The TedTalks I have linked below show case some amazing new technologies that make it possible to reproduce the qualities of leather and meat in a test tube and to use viruses to create batteries. The first talk really makes you think about the potential future changes in primary industries. The second shows the potential of nature to produce things we are currently producing while potentially destroying nature.
- Andras Forgacs: Leather and meat without killing animals
- Angela Belcher: Using nature to grow batteries
After viewing these - all I could think of was - WOW. Science has come along way since I was at university. I challenge you to think about how wide-scale use of this lower-impact technology could affect the New Zealand environment and economy considering that we currently rely strongly on primary industry to make export dollars.
I look forward to your thoughts.
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Without sounding like a future-phobe, I don’t like it; it makes me feel uncomfortable. To try to solve the global food crisis caused by over-population, by growing meat in test-tubes just feels fundamentally wrong. Biofabrication might have some great applications, but I don’t think food is one of them Look at what ‘science’ has done to wheat – since the 1950’s it has been assaulted by chemicals and genetic engineering, to produce a more abundant, pest and disease resistant crop. The way it is harvested and milled has left us with a product with virtually no nutritional benefit. We now have a mutant in the food chain which has been linked to many inflammatory diseases, not just in those who are coeliac or gluten intolerant.
ReplyDeleteThe planet needs to be in balance. Perhaps this would be better achieved by more of the population becoming vegetarian, or by a human plague….