Teacher & Student Materials > Feeding a Hungry Planet
What is cultured meat?
90 minutes
In this lesson, students will be introduced to ‘cultured meat’ – what it is and how it is made. By comparing cultured meat to current meat production methods, students will gain insight into cultured meat as a potential solution for future dietary needs.
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All necessary background knowledge will come from this lesson.
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As discussed in the previous lesson, there are several optional solutions to the present and future need for protein sources. This lesson will be focused on an exciting new source of protein – cultured (sometimes called cultivated) meat.
Students can infer the concept of cultured meat by considering the meaning of ‘cultured’ and drawing on the visual cues from the graph.
Whole class brainstorming
Students watch the video Lab Meat: The Taste of a Green Future.
Ask the students to identify the two keywords they heard from the video.
In a whole class, the teacher will guide the students through the process of creating cultured meat. Since this is a novel concept for most students, it is crucial to ensure that they grasp the key points of the process.
On slide 4, we recommend stopping at 2:36.
Small group discussion
Stem cells play a pivotal role in cultured meat production, and their extensive use in biotechnology further underscores their significance.
Stem cells are unique cells that can develop into different types of cells in the body. They have the potential to divide and produce more stem cells (self-renewal) or differentiate into specialized cells with specific functions (differentiation). Stem cells play a crucial role in embryonic development, tissue repair, and regeneration.
Allow students to engage in small group discussions to contemplate which option is more environmentally friendly and the reasons behind their choice.
Watch the rest of the video in the slide 4: less time to produce, less water and feed (less land for agriculture), less greenhouse gasses).
Classroom discourse
Small group discussion
Present to students how international collaboration is advancing the cultured meat industry – this is especially interesting to us because of the twice local dimension – a company that began in Israel opened a production center in NC.
This is a place for localization.
What is cultured meat?
Cultivated meat, also known as cultured meat, is genuine animal meat produced by cultivating animal cells directly, eliminating the need for traditional animal farming. It replicates the sensory and nutritional characteristics of conventional meat by arranging the same cell types in the same or similar structure as animal tissues.
In 2013, scientist Mark Post unveiled the first cultivated meat burger, and since then, the industry has grown significantly with over 150 companies across six continents and $2.6 billion in investments. These companies, along with numerous others, are leveraging knowledge in cell culture, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, fermentation, and chemical and bioprocess engineering to develop large-scale manufacturing processes for cultivated meat.
The manufacturing process involves acquiring and banking stem cells, growing them in bioreactors, and providing them with an oxygen-rich cell culture medium containing essential nutrients and growth factors. Changes in the medium composition, sometimes with the help of scaffolding structures, prompt the cells to differentiate into skeletal muscle, fat, and connective tissues, which form the basis of meat. The differentiated cells are then harvested, prepared, and packaged into final products, with the entire process taking around 2-8 weeks. Some companies are also exploring similar approaches to produce milk and other animal products. (based on: The science of cultivated meat | GFI )
A detailed explanation of the process can be found here – (including comparison with traditional meat production) THE PROCESS || What Is Cultivated Meat?
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are unique cells that have the remarkable ability to develop into different types of cells in the body. They have the potential to divide and produce more stem cells (self-renewal) or differentiate into specialized cells with specific functions (differentiation). Stem cells play a crucial role in embryonic development, tissue repair, and regeneration.
There are two main types of stem cells:
In the context of cultivated meat production, stem cells are obtained from animals and serve as the starting point for culturing and multiplying the cells needed to produce cultivated meat products.
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