> to produce one billion quarter-pounder burgers (113 grams each), it takes 1.2 million cows living for three years on 8,600 square kilometres of land (and then slaughtering them). The same number of cultured burgers would require the muscle stem cells of just one living cow, and they'd take only about a month and a half to grow.
There is almost nowhere on Earth that you could hope to raise cattle on 0.5 acres per cow long-term.
For instance, the Texas Land Association gives guidance of 50-75 acres per cow for natural wooded pastures. If you develop a "managed pasture" (ie, you're driving tractors over it to spray fertilizer, have irrigation, etc) you could get that down to 2-6 acres per cow. Source: https://landassociation.org/how-many-cows-per-acre-in-texas-...
You got the numbers reversed, I said 40 acres with 20 cows. They have an additional 40 acres of roughage that can be opened up at times but its not managed grass. I live in an area that is very very fortunate for its weather and soil.
Living tissue collects organic freeloaders in the forms of airborne bacteria and pests.
A living cow fights off those freeloaders with its immune system and defends against the pests with its hair, skin, and physical reactions to their presence.
A vat of synthetically cultured cow meat has no hair, no skin, no physical reactions and no immune system.
In 2015, Ice Cream manufacturers Blue Bell suffered a listeria contamination that hospitalized 5 people and has had to pay $17.5 million dollars in damages. That was using products safely grown from a living cow but not properly handled by the humans responsible for it.
How will we guard against known and unknown issues in the face of quite fatigable humans who now not only have to follow the safety precautions of safely handling post-living cow meat as well as having to safely and sanitarily grow the meat without the natural protections that the living cow provides and doing all of that for less than the costs associated with feeding and tending to a cow?
All of that being said, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's far, far more difficult than people are making it out to be and it has many, many more risks to human health and welfare than are covered in these articles.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 25.3 ms ] threadThe beef we purchase produces 300 hamburgers from 1/4 cow not counting the steaks, ribs and roasts, from 40 acres of land shared with 20 others cows.
For instance, the Texas Land Association gives guidance of 50-75 acres per cow for natural wooded pastures. If you develop a "managed pasture" (ie, you're driving tractors over it to spray fertilizer, have irrigation, etc) you could get that down to 2-6 acres per cow. Source: https://landassociation.org/how-many-cows-per-acre-in-texas-...
Living tissue collects organic freeloaders in the forms of airborne bacteria and pests.
A living cow fights off those freeloaders with its immune system and defends against the pests with its hair, skin, and physical reactions to their presence.
A vat of synthetically cultured cow meat has no hair, no skin, no physical reactions and no immune system.
In 2015, Ice Cream manufacturers Blue Bell suffered a listeria contamination that hospitalized 5 people and has had to pay $17.5 million dollars in damages. That was using products safely grown from a living cow but not properly handled by the humans responsible for it.
How will we guard against known and unknown issues in the face of quite fatigable humans who now not only have to follow the safety precautions of safely handling post-living cow meat as well as having to safely and sanitarily grow the meat without the natural protections that the living cow provides and doing all of that for less than the costs associated with feeding and tending to a cow?
All of that being said, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's far, far more difficult than people are making it out to be and it has many, many more risks to human health and welfare than are covered in these articles.