Humanity is threatened by global hunger

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Humanity is threatened by global hunger
Humanity is threatened by global hunger
Anonim

Humanity is on the verge of mass hunger - population growth is many times greater than the ability of industry to increase the production of meat products, which means that they need replacement. An alternative to meat can be artificial meat made from vegetable substitutes. Soybeans, GMOs and peas are the main food ingredients for the near future. A brave new world of gustatory simulacra - in the material "Lenta.ru".

Avoiding meat will help kill two problems at once: hunger and environmental pollution, because livestock accounts for 18 percent of all harmful emissions into the atmosphere - more than from all transport on the planet. Alternatives to beef steaks and bacon have long been on store shelves and inside fast food burgers, but the prospects for ubiquitous artificial meat are complicated by the potential risks. How do quasi-cutlets threaten our health?

What are you

Vegetable meats are gaining more and more popularity. According to Allied Market Research, the artificial meat market is growing at 8.4 percent annually; by 2026 it will be about $ 8.1 billion. Euromonitor estimates the market for meat substitutes will be $ 2.5 billion by 2023.

There are several companies in the world that are developing products that in the future can replace natural meat. The most famous among them are American Impossible Foods from Silicon Valley and Beyond Meat from Los Angeles. The former make cutlets from pea protein, the latter extract the main ingredients from wheat and potatoes, generously seasoning all this with a “sauce” made from genetically modified soy, which is responsible for the taste. The “meat” color of the products is given by ordinary beets.

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Vegetable Meat from Impossible Foods

Vegetable cutlets are touted as a healthier alternative to meat that does not require killing animals and is less harmful to the environment. Imposible Meat, for example, claims it uses 96 percent less land, 87 percent less water, and cuts emissions by 89 percent. It is not specified on which study these data are based.

Beyond Meat insists that plant-based alternatives are healthier than regular meat. In particular, the company assured that the consumption of regular meat leads to an increase in the risk of cancer by 16 percent and the risk of heart disease by 21 percent. This information was published on the official website of the company, but it was soon deleted. It turned out that the research the manufacturer relied on was using bacon and hot dogs as examples, not red meat.

Elite cutlet

Impossible Foods initially positioned its meat as an elite food that can only be tasted in restaurants. After the price drop, the meat was sold in simpler establishments. Beyond Meat took a simpler path: first, deliveries were organized to supermarkets, and then to fast food chains. Meat substitutes have already appeared in fast food restaurants. For example, Burger King sells a "vegetable" whopper. Since the launch of the veggie burger, restaurant traffic has grown by 18 percent.

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Burger with Beyond meat cutlet

Vegetable meats are available at select stores. For example, in the Azbuka Vkusa chain, a package of two Beyond Burger cutlets weighing 227 grams costs 750 rubles. Experts note that the import price of artificial meat is too high - three thousand rubles per kilogram, which corresponds to the cost of premium beef or lamb. The meat substitute cutlet is also expensive in the Teremok chain, where it recently appeared on the menu: almost 450 rubles.“It is clear that at such a price the product in our Teremki cannot be competitive,” said the founder of the company, Mikhail Goncharov.

Hazardous composition

While vegetable analogues of meat are slowly but surely conquering the market, they have more and more opponents. According to nutritionists, the amount of sodium and saturated fat in plant-based burgers is about the same as in a traditional beef burger. The so-called “health halo” that surrounds plant-based products runs the risk of causing consumers to eat too many of these burgers. According to experts, you should not abuse meat alternatives: they will not be able to replace the elements necessary for a balanced diet.

Do not overlook the possible allergic reactions, in 90 percent of cases, milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, fish, wheat, shellfish and crustaceans cause allergies. In vegetable meat substitutes, pea protein turns out to be the most dangerous: it is used as an additive and in the composition of vegetable meat substitutes in dietary, vegetarian and sports nutrition.

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Peas

Peas belong to legumes, and allergic reactions to it are similar to those that appear on peanuts - due to the same proteins in the composition. Eating them can lead to anaphylactic shock and death. But if on the labels of most products they write about nuts in the composition, then peas are practically not mentioned, and this endangers the lives of thousands of people.

Impossible Foods burgers also contain traces of the pesticide glyphosate, which is used to control weeds in the fields. Scientific studies show that the substance can provoke cancer.

The villagers are indignant

Many countries are still wary of artificial meat products. For example, France has banned the use of the word "meat" on vegetarian food labels, and the same goes for milk. A similar practice was introduced in the state of Missouri (USA): there, too, you cannot use meat terminology for laboratory analogs. This is done, among other things, in order to protect sellers of natural meat from competition with manufacturers of plant analogues.

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Vegetable protein

For example, John McKee, head of the American organic chain Whole Foods, is convinced that vegetable cutlets are unhealthy. He emphasizes that in the composition of such cutlets there are a lot of deeply processed products (the same as fast food, instant foods and breakfast cereals). Eating such food leads to overeating and, as a result, obesity.

Alternative from a test tube

So far, the main competition in the vegetable meat market is traditional farm products. But in a few years, everything may change. Another way to get artificial meat is to grow it in the laboratory. The product can be obtained from animal muscle tissue or stem cells.

The first attempt to grow artificial meat was made in 2013 by Dutch pharmacologist Mark Post. Then this venture cost 300 thousand dollars, but for several years the cost of a laboratory cutlet fell tens of thousands of times. Now a burger from it costs only $ 11.

Recently, the creation of meat has also been started in Russia. The production of a small cutlet weighing 40 grams took 900 thousand rubles. Especially for this, a tissue engineering laboratory was created on the basis of the Ochakovo Food Ingredients Plant.

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Artificial meat grown in a Russian laboratory

The project is still damp. It is theoretically possible to eat this "cutlet", but it is tasteless and not at all like beef in color. “Now this meat is 30 percent similar to regular meat. With a stretch - 50 percent. He has the wrong color, this is also important, "- said in the laboratory. Moreover, such meat cannot be in a non-sterile atmosphere: once on the kitchen table, it will instantly deteriorate. Domestic manufacturers assure that the product will appear on store shelves already in 2023, they intend to take 800 rubles per kilogram, but this does not go further than loud statements.

In any case, it is too early to talk about the industrial production of test-tube meat, it is assumed that it will be delivered to restaurants no earlier than 2021. Large-scale studies on the dangers or benefits of laboratory meat have not yet been carried out, this takes more time.

It is already high time for humanity to look for an alternative to familiar products. According to UN forecasts, in a few decades - by 2050 - the world's population will increase to almost 10 billion people against today's 7, 8. There is a risk that, due to overpopulation, there may not be enough food for everyone.

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