教材课文原文
THE COMPANY LEADING THE FUTURE OF FARMING
Here's a crazy idea: Combine bioprinting and tissue engineering to "print" animal products and tackle some of the planet's biggest problems. Animal farming, after all, accounts for about half of all human-caused greenhouse gases, taking place on one-third of the available, non-frozen land on Earth. All to feed people's appetites for 300 million tons of meat a year.
Modern Meadow is a Missouri-based startup that engineers tissues to create lab-grown edible meat, in a process that eliminates many of the negative environment effects associated with traditional livestock practices.
The company claims that by carefully layering mixtures of cells of different types in a specific structure, in-vitro meat production becomes feasible. It’s set a short-term goal of printing a sliver of meat around two centimeters by one centimeter, and less than half a millimeter thick, which is edible.
The company explains in a submission to the United States Department of Agriculture: “The technology has several advantages in comparison to earlier attempts to engineer meat in vitro. The bio-ink particles can be reproducibly prepared with mixtures of cells of different type. Printing ensures consistent shape, while post-printing structure formation and maturation in the bioreactor facilitates conditioning.”
However, it admits that the road ahead is strewn with difficulties. “The consumer acceptance of such products may not be without challenges. We expect it will first appeal to culinary early-adopter consumers and the segment of the vegetarian community that rejects meat for ethical reasons. With reduction in price, it can reach the masses with religious restrictions on meat consumption (people restricted to Hindu, Kosher, Halal diets) and finally populations with limited access to safe meat production.”
Whatever the final outcome, lab-grown edible meat is no longer in the realm of science fiction. It is coming.
1. Animal farming is responsible for the occurrence of greenhouse gases.{T; F}
2. Modern Meadow is a newly-started business which aims to make profits by producing lab-grown edible meat.{T; F}
3. The method Modern Meadow adopted to produce in-virto meat is by layering mixtures of cells of different types in a specific structure.{T; F}
4. There is no meat engineered outside living bodies before.{T; F}
5. This lab-grown meat has already widely received by the masses.{T; F}