China Signs Deal With Israel Over Lab-Grown Meat, Food For The Future

With the world facing the global crisis known as climate change, most countries are doing whatever they can to reduce carbon emissions. However, one of the biggest contributing factors to greenhouse gasses that is rarely addressed is the matter of livestock, which is the primary source of meat for most countries. In a recent deal between China and Israel, however, the biggest economy in the world is taking steps to do something about this.

The concept of artificial or lab-grown meat has never been addressed on as large a scale and from a national standpoint as what China and Israel are doing now. The deal that the two countries recently signed involves cooperation between the two nations in developing alternative sources of protein, Quartz recently reported.

Basically, Chinese and Israeli companies can work together to develop and produce what amounts to vegan meat. Grown from plant proteins and fibers to emulate the taste, texture, and smell of meat, these lab-grown meats are far more environmentally friendly than their natural counterparts.

The interest that the Chinese government has shown in this concept is in line with its new policies concerning the reduction of carbon emissions in the livestock sector, as well. Last year, the country’s government enacted a new policy, which encouraged its population to lower consumption of meat and eggs, Futurism reports.

For now, the deal is only worth about $300 million, which is a pittance compared to what China’s local and imported meat industry racks up. However, the deal still fuels hope that there could be an entirely meatless future in the coming decades. Meat lovers will likely find this development distasteful, but it’s worth noting that in some of the more advanced examples of lab-grown meat, it’s become nearly impossible to tell which is artificial and which is the real deal.