WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Bruce Gulland
and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
Imagine the inside of a laboratory. Men

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and women in white lap coats bend
over long tables. One woman is working

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over a small plastic dish. She
takes a small container of liquid and empties

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it into the dish. Then she
squeezes several drops of a different liquid from

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a long tube. She seals the
dish and places it in a container with

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several more dishes. Six weeks pass
The dishes sit in their container, but

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inside the dishes something is happening.
Slowly, a red substance starts to grow.

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By the end of the six weeks, it fills the dish. It

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looks like a hamburger, but does
it taste like one. The woman returns

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to the laboratory and chooses one dish. She brings it into a kitchen and

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places the substance on a hot pan. Once it is brown, she puts

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it between two pieces of bread.
Then she takes a big bite. This

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may seem like something from a futuristic
film, but the woman has just taken

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her first bite of lab grown or
in vitro meat. Many people think this

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new technology can help solve many problems
in the world of meat production, but

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will people really eat it? Today's
spotlight is on in vitro meat. Many

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people around the world love meat.
People eat pigs, chicken, cows,

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goats, and many other animals.
Meat is an important part of the world's

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diet. For some, meals with
meat are important to who they are.

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Many regional foods depend on meat for
their uniqueness. But there is also a

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big problem with meat. Raising animals
takes up a lot of space, food,

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and water, and the global population
is increasing. As more people come

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to live on the earth, they
will demand more meat, but the earth

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may not have enough space to keep
these animals. Raising livestock animals also has

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a serious effect on climate change.
Some animals, like cows, goats,

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and sheep, have special stomachs.
These stomachs allow them to eat foods that

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are very hard to digest, like
grasses and leaves, But digesting these foods

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produces a lot of methane gas.
Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas.

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It traps twenty times more heat than
carbon dioxide, and the global meat industry

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is responsible for thirty percent of the
world's methane production. If the world continue

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use to produce meat like this,
it could be very bad for the environment.

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For some people, growing meat in
laboratories may be the solution to this

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problem. Meat grown with this method
is usually called cultured meat, lab grown

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meat, or in vitro meat.
To make in vitro meat, all a

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scientist's needs is a few cells from
an animal's muscle. They put these cells

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in a special environment, then they
add nutrients and chemicals called hormones. These

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chemicals cause the cells to grow.
The process does require some things from animals,

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but a few cells from a cow
could grow thousands of pounds of beef.

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It is much more efficient than raising
livestock, and it does not produce

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methane. Liz spect is the director
of Science and Technology at the Good Food

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Institute. She spoke to the website
gen cultured meat could address all of the

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problems related to industrial meat production.
It addresses environmental impacts and concerns about treating

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animals well. It stops the risks
of getting diseases from animals. It can

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do all this while making sure there
is a production system to meet the growth

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in demand for animal protein. For
people like spect in vitro meat could solve

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many of our problems, but the
technology for in vitro meat is still very

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new and it is still very expensive. Mark Post is a Dutch scientist.

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He was the first person to make
a lab grown hamburger in twenty thirteen.

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It was made from cow cells.
The hamburger was very expensive to make.

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It cost three hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars and it took three months to

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grow. Today, the process is
much faster. Good Meats is a company

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that has started growing in vitro chicken. Their chicken takes only two weeks to

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produce, but a meal of this
chicken will cost about seventeen dollars. The

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process also may not be as environmentally
friendly as people thought. Growing in vitro

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meat uses a lot of energy.
Some of this energy will come from burning

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fossil fuels. This releases carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide traps heat

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in the atmosphere and it lasts in
the atmosphere longer than methane, so many

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people say it is worse for the
planet. In the long term growing in

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vitro meat may also cause a lot
of waste. This is because cell cultures

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must be sterile. They must be
free of any bacteria, otherwise other things

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will grow and ruin the meat.
These sterile containers also create a lot of

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plastic waste, and there is already
a problem of too much plastic waste in

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the environment. But the biggest question
about in vitro meat might be will people

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eat it. Many people do not
trust food grown in a lab. In

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vitro meat may seem unnatural, or
people might fear that it will somehow affect

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their bodies in a bad way.
And in vitro meat also does not taste

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like meat from animals. It does
not have fat, only muscle. Fat

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must be added later, and the
taste is still not quite the same.

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Still, in vitro meat is coming
today. It is available in very few

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places, but dozens of companies are
working on their meat growing methods. Companies

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have invested billions of dollars in this
research, and many people believe that it

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is the protein of the future.
Josh Tetric is the CEO of eat Just

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which grows in vitro chicken. He
told the website C net. I want

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tens of thousands of restaurants to have
cultured meat on their menu. Then at

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some point I want them to ask
their chefs why do we have conventional chicken

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on the menu too? Would you
eat in vitro meat or why not?

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You can leave a comment on our
website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.

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You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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The writer of this program was Dan
Christman. The producer was Michio Ozaki.

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The voices you heard were from the
United States and the United Kingdom. All

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quotes were adapted for this program and
voiced by Spotlight. This program is called

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the Future of Meat. Visit our
website to download our free official app for

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Android and Apple devices. We hope
you can join us again for the next

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Spotlight Night program. Goodbye,