[ti:Australian Company Uses Extinct Mammoth for Lab-grown Meat]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:01.40]An Australian company has made
[00:04.56]lab-grown meat using genetic information
[00:09.24]from a wooly mammoth, an extinct animal.
[00:13.72]The company launched
[00:15.12]the creation in a science museum
[00:17.64]in the Netherlands.
[00:19.64]It came just days before April 1,
[00:23.84]known as April Fools' Day.
[00:28.00]"This is not an April Fools' joke,"
[00:30.96]said Tim Noakesmith,
[00:33.68]founder of the Australian company Vow.
[00:38.44]"This is a real innovation."
[00:41.20]The lab-grown meat,
[00:43.56]also called cultivated or cell-based meat,
[00:48.24]is made from animal cells
[00:50.88]and grown in a lab.
[00:54.52]Animals do not need
[00:56.08]to be killed to produce them.
[00:59.32]Supporters of cultivated meat say
[01:02.56]it is better not just for the animals
[01:06.00]but also for the environment.
[01:10.16]The company, Vow,
[01:12.64]combined genetic information
[01:15.20]from the mammoth
[01:16.28]and African elephants,
[01:18.88]the mammoth's closest living relative.
[01:23.32]The information was then put
[01:25.68]into a sheep muscle cell.
[01:29.40]In the lab, the cells increased in number
[01:32.92]until there were enough to make a meatball.
[01:37.92]More than 100 companies
[01:40.72]around the world
[01:42.20]are working on cultivated meat products.
[01:47.56]Experts say
[01:49.12]that if the technology becomes
[01:51.52]more common,
[01:52.88]it could greatly reduce
[01:55.44]the environmental impacts
[01:57.56]of meat production in the future.
[02:01.64]Currently, billions of hectares
[02:04.60]of land are used
[02:06.48]for meat production worldwide.
[02:10.48]Singapore is the only country so far
[02:14.20]to approve cultivated meat
[02:16.68]for humans to eat.
[02:20.08]Vow is hoping to sell its first product there —
[02:24.04]cultivated Japanese quail meat —
[02:26.88]later this year.
[02:30.20]Vow does not plan
[02:32.12]to put the mammoth meatball into production.
[02:36.16]Instead, the company created it
[02:38.84]to bring attention and get people talking
[02:42.72]about the future of meat.
[02:46.36]"We wanted to get people excited
[02:49.00]about the future of food...
[02:51.80]that there are things
[02:53.52]that are unique and better...
[02:55.96]and we thought the mammoth
[02:58.68]would be a conversation starter,"
[03:01.08]Noakesmith told The Associated Press.
[03:06.44]Seren Kell is science
[03:09.08]and technology manager
[03:10.96]at Good Food Institute,
[03:13.96]a nonprofit that promotes plant-
[03:17.40]and cell-based food.
[03:21.00]Kell said companies usually use
[03:23.88]cells from farm animals and seafood
[03:27.64]to develop cultivated meat.
[03:31.64]She noted that lab-grown meat
[03:34.28]can help reduce emissions
[03:36.96]from animal agriculture
[03:39.16]and satisfy worldwide demand for meat.
[03:44.92]The large meatball shown in the Netherlands
[03:47.92]was only for show and not to be eaten.
[03:53.76]However, the meatball was cooked,
[03:56.60]and people could smell it.
[04:00.24]Noakesmith said people who were there
[04:03.44]said it smelled like another
[04:05.88]cultivated product
[04:07.44]the company had produced,
[04:09.56]which was crocodile.
[04:13.00]He added that it is "fascinating"
[04:16.16]to think about smelling something
[04:18.72]from an animal
[04:20.12]that has been extinct for thousands of years.
[04:26.04]I'm Andrew Smith. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM