. Plus the good news is they need far less water to grow, which with America’s water shortage about to get worse this can only be a good thing. This will be a breakthrough for developing countries that suffer from drought along with the GMO golden rice. However, with the suspicion of the American public the GMO produce has not come to light just yet, but will change the farming industry around the globe for the better as soya will no longer be a requirement and in theory neither will cattle.The Americans have and estimated 70% of processed foodstuffs contain genetically engineered ingredients. GMO crops such as corn, cotton and soybean yields have been significant at 20 to 30 percent. Plus the good news is they require far less water to produce, which with America’s water scarcity about to become poorer this one can only surmise that this is a blessing. This will be a breakthrough for developing countries that endure drought along with the GMO golden rice. However, with the cynicism of the American public the GMO produce has not come to light just yet, but when it does it will revolutionise the farming industry around the world. Soya will no longer be a demand and in concept neither will cattle.
The advances could be immense. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, universal meat consumption may increase from approximately 228 million tons from 2021 to about 465 million tons in 2050. Cultured meat could vastly reduce animal suffering and end livestock from taking up huge plots of land and polluting the atmosphere with methane and other greenhouse gases they exude. Farm animals waste has methane in and cattle more so than any other. Methane is far worse for the greenhouse effect than C02, so this is another development for science in the earth’s preservation for the future regents that will need all the help they can muster.
In a 2011 study, scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Amsterdam estimated that cultured meat may need 35% to 60% less energy, occupy 98% less land, and produce 80% to 95% fewer greenhouse gases than conventional meat. In an interview late last year with ScienceNOW, the scientist known as Post, ” said he realized the potential of lab-grown meat as soon as he heard about it”. The societal impact it could have is way more than any of my biomedical research of the last 25 years.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment
In 2013, the same scientist Post was working in the Neverlands at Maastricht University. Whilst exploring in the science lab he drew a cell of a cow and then added water. They left the experiment for a few days and it merged itself into a paste like stripe of a few centimetres long and a cm wide. They produced a few more over a span of the forth coming weeks and created a paste. A practicable attempt of cooking the substance formed the first and original lab made beef burger. Various well known public figures tasted end produce and the product received superb evaluations. It has not been mass generated because of the volume of cells and strips required for one burger. But it reveals to the world what we can bring about.
There is likewise the sanitation involved when foodstuff is being packed. Whether we want it, individuals still do not wash their hands. Absence of bacterial disease and greater life span will be immensely favourable too, so we reduce meat wastage. The packaged food we use for our pets is a giant imprint on the planet, so experts are exploring lab meat as a possibility for them . Flavours include mouse, rabbit, fish and all of it is lab meat. The sole flaw is, it currently takes $50 a crack for one individual process.
The concept of culturing meat in the lab is nothing unusual. In his essay “Fifty Years Hence” published in 1931, Winston Churchill wrote: “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” Modern-day scientists say they know how to fulfill that dream: Stem cells taken from an animal could be cultured and used to grow millions of tons of meat, Post says. In theory, at least. A couple of animals could feed the world. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment
In another laboratory experiment, they merged together a chicken cell and a plant cell; the cells blended with each other naturally producing what fashioned a poultry thigh. Fried up in the lab and test eaten by staff, it tasted like chicken and is now on trade in the supermarkets.
This is just the start imagine what we could accomplish, no further slaughter and abuse of the creatures, no more famine because of meat prices, no further large lorries polluting the environment as they transport the animals from market to the abattoir. Goodbye cruelty, pollution from both animal and vehicle and goodbye coronary heart disease and strain on the NHS.
Currently in Africa farmers are migrating because of their farm stock perishing from drought. There is no water to irrigate their crops so they cannot provide themselves or the stock. According to scientists, this will develop into the norm across the earth by 2030-2050. So lab made meat could certainly well take care of the nation if the cost permits.
GEO has endless possibilities, and the impact on the production of food is going to be far more sustainable. Labs in America have created an egg white that is vegan and easy to make out of protein and water. This is a start as the aim is to create a real egg which will hopefully abolish chicken factory farms and the unethical abuse they go through. The chickens can run free and the vegans may eat eggs and technically the vegetarian can eat the lab chicken as it is mainly plant cells.They have made headway with the shellfish and other marine life too. With China and other countries overfishing our marine life and the UK battling the EU over fishing rights in the oceans, one can only be grateful if the scientists can pull this off. Maybe in the future we will recreate the marine life that have become extinct through pollution and overfishing. Maybe with the egg without the chicken we can bring back the Dodo.
We are living in exciting times and the possibilities are endless.A new protein flour, known as ‘Golden Rice’ will replace our wheat flour. This is revolutionary it means farmers will cut the growing use of their arable land whilst growing other crops that will suit the new climate better. As more farm lands loses its fertility through erosion and contamination, it is creating a global soil crisis which is threatening the very basis of our subsistence. There is also the problem of the growing shortage of phosphate, which is crucial for agriculture, but suppliers are dwindling fast. This could be a major problem soon, especially with the shortage of water too.
Phosphate is a fundamental mineral for all life on Earth. It is added to farmers’ fields in enormous volumes. But rock phosphate is a limited resource and is mined in politically uncertain countries. This compromises many countries that have limited or no reserves.
Phosphate use has quadrupled in the last 50 years as the universal population has increased and the date when depletion draws ever closer. With each new demand comes a new report, with some experts predicting that date could occur as rapidly as a few decades.
Researchers say humanity could only produce half the food it does without phosphate and nitrogen, even though the latter is essentially limitless as it makes up approximately 80% of the atmosphere.
“Phosphate supply is potentially a gigantic problem,” said Martin Blackwell, at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research centre in the UK, and lead author of a new study. “The population is growing and we are going to need more food.”
Above article by https://www.theguardian.com/environment
This solar food identified as ‘Golden Rice’ will show up onto the market later next year and this will revolutionize development for farming and our subsequent food supply. Elsewhere in the UK in a scientist’s lab, bacteria derived from common earth soil, multiplied by using hydrogen obtained from water as its sauce. They formerly placed it on heat rollers where it turned into a yellow flour type substance. The experts cooked what they hope would be a pancake out of it. It was savoured by various volunteers and it was a united agreement that it tasted just like pancake.
When the bacteria is altered it will provide protein required for lab grown meat, milk and eggs. They will long-chain omega fatty acids. So we will effectively have lab grown fish as well. The carbohydrates remaining will then be extracted and formerly utilized to generate pasta, crisps, flour and pizza base. Again with our children’s future this is a distinct stride to positive development as by 2030 there will be an infinite increase in the volume of mouths we have to sustain and with the added dilemma of sulphate supply scarcity there is also the near extinction of the bee so pollination could be an impending complication. This will generate fruit scarcity and ultimately obsolete. So we have subsequent irrigation, soil and pollination problems and thanks to fast warming climate change we can predict Insect Armageddon as we receive the native bugs that prefer warmer environments. This will include the hawnits that kill our bee and the overseas mozzie that will bring malaria.
This humble piece of bacteria from dirt is going to feed half the planet’s livestock and the people that live on it. It will replace palm oil as a filler for food and will replace the ‘Soya Bean’. Close to 100% of Soya is for human use: 80% in confectionary and other processed foods, 19% in biofuels, 1% in cosmetics and fly spray. 1.1 million tonnes imported is fed to livestock, including farmed fish. 1.16 million tonnes is used for flour improvers, including use in pet food and industrial products such as paint, pharmaceuticals, makeup, and the production and use of asphalt, soya milk, tofu, and general food consumption. We purchase a large proportion of Soya from Brazil. Brazil handles the deforestation of the rainforest for farming land to grow soya for export trade, not to mention the cattle breeding for meat export.
Water will be a massive problem as we will need it to drink, not irrigate. Farming will suffer and as a result so will our food productivity and the price we pay for our food. There is already an enormous amount of warehouse vertical farming sweeping across the UK. So it could well be that arable land will not be such a commodity one day. The water used for vertical farming is precise, calculated so there is practically no water is waste. Currently farming in the UK is responsible 75% of our water usage and waste.
With vertical farming inside immense warehouses and circle growing for the modest flat in London or any city. Indoors food producing is developing into the norm. The warehouses are turning over 2.4 million annually, and they can produce ten times more than conventional farming can. This is a great stride forward for poverty and famine around the globe. Further more we know the forthcoming food supply for our children will be feasible whatever developments take place to the land and weather.
Water is required but they are working on a vegetable variety that calls for less water, the machines that water the food are so precise and use such little water per plant. So improvements are already being established. The water in the future will be much harder to attain and some especially near the coast, probably contaminated by salt water through sea level climbing. Contamination from sea level flooding and sewage will be an endless complication in the future of many parts of the globe.
With the creation of lab meat,eggs, GEO corn and other foods, our future will be better than ok. The importing of food will be very hit and miss, so local farmers will be under a great deal of pressure. Scientists are calling it multiple breadbasket failures through synchronous heatwaves and other effects. The UN predicts that 2050 will be a time of 20% expansion in agricultures global water usage. This will be a problem as the water in many places is already on low or depleted altogether. Aquifers are vanishing, mountain snow is not reaching the rivers to supply the local water. There will be difficulty predicting the weather. There will be variable horrendous flooding and belting tropical sun in various degrees in various parts of the planet. Experts just do not know for sure, it is for now shear conjectary.
UK crops that formerly prospered will now have trouble growing, this will be the same for many countries for various reasons. Some drought, some flooding, some locusts and other migrant pests and crop deceases. But farmers will adapt, as society will too. We have many times before throughout history and will make it this time. Humans will survive and we will reconstruct and recreate stronger, healthier and cleaner climates to flourish in. The new way of continuing collectively will be significantly more diverse and there will be a far better civilization based on learning and understanding from each other. And respecting each others cultures, moralities, superstitions and religions. Who knows maybe we will one day unite in one doctrine.
We have been eating and farming livestock for well over 10,000 years. Our diet says a lot about who we are. From religion to cultural traditions and even superstitions, we all see food differently. Food is an identity even being a vegetarian or vegan is a message to the world of who you are and how you feel .
A meat eater diet would require 17 times more land 14 times more water and more energy than a vegetarian. We use much of the land in the UK for life stock we will need more for arable to feed the neighbours and supply the shops.
For the interest of the young people who will be 30 in 2050, it would be prudent to learn to grow your own veg live off corns, pulps, and earth vegetables and become a vegan or vegetarian. It will make your life in the future easier and you will be self sufficient.
One of the contentions against the vegan solution is that some grazing land simply isn’t sufficient for producing crops. That’s assuredly accurate, but there’s actually a bigger obstacle with eliminating world hunger. Right now, we already produce over 1½ times the volume of food required to sustain everyone on the planet. It just doesn’t reach those that need it the most.
In a statement, animal welfare campaigners People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said: “[Lab-grown meat] will spell the end of lorries full of cows and chickens, abattoirs and factory farming. It will reduce carbon emissions, conserve water and make the food supply safer.”
Critics of the technology say that eating less meat would be an easier way to tackle predicted food shortages.
The latest United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report on the future of agriculture shows that most of the predicted growth in demand for meat from China and Brazil has already happened, many Indians keep to their vegetarian diets for cultural and culinary reasons.
In conclusion, the prospective of lab meat and alternative foodstuffs is sounding like it will be on our counters by 2025 if not earlier. The demand for meat could die out totally and a healthier world of food will be provided. Starvation, famine and poverty irradiated and the persecution and cruelity of beasts a part of the history. And if we could rule out further deforestation of the rain forest and sustain what wildlife we have left and stop any more from extinction, then it will be a battle successfully won for our world and its inhabitants.
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Sybella Loram's Climate Change Blog 