• cyd@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “Can be” is doing a lot of work in that title.

    There are sound reasons to think that growing meat in the lab will eventually be more efficient than growing animals. You don’t have to support the metabolism of the whole animal and everything it eats. Not to mention the reduction in animal suffering.

    But lab grown vegetables? What’s the point?

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It says exactly what the point is in the article: reducing dependence on imports when there’s not enough arable land to feed a population.

      • cyd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Urban farming is the way to go for that. Modern crop plants are really very efficient organisms. It is doubtful that lab growing cells (which is hardly free of overhead) can come anywhere close to competing with that.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          Urban farming . . . in Qatar?

          But I agree that this should be compared with hydroponics systems with efficient water recycling.

    • Venat0r@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I guess the point is to be able to grow it in a desert, but I think it should still be cheaper and easier to grow it indoors hydroponically instead… Unless maybe it uses less water? But hydroponics can recycle all the water used so I don’t think that’s a huge advantage.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Some of the water in hydroponics will be lost to evaporation, and some of it is also in the plant itself. With a good setup, you can probably recover a lot of the evaporated water, at least. Basically, think like a Fremen.