WASHINGTON, (Diya TV) — A team led by Indian-American scientists has been hard at work, developing a contamination-free meat from animal cells in a laboratory that can be harvested between 9 and 21 days. The new technique could likely spell an end to the large scale slaughtering of animals worldwide.
And that’s precisely the angle scientist Uma S Valeti has pitched while surging ahead in the attempt of large scale commercialization of the method.
“It is sustainable as well as cruelty free,” Valeti, a cardiologist and co-founder of Memphis Meats, told Huffington Post’s “Pardon the Interruption.”
Additionally, the meat grown in Valeti’s lab does not carry the health side effects like bacterial contamination, or high saturated fat or the big environmental issues that come along with it, he said. “We are growing meat which is safer, healthier, more sustainable,” Valeti said.
How did it begin? Valeti, from India’s southeastern coastal border state of Andhra, said he and his colleagues first took identified cells from a targest animal which are capable of renewing themselves. These cells are then provided with oxygen and nutrients such as sugars and minerals, he said. All of this allows for the rapid growth cycle, between 9 and 21 days. The efforts of his team have gained the attention of venture capitalists — Valeti said they are working on pork, beef and chicken products, as these three meats that have highest consumption and also have the highest environmental and health impact.
Test runs have already began for the developed beef products, he said.
“We are motivated by the thought that people can buy it off the shelf,” he said.
“Our goal is to be in restaurants in three years and retail in five years. In 2021, we want to be in retail or even earlier,” he said.
The first base of manufacturing these products will be based in the U.S., but Valeti said he is also exploring the option of establishing additional facilities in India and China, as the two nation’s have already expressed interest in the new technology.
“The meat that we are growing is identical at the molecular and cellular level,” he said, adding that his product detaches the concept of slaughter of an animal to eat a meat – be it beef, chicken or goat.
“Cultured meat will completely replace the status quo and make raising animals to eat them simply unthinkable,” he said.
As a trained cardiologist, Dr. Valeti was educated at the Mayo Clinic, and serves as an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota and president of the Twin Cities American Heart Association. He and Nicolas Genovese, a stem cell biologist, founded Memphis Meats together — Genovese is also a restauranteur, he owns a chain of barbeque restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee.
“I grew up in a meat eating family. From the very young age, I always thought, why do we eat the meat the way we do,” he said referring to the slaughter of animals to eat meat.
Information from the Huffington Post contributed to this report.
