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OK! Lab-grown meat, eggs, and milk have become a hot topic in recent years.
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Lab-grown meat, eggs, and milk have become a hot topic in recent years.
At a factory in Finland, “farmers of the future” are creating new food proteins by feeding microorganisms with air and electricity, proving that proteins can be produced without traditional farming.
Livestock farming is one of the main culprits of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the main cause of global warming.
Cellular agriculture, which involves growing food and nutrients from cell cultures, is increasingly seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to animal agriculture.
There has been a lot of buzz in recent years about lab-grown meat, eggs and milk, which have been produced by scientists using animal cell cultures, but critics say the process is unnatural, highly processed, energy-intensive and costly.
But at a Solar Foods factory that recently opened outside Helsinki, scientists are using a new technique to grow proteins from cells using air and electricity.
By feeding microorganisms with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and several minerals, and running the process with electricity from renewable sources, the company has succeeded in producing a protein-rich powder that can be used as a substitute for milk or eggs.
“The main raw material for microorganisms can come from the air,” Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka told AFP while giving a tour of the company’s new facility near Helsinki.
“We have begun producing the most sustainable protein in the world.”
Scientists are using a new technique that uses air and electricity to grow proteins from cells.
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Scientists are using a new technique to grow proteins from cells using air and electricity.
Solar Foods, founded in 2017 by Vainikka Pitkanen and Juha-Pekka Pitkanen, launched “the world’s first factory to grow food from the air” in April.
“Much of today’s animal protein can actually be produced through cellular agriculture, and carbon stocks can be increased by rewilding agricultural land,” Vainikka said. I mentioned it with reference to the process of storing it.
A 2021 scientific study found that each kilogram of this new protein, called Solein, produces 130 times less greenhouse gas emissions than the same amount of protein produced in beef production in the European Union.
Vainikka makes his way through the factory’s laboratories and into the control room, where a dozen people are standing at computer screens monitoring the production process.
“These are our future farmers,” Vainikka said.
part of the solution
Emilia Nordlund, head of industrial biotechnology and food research at the VTT Technology Research Center, says transforming food production and consumption is central to combating the climate crisis and preventing biodiversity loss.
However, current projections indicate that meat consumption is expected to increase over the next few years.
“The main raw material for microorganisms can be sourced from the air,” Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka told AFP.
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“The main raw material for microorganisms can be sourced from the air,” Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka told AFP.
“Industrial food production, and particularly livestock production, is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and to biodiversity loss, eutrophication and freshwater use,” she said.
New food production technologies can help reduce emissions and “decentralize and diversify food production,” Nordlund said.
“But at the same time, we need to improve existing food production methods to make them more sustainable and resilient,” she added.
Fermentation techniques used to produce various nutrients such as proteins have been around for decades.
However, the field has expanded significantly in recent years with new technological solutions and research projects emerging around the world.
Slow progress
Some of the most active startups focused on cellular agriculture are in the US, UK, Germany, Netherlands and Israel, according to Nordlund.
“We are at a critical stage to see which start-ups will survive,” he said, adding that bogged-down bureaucracy was slowing the spread of cellular agriculture in the EU.
The new protein has been named “solein.”
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The new protein is called “solein”
Wearing protective gear to prevent bacterial contamination inside the factory, Vainikka showed off huge steel tanks in a gleaming production hall.
“This is a 20,000-litre fermenter,” he said, explaining that microorganisms grow in the tank by being fed greenhouse gases.
The microbial-laden liquid is continuously extracted from the tank and processed into a yellowish protein-rich powder with a flavor described as “nutty” and “creamy.”
“The fermenter produces the same amount of protein per day as 300 milking cows or 50,000 egg-laying hens,” Vainikka said.
This equates to “5 million protein meals per year.”
For now, the main aim of the small Finnish factory, which employs around 40 people, is to “prove the scalability of the technology” so that needed investment can be attracted, pending approval from European regulators.
The protein has been approved for sale in Singapore and is used in some restaurants to make ice cream, but is still awaiting classification as a food in the EU and the US.
Vainikka said that to really make a difference, the goal is to “build a factory 100 times the size of the current factory.”
