30 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN 3D is something tissue engineers have been working on in humans for quite some time.” Schultz knows a lot about tissue engineering. Her expertise in the area of rheology—the study of the flow of fluids—contributes to the creation of hydrogel materials for biological applications such as wound healing, drug delivery and tissue regeneration. Schultz says the leap from generating human tissue to animal tissue is not a big one. “The idea for growing meat was inspired by this and just uses a different cell. At the moment in humans, we have been mimicking adipose tissue, which is not structured or exercised and will be implanted so it does not need the oxygen and nutrients. It was a jumping-off point, but the meat project has many more dimensions due to the highly collaborative nature of it.” In 2021, Schultz received a $250,000 research grant from the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank and international network of organizations working to accelerate alternative protein innovation. The two-year grant is seed money, says Schultz, who hopes the research continues beyond that. Meat is a good source of energy and essential nutrients, including protein and iron, zinc and vitamin B12. The world is full of meat lovers—the global per capita consumption of meat continues to rise, more so in affluent countries. But meat production is extremely damaging to the environment in many ways. By some estimates, meat production already requires more than half of the world’s estimated agricultural capacity. Meat production is responsible for 57 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to climate change, according to a study published in Nature Food. A quarter of the planet’s ice-free land is used to graze animals used for meat, and a third of all cropland is used to grow food for them, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Converting land to agricultural fields leads to species extinction because of the destruction of natural habitat, experts agree. Growing feed requires vast amounts of water and results in chemical contamination of land. In addition, manure decomposition releases harmful emissions, including methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide. The hope is that lab-grown meat production would be more energy-efficient and result in lower gas emissions. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said cultivated meat would be “transformative” in mitigating emissions. Asked why the answer to the problem isn’t “just stop eating meat,” Schultz says the consumption of meat is too culturally ingrained. People will always want to eat meat. And for those who might be socioeconomically disadvantaged, meat is an important source of nutrition. Cell-grown meat also could be an alternative for those who don’t eat meat because they consider it cruel to animals. According to the Good Food Institute, more than 100 startups globally are focused on developing cultivated meat products while BY THE NUMBERS >100 Number of startups globally focused on developing cultivated meat products 64 Number of companies that have announced a business line in cultivated meat Source: Good Food Institute $25B The predicted global market for cultivated meat by 2030 Source: McKinsey and Co. 219 In pounds, expected per capita consumption of meat in U.S. by 2025, up from 211 pounds in 2015 Source: USDA “In the end, it is a piece of meat grown out of an animal’s living cells. It’s just grown a different way than we’re used to.” —KELLY SCHULTZ WHY CULTIVATED MEAT IS IMPORTANT THE CULTIVATED MEAT RACE
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