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Earth Eco-friendly, Lab-grown Coffee is On the Way, But It Comes With a Catch
| "It depends really on the roasting grade, and this was a bit of a lighter roast, so it had a little bit more of a tea-like sensation." Rischer couldn't swallow the coffee, as this cellular agriculture innovation is not yet approved for public consumption. Instead, he swirled the liquid around in his mouth and spit it out. He predicts that VTT's lab-grown coffee could get regulatory approval in Europe and the US in about four years' time.
| The coffee industry is both a contributor to the climate crisis and very vulnerable to its effects. Rising demand for coffee has been linked to deforestation in developing nations, damaging biodiversity and releasing carbon emissions. At the same time, coffee producers are struggling with the impacts of more extreme weather, from frosts to droughts. It's estimated that half of the land used to grow coffee could be unproductive by 2050 due to the climate crisis.
| In response to the industry's challenges, companies and scientists are trying to develop and commercialize coffee made without coffee beans. The process requires no pesticides and has a much lower water footprint, said Rischer, and because the coffee can be produced in local markets, it cuts transport emissions. But what will happen to workers in traditional coffee-growing regions?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/16/lab-grown-coffee-eco-friendly
| Nice, I'm glad to see we're becoming more efficient and clean with our food.
I can't wait to get some lab-grown meat instead of cruel and dirty meat!
| It's very nice indeed and it must be done. But every time you automatize something in a capitalistic society, or move something from traditional workers to a lab, you'll create poverty and unemployment. Which sucks teh major dickens.
Regarding lab-grown minced meat we're only a few years away from being able to buy that, I think. It has the same nutritional value as regular meat but supposedly taste kinda bland, but that shouldn't be a problem for stuff like pasta bolognese.
| The issue is the layering of fat cells in the meat. Pure muscle cells don't have a decent taste, and they haven't Ben able to grow the two types together, yet.
It's also still an incredibly expensive process.
| >>797583
and this is mainly why the fears of lab grown meat replacing steaks is largely unfounded, it'd taste terrible without any marbling, lol.
Incidentally, lean ground beef is also bad for burgers, but if its bottom of the barrel type stuff, people might not notice.
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| Heiko Rischer isn't quite sure how to describe the taste of lab-grown coffee. This summer he sampled one of the first batches in the world produced from cell cultures rather than coffee beans. "To describe it is difficult but, for me, it was in between a coffee and a black tea," said Rischer, head of plant biotechnology at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which developed the coffee.