In this TED speech, a scientist named Andres Forgacs introduces a new technology called “biofablication”. Biofablication is a way to make animal products such as meat or leather by growing animal’s cells. He strongly argues that this technology will save millions of land animals’ lives that are currently raised and killed for making animal products.
He emphasizes the need of this technology by statistically showing the current and future situation. According to the data he showed, today, 60 billions of land animals are maintained to provide people’s meat, dairy, eggs, and leather goods. As the
world population expands to 10 billion by 2050, the number of land animals we need will be 100 billion.
Utilizing this technology not only saves land animal’s lives, but also saves land, fresh water and greenhouse gases which has been used for livestock.
Moreover, by deciding the number of layers we use for biofablicate leather, it will be possible to change the characteristics of the leather. This means that the softness, breathability or durability can be changed as we want to.
When I first watched this TED presentation, I was amazed by this new technology and was inspired by his basic belief that land animals are not just raw materials but living things.
However, as I thought about it further, I found some disadvantages of this technology.
First of all, there will be value differences. Although the quality of the products made by biofablication is as same as or even better than that of the products made by actual killing, there will be people who prefer things made though killing the animals. Those people may think that those products made by grown tissue is not “real” and may refuse to buy biofablicated materials. Thus the value of the products will be decreased toward some people.
Second, the safety as a food may become controversial. Like genetically modified foods, the safety of the food is always a topic toward this kind of topic. Even though its safety was scientifically verified, there is a possibility that people still refuse to eat biofablicated meat.