Earlier this year, the Grocery Gazette reported that the UK was set to be a world-leading developer of lab-grown meat. In the recent past, Guardian climate hysteric George Monbiot claimed lab-grown food “will soon destroy farming – and save the planet”. Alas, such boosterism is being challenged by hard facts. Lab-grown meat is up to 25 times worse for the environment since it needs ‘pharmaceutical-grade’ production to make it fit for human consumption. In particular, there is a need to remove endotoxin from the cultured mix, a substance that in concentrations as low as one billionth of a gram per millilitrie can reduce human IVF pregnancy success rate by up to four fold.
These are the startling conclusions of ground-breaking work recently published by a group of chemists and food scientists from the University of California. It turns out that ‘pharma to food’ production is a significant technological challenge. The major problem with lab meat is that it uses growth organisms that have to be highly purified to help animal cells multiply. Compared with environmental savings on land, water and greenhouses gases, the whole bio-process is noted to be “orders of magnitude” higher than rearing the actual animal.
“Our findings suggest that cultured meat is not inherently better for the environment than conventional beef. It’s not a panacea,” said co-author Edward Spang, an associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. The study found that even across scenarios using lower pharma standards, efficient beef production outperforms cultured meat within a range from four to 25 times. This suggests that investment to advance more ‘climate-friendly’ beef production may yield greater reductions in emissions.
The route to New Zero is littered with improbable technologies that promise much – and give endless opportunities for virtue signalling – but deliver little. While many countries press ahead with plans to destroy conventional animal husbandry, the options for new ways of actually feeding populations look thin on the ground. To be fair to Monbiot, he has picked up on the problems of lab meat, noting in a recent blog post that “the more I’ve read about cultured meat and fish, and the more I’ve come to appreciate the phenomenal complexities involved… the more I doubt this vision will come to pass”. Always the worrier, Monbiot asks, “How can mass starvation best be averted”? Not removing the 337.18 million tonnes of global meat production in favour of flaky factory solutions might be a start.
The California study could throw a major stick into the spokes of the lab-grown meat bandwagon, which to date has had a largely uncritical mainstream media ride. Grocery Gazette’s cheer-leading report noted that the sector was predicted to “rapidly increase its market share within the food industry”. Research was quoted suggesting cell cultured meat was expected to make up almost quarter of global meat consumption by 2035.
The authors in California acknowledge that lab-grown meat ventures have attracted around $2 billion of investment to date. Early reports on feasibility were bullish with some predicting a 60-70% displacement of beef by 2030-2040. But of late, sentiment has waned with more conservative estimates noting a 0.5% share of meat products by 2030. As noted, the huge problem in producing lab meat is the presence of endotoxin which is said have a variety of side effects including harm to in vitro fertilisation. In pharmaceutical labs, animal cell culture is traditional done with endotoxin having been removed. There are many ways to remove the unwanted substance, but the use of these refinement methods “contributes significantly to the economic and environmental costs associated with pharmaceutical products since they are both energy and resource intensive”.
The study also highlights concerns about past scientific consideration of lab-grown meat. There is said to be “high levels of uncertainty in their results and the lack of accounting for endotoxin removal”. It is further noted that despite researchers “clearly reporting high levels of uncertainty”, the results were often cited as clear evidence for the sustainability of lab-grown meat.
So a much-touted green Frankenstein food solution – arguably to a problem only promoted in alarmist circles – looks to be biting the dust, sweeping away a billion or two of credulous capital in the process. As the authors note, investing in scaling this technology “before solving key issues like developing an environmentally friendly method for endotoxin removal… would be counter to the environmental goals which this sector has espoused”.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
H1N1 or ‘normal’ flu with its IFR of 0.03% overtakes in ‘cases’ the terrifying Rona virus with its IFR of 0.03%….surely diapers, forced stabbinations and LDs must be imposed? For Granny. For the children. For Gaia. No one is safe from the ‘normal’ flu until we all are. Think of others. Do your duty. Sacrifice. Fight. $cience. This is the greatest battle since well. er…ah Rona, or climate thingy.
Without compelling evidence to the contrary I assume by default that government statistics are lies or distortions, therefore I can’t take seriously anything that talks about “flu hospitalisations” and “covid admissions”. We all know how the phoney concept of a “covid admission” was used to enact the biggest evil and stupidity ever perpetrated in this country.
