Concluding Note

It is a sad day, as I announce that this is my last blogpost regarding my Global Environmental Module :(

In this last post, I would like to summarise some of the topics I have discussed through this blog series and providing you with some reflection.

Starting off the blog in October was probably the hardest part of holding this blog. Indeed, We had to find a topic of investigation and ensure our posts fitted in line with our topic. Throughout my blog series, I tried to smoothly move from examining terrestrial environmental impact of livestock farming (during the months of october and november) to exploring its aquatic environmental impacts.

I discussed 18 peer-reviewed articles on the topics of deforestation, desertification, accuracy of statistics in relation to environmental impacts caused by livestock farming, and more recently, topics related to freshwater pollution, ocean dead zones and cultured meat.

Although "investigating into environmental impacts of livestock farming" is a vast research domain, I tried to focus on a few current and 'historically' important debates. In some cases, I extended the topic for discussion over a number of blogposts to get a deeper understanding of research surrounding this theme.

I also interacted with some fellow colleagues on deforestation and desertification debates, and found it particularly interesting to read and discuss other blog post.

Future expectations: This blog has changed my way of thinking about writing on academic research, it has helped to develop creative writing skills, and having really enjoyed, I would like to continue my blog post series, still researching on the topic of livestock farming and its environmental impact.

I hope that you will stay hooked up!

Best,

Kelly

In vitro meat and the environment

n regards to my last post on “in vitro meat”, this post will focus on academic research that has been conducted on the topic as well as the ongoing debate around it.

Although the first article on cultured meat was first published in 2005 under ‘Tissue Engineering’, the idea of growing meat has been around for a while. In 1932, Winston Churchill, published his book “Thoughts and Advendures” (1932) and stated: “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under suitable medium.” Hi thoughts were avant-gardist but portrayed today’s reality!

How does it work?

Cultured meat is grown with the use of stem cells. The tissues and stem cells from leftover animals (non-living) are used to grow and produce muscles by injecting protein into the already existing muscle. In 2013, the first lab-burger was produced by Professor Mark Post from Maastricht University and consequently tasted in one of his London Conference.

In a 2011 peer-reviewed article, Tuomisto et al (2011) researched on the topic to gain a greater understanding of cultured meat and its environmental impacts. The findings suggested that the production of cultured meat had considerably lower impacts on the environment than conventional livestock farming. It was found that cultivated meat emitted 40% less Greenhouse gaz in comparison to the production of Atlantic salmon. Growing our own meat would take up 98% less land than what was needed traditionally for livestock farming and feed production. Furthermore cultivated meat would contribute to the reduction of methane emissions from cows, as its production no longer needs cows! 

Although these statistics sound promising, I believe there is still a high uncertainty of the long term reduction of environmental impact. Mattick etal (2013) argue that cultured meat might take out some traditional environmental costs but may introduce other new environmental issues. Indeed, the production of cultured meat will increase the use of industrial energy, through the burning of fossil fuel needed to produce the meat. This is not a peer-reviewed article so some assumptions remain questionable.

In all, I believe that alternative solutions to meat consumption are a big step forward. However, the question persists: Will people be attracted to this new product?

If you’re asking me the question, overall it sounds good but if I had it in front of me I would probably think twice before eating.

Meet the new meat?

I wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR and hope you have all enjoyed your holiday.

Regarding my blog, I want to start this year with a fresh new topic that will explore new innovative alternatives to meat consumption. 

Having done a 30-day vegan challenge, I thought it would be good to discuss further options to help save our planet! After having been forced (by my parent) to eat rather meaty Christmas meals, my 2016 resolution was to heavily reduce my meat (and permanently!) by eating it once a week, maximum!

There is a topic I have been willing to discuss for a while on this blog, and it would be a shame not to do so:

CULTURED MEAT

For some of you that are not already aware, the first lag-grown meat was produced in 2013. I have attached two videos on the topic of cultured meat which I found particularly interest.

And this particularly funny video:

Would you dare to do it??