Cellular Agriculture

Book excerpt: Cellular agriculture, also called lab-grown food, promises to provide alternative food options to current agriculture practices. Cellular agriculture is food grown in laboratories and bioreactors rather than on fields, relying on cultivation of cells under controlled conditions, with minimal use of natural resources and lower greenhouse gas emission costs than in traditional practices. It gives us the prospect of consuming the same foods such as a dairy ice cream or a burger. And it can further broaden the variety of textures, flavors, nutrition, and health-promoting aspects that food can deliver. Cellular Agriculture: Lab-Grown Foods gives an overview of the broad range of approaches to cellular agriculture, the current state of scale and regulations, and the results it brings about in terms of environmental footprint and consumer attitudes. Cellular Agriculture: Lab-Grown Foods was organized by Solar Foods, a food-tech company that develops a cell-based food protein produced from CO2 and electricity. A fruitful collaboration with VTT Technical Research Center of Finland Ltd allowed conceptualizing and streamlining of the written and visual content in the book.