A Meaty Question

There is an increasing awareness that farming, as an industry is problematic.

The reasons for this are many and include issues around animal welfare, the ineffective use of land, pollution from farming, and the large land areas needed to grow animal feed.

From a nutritional perspective many people also have concerns about eating meat.

While it is a source of protein, it has high levels of harmful saturated fat which can contribute to cardiovascular disease. Meat is also linked to certain forms of cancer. In addition food production involving meat and meat storage often pose significant risks of food poisoning.

Scientists have now have the ability to grow meat in the laboratory from stem cells taken from cows. These cells can them be replicated millions of times to produce large amounts of meat.

At the moment this meat is very expensive ($400,000 for one burger patty), but it is thought that within 50 years this process will be common practice and that eventually meat will be very affordable - even to those people for whom meat is currently too expensive.

Opponents to this claim that the idea potentially messes with the natural food chain and that it will create an increase in unemployment. Further to that, vegetarians claim that it just reflects Western society's addiction to meat and that now is the time to consider more non-meat alternatives.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?