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October 31, 2005
Walter Derzko on innovation in the world of agribusiness
Get ready for some big-time innovation in the world of agribusiness - and we're not talking about new farm machinery or incremental new approaches to farming. According to Walter Derzko of Smart Economy, the next wave of innovation in the world of agribusiness means thinking about "cellstock" rather than "livestock." In a blog post called "Chicken Fingers Minus the Chicken," Derzko highlights recent findings from the Journal of Tissue Engineering on how it might soon be possible to grow meat for human consumption in vitro. After detailing the benefits of in vitro meat production, Derzko highlights the specifics of such a process:
"One technique is to grow cells in large flat sheets on special thin membranes. The sheets of meat would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked on top of one another to increase thickness.
The other method would be to grow the muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The mature cells could then be harvested and turned into a processed meat, like fish sticks, nuggets or hamburgers."
(photo credit: timburts on Flickr)
Posted by dominic at October 31, 2005 1:28 PM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig
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