And also now that the medical establishment has demonstrated just how inept/unethical/corrupt/unscientific/compliant/complicit they are, can we really trust doctors and hospitals to diagnose and report accurately on any and all respiratory illness now? Is the flu replacing Covid as this year’s villain given that they aren’t getting the desired effect from Covidmania any more? I smell a big fat rat because none of these jokers can be trusted to give us reliable information any longer, least of all the flipping mainstream media!
You have said it for me Mogs. For some reason ‘flu and pneumonia disappeared as they rolled out the C1984 but this year they have found both ‘flu and C1984. Wow. The testing procedures must have become ever so much more wonderfully refined, or:
“I smell a big fat rat ….”
197 000 ‘flu & pneumonia deaths to date since January 2020, about the same as alleged CoVid deaths. It is likely a number of the latter were misdiagnosed ‘flu and pneumonia.
But is it not interesting such a large number of ‘flu deaths is not reported?
Source here… choose United Kingdom from drop down.
https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-united-kingdom
Very nicely put M
I don’t think so. The data is accurate. What’s the difference?
Population wide uptake of a toxic substance that lowers the immune defences.
Look around you ask about and there are tons of people with very nasty flus snd other seasonal illnesses including their second or third bout of Rona.
This is the result of immunodeficiency caused by a BIOWEAPON.
Well during the “pandemic”, “covid cases”, “covid admissions” and “covid deaths” were defined as anyone with a positive PCR test within X days, regardless of what else was wrong with the patient. I don’t know how they define it now, nor do I know how they define a “flu case/admission/death”.
I agree that the evidence points to the “vaccines” harming public health, but I would base this on the increase in all-cause mortality which is a more reliable figure.
I’m only looking at hospitalisations for flu like things. These are up. It’s not necessary to distrust whether it’s covid or flu. They are way up in an environment full of jabbed people. They want to say it’s flu because they don’t want to show that these jabs don’t stop you getting Covid, in fact they make the cases more likely.
We agree that these are jab related. The thing is just anecdotally, I’ve never seen so many people bed ridden all around me, hospital or home. The hospitalisation numbers reflect this.
Quite a number of CoVid ‘deaths’ were assumed, based on reported symptoms by doctors who hadn’t seen the patient particularly in care homes. Therefore many did not have PCR tests.
Wonder if this increase of a very similar flu virus might be down to vaccines that effect your natural immunity and your t cells ability to fight any similar flu virus?
People turning down their heating to minimum probably won’t help either. But at least those plucky Ukrainians will thank us!
Yes it does!
I’ve never believed the official line that the flu, a regular visitor that has been with us since time immemorial, just so happened to disappear for one year only ( or was it a 2 year hiatus? ) but it’s now decided to return with a vengeance. Pull the other one! If all of this data being reported is based on inappropriate and highly inaccurate PCR testing then it’s just a really bad joke.
And on a related note, I thought this was some very interesting detective work done by Jikky the mouse on ”viral pneumonia”;
https://twitter.com/TheJikky/status/1603327735853629441
Also, can anybody say how the doctors are able to specifically diagnose flu and distinguish it from all other respiratory viruses that are circulating just now? Or are we just going by the judgement of the doctors assessing the symptoms the patient presents with as opposed to basing that diagnosis on actual lab work?
This quality article by A Midwestern Doctor, goes into great depth explaining the futility and negative effects of flu vaccines, amongst other things, and touches on how the flu magically vanished when Covid came along;
”In a separate 2013 BMJ article, Doshi showed that marketing strategies by authorities designed to increase influenza vaccinations (which before COVID-19 were the most widely visible public health initiative in the Western world) lack moral integrity and scientific support.
A key point Doshi mentions is that the majority of upper respiratory illnesses are caused by viruses other than influenza, thereby making claims influenza vaccines can prevent them disingenuous and also helping to explain why cases of influenza “disappeared” once the pandemic incentivized providers to instead classify all those other illnesses as COVID-19.”
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/why-do-vaccines-consistently-fail
Doctors Jefferson and Hennegen discuss this in a recent substack. Essentially, health organisations have been very sloppy about definitions for decades and the term ‘influenza’ covers a wider variety of illnesses caused by various pathogens. All of which underlines the absolute futility of try to vaccinate against them (my words, not theirs).
