An Australian Company Grows Meat in Labs Using an Extinct Mammoth

Using genetic material from an extinct mammoth, an Australian business has created lab-grown meat. The creation was introduced by the corporation at a science museum located in the Netherlands. It happened a few days before April Fools’ Day, which falls on April 1. “This is not an April Fools’ joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of the Australian startup Vow. “This truly is an innovation.” Animal cells are used to generate lab-grown meat, also known as farmed or cell-based meat. It is not necessary to slaughter animals in order to generate them. Proponents of farmed meat assert that it is better for the environment as well as the animals.

Cultivated meat products are the focus of over 100 businesses worldwide. According to experts, future meat production could have a far smaller environmental impact if this technology spreads. Globally, the production of meat currently takes place over billions of hectares of land. To date, only Singapore has authorized the consumption of farmed meat by humans. Later this year, Vow plans to launch its first product there: meat from raised Japanese quail. Vow has no intention of producing the enormous meatball. Rather, the company made it to draw attention to and start a conversation about meat’s future.

“We believed the mammoth would be a conversation starter and we wanted to get people excited about the future of food… that there are things that are unique and better,” Noakesmith stated to The Associated Press. Seren Kell is science and technology manager of Good cuisine Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant- and cell-based cuisine. According to Kell, corporations typically generate grown meat using cells from farm animals and shellfish. She pointed out that both meeting global demand for meat and lowering emissions from animal husbandry are possible with lab-grown meat.