Scientists unveil mammoth meatball

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Meat from an extinct species was grown in a laboratory and exhibited this Tuesday (28), in the Netherlands. Meatball is not yet ready to be consumed and needs to undergo testing. Woolly mammoths have been extinct for millennia, but with 21st century genetic engineering technology, scientists want to bring them back to Earth Getty Images Scientists presented, this Tuesday (28), in Amsterdam, a meatball grown in laboratory of a woolly mammoth, an extinct species, and claimed that this “journey” to the past paves the way for the foods of the future. Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram The delicacy from Australian cultured meat company Vow was displayed under a glass dome at the NEMO science museum in the Dutch capital. But this pachyderm meat is not yet ready to be consumed: the thousands of years old protein must still undergo safety tests before it can be consumed by modern humans. “We chose woolly mammoth meat because it is a symbol of loss, extinguished by past climate change,” Tim Noakesmith, co-founder of Vow, told AFP. “We face a similar fate if we don’t do things differently, like changing large-scale farming practices and the way we eat,” he added. Grown for several weeks, the meatball was created by scientists who had previously identified the DNA sequence of mammoth myoglobin, the protein that gives meat its flavor. With some gaps, the DNA sequence was completed with genes from the African elephant, the closest living relative of this ancestral pachyderm, and introduced into lamb cells with the help of an electrical discharge. “I’m not going to eat it yet because we haven’t seen this protein for 4,000 years,” said Ernst Wolvetang of the Australian Institute of Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, who collaborated with Vow. “However, after safety testing, I’ll be really curious to see what it looks like,” he added. World meat consumption has nearly doubled since the early 1960s, according to figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). According to this entity, livestock represents 14.5% of global emissions of greenhouse gases caused by man. With the prediction that this consumption will still increase by 70% by 2050, scientists are looking for alternatives such as plant-based or laboratory-grown meat. Sydney-based company Vow doesn’t want to stop people from eating meat, but “offer something better”, said Noakesmith, who defines himself as “a frustrated vegetarian”. “We chose to make a mammoth meatball to attract attention that the future of food can be better and more sustainable,” he concluded. Reconstruction of a woolly mammoth at the Royal Museum of British Columbia rpongsaj/Wikimedia Commons VIDEOS: g1 most watched

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