Cultured Meat Firm Resurrects Woolly Mammoth in Lab-grown Meatball
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Cultured meat firm resurrects woolly mammoth in lab-grown meatball:
Truth, as the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. The very notion of resurrecting the long-extinct woolly mammoth was the stuff of fantasy not that long ago, but scientists are already working on ways to achieve something close to that, using DNA from soft-tissue in frozen mammoth remains and meshing it with that of a modern-day elephant.
But while such "de-extinction" projects may or may not ultimately succeed, one company is already laying claim to having produced the first meat product made from mammoth DNA.
Vow, an Australian cultivated food company that creates meat in a laboratory setting from animal cells, says that it has used advanced molecular engineering to resurrect the woolly mammoth in meatball form, by combining original mammoth DNA with fragments of an African elephant's DNA.
There's little question that cultivated meat is coming, evidenced by the countless companies raising vast swathes of venture capital funding to produce meat and fish in a lab from animal cells, as well as the fact that companies are now starting to receiving the blessings of regulators such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But while pork sausages and seafood make sense insofar as they are food that people are familiar with, Vow - which closed a $49.2 million round of funding just a few months ago - is clearly upping the ante with its foray into the world of extinct animals.
It's worth acknowledging that there is a sizeable element of marketing magicianship to this announcement. The very concept was devised by communications agency and WPP-subsidiary Wunderman Thompson, which tells us something about the intent here - this is very much a promotional campaign for Vow. But at the same time, it's also a promotional campaign for cultured meat in general, and the role it could play in creating a sustainable protein source that doesn't involve killing animals. By some estimations, around 60% of greenhouse gas emissions from food production emanate from animal-based foods, double that of plant-based equivalents.
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