Synthetic meat: should rich countries eat it 100%? And where are we really?

Bill Gates said rich countries should consume 100% synthetic meat. But where are we with this alternative?

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The "rich countries" should eat 100% synthetic meat. To say it is Bill Gates in a recent interview with the magazine MIT Technology Review. But where are we with this alternative to traditional meat?

We told you recently about the largest survey on climate change ever conducted which showed how even people who are particularly attentive to the environment seem to have no intention of giving up meat, despite its production is now clearly considered one of the major sources. of pollution worldwide.

Read also: We are willing to do anything to save the Planet, but not to give up meat ...

Could synthetic meat be the solution? Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that the "rich countries", ie countries like the United States and Western Europe, should switch to the consumption of 100% synthetic meat.

In an interview with MIT Tech Review, Bill Gates discussed environmental issues and various green initiatives aimed at reducing global carbon emissions. Among the suggestions there is precisely that of turning towards the consumption of synthetic meat, at least in some countries.

These are his words:

“I think all rich countries should switch to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the difference in taste and the affirmation will make it even better over time ".

It sounds like an extravagant proposition, but given the problem of climate change and the “weight” on the planet of meat production, it's not really that big. Gates seems confident that meat alternatives will continue to grow in popularity in developed nations.

Synthetic meat has been talked about for several years now and some countries have already experimented with it in different forms.

But where are we really?

We asked Antonino Morabito, National Head of Wildlife and Animal Welfare of Legambiente, who also explained the advantages of turning to this food produced in the laboratory.

Here's what he told us:

“December 2020, Singapore clears the sale of synthetic chicken nuggets. January 2021, "The Chicken" is inaugurated in Tel Aviv, the first restaurant offering a menu of meat grown in the laboratory. When major American and Israeli players invest huge sums of money to produce "cultured" meat and 3D printers capable of recreating the muscle structure of beef and offering it at lower prices than current ones and activate partnerships to expand in Europe, Asia and America the end of the suffering of billions of animals raised for food is closer. And with it gigantic negative impacts such as deforestation, land grabbing and millions of hectares cultivated to produce feed, destruction of entire fish stocks, loss of biodiversity and growing health risks. In a world that struggles to give up meat and in which the economy continues to prevail in the choices of governments, the alternative now in the field will make intensive farming less and less convenient today central to many of the global negative impacts in the environmental, health and social"

Fonte: Mit technology review