You’re right. I think the term ”flu” is now just a catch-all label, flung around willy nilly with the sole intention of scaring people stupid so that their behaviour can be controlled. It’s become less of an illness in its own right and more of an umbrella term it seems. I think I prefer Dr Ryan Cole’s more appropriate name for ”flu season”; ”low Vit D season”.
What is evident is the degree of marketing in favour of ‘flu jabs. Plenty of advertising of it at the pharmacy in my local supermarket, and no doubt at most others as well.
Do the UK health authorities attempt vaccine effectiveness calculations for flu? Hopefully, without counting vaccinated people as unvaccinated until a couple of weeks after they have been vaccinated.
“Or are we just going by the judgement of the doctors assessing the symptoms”
Assessing symptoms virtually / remotely, from home?
Wow that is really creepy what Jikky uncovered. Coincidence? NOT!
By any chance could it have something to do with the weather and cost of living?
The winter of 17/18 was pretty cold for the usually mild UK, with one hit of very heavy snow (waist deep, and we’re South of the M4).
Now, the last two weeks have been particularly cold, plenty of snow, yet unlike before there’s not only rampant inflation hurting finances, but also high energy costs and propaganda telling people to save energy at all costs, rather than putting their health first.
Hence we have people being cold for days at a time, which weakens their immune systems.
So even without outside factors, just the weather can screw you up.
No.
Get ready. This is restarting the paranoia. Once again everybody is to be seen as a threat. Mrs Lemming, who works at GP surgery, has just received a text stating that “MASKS ARE BEING REINTRODUCED. For all staff and patients.”. The shouting, panic-inducing, sensationalising, use of uppercase is insightful; there’s something sickeningly gleeful about it. Anyway, a precedent has been set, one which the authoritarians and the fearful will keep falling back on now. I expect the prospect of lockdowns to be spoken about next.
How much longer are we going to sit around talking about this, standing in parks, filling out petitions? There is a time for pitchforks. We are long past that time.
Never mind the pitchforks I’m all for the 50 calibre!
You don’t have to be Einstein to work this out. The quackine jabs injures the immune system, then the jabbed are injected with the flu jab = outbreak of influenza. A few decades ago a friend who worked in a laboratory told us if we knew what went into flu jabs you wouldn’t have them. Well we never had any flu jabs nor covid jabs and we’ve lived to tell the tale. There is a lesson to be learnt here.
‘This is not going to help the NHS crisis.’
Every Winter for at least two decades prior to the Scamdemic was a ‘crisis’ for the NHS.
Why?
1) Year on year reduction in beds and staff.
2) Increasing age of population which is the cohort most susceptible to respiratory viruses and the complications therefore most likely to end up requiring hospital care. So increasing number of patients.
3) Closure by 2000 of all the isolation hospitals many of which had been repurposed for geriatric care, meaning care for geriatric patients and infectious patients was transferred to general hospitals.
Only one thing will help the ‘crisis’ – removal of State monopoly and allowing insurance and provision of medical care in the competitive, free market private sector.
And…
How many of those Covid cases over the previous two years would have been ‘flu or misdiagnosed?
Viruses are competitive so one new one can replace an older one, and as we well know ‘diagnoses’’ of CoVid are very untrustworthy.
And… how many millions are now less able to resist ‘flu and other respiratory viruses after having had their immune systems banjaxed by repeat doses of experimental gene therapy?
“And… how many millions are now less able to resist ‘flu and other respiratory viruses after having had their immune systems banjaxed by repeat doses of experimental gene therapy?”
Exactly.
And it’s resistance to everything. Colds that turn into pneumonia. Flu that becomes life threatening. Cancers re-emerging.
New mRNA shots coming soon
This X Files compilation Episode is interesting….
https://substack.com/redirect/9b13fb5e-bc13-4ea6-ba1c-4c0a104f63f8?j=eyJ1IjoiaXp0d2gifQ._ql2SkTynasKWDMKiHYH3f7y8SdWhVzs3ESsghHsAjo
No calls for lockdowns, masks and restrictions yet…
Except of course in some of the fringes of the USA, such as LA and Killadelphia. And probably San Fransicko soon as well. Otherwise, We the People will NOT be fooled again!