Taste-testers in London recently sampled the world's first laboratory-grown hamburger and proclaimed it a virtual success. The Dutch scientist who created the burger predicts that in vitro meat could be commercially available in as little as 10 years. Although I don't eat meat — and I don't miss it one bit — I can't wait until in vitro meat is more widely available.
Switching to in vitro meat will help stop animal suffering, reduce carbon emissions, conserve land and water, and make the food supply safer. Scientists even say that laboratory-grown meat will require up to 60 percent less energy than conventional meat.
Eating meat created from stem cells in a sterile laboratory seems better than eating the dismembered body parts of pigs, chickens, cows and other animals raised in filthy factory farms and slaughtered on floors covered with blood, vomit, urine and feces.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.