Growing barley to create meat in the lab

The Icelandic company is growing 130,000 genetically modified barley plants to harvest the protein used in the cell culture of meat.

The team of ORF Genetics company are planting 130,000 trees genetically modified barley within wide greenhouse 2,000m ² in Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland, with a special purpose - to create meat in the laboratory , Futurism on 12 /10 news. The greenhouse is equipped with an advanced hydroponic system that uses volcanic pumice to grow these plants.

ORF Genetics Greenhouse Barley. (Photo: BBC).

Experts will harvest barley and refined to extract the protein "growth factors" - proteins that help stimulate the growth of certain tissues. Growth factors play an important role in promoting cell differentiation and division, which occurs in many organisms, including humans, plants, insects, and amphibians.

Barley is an ideal plant for the production of growth factors because it can grow in a variety of climates and does not cross-pollinate (the pollen of one flower in contact with the stigma of another) with surrounding plants.

The growth factors can then be used to grow meat in the lab, making the meat industry less dependent on animals in the future. In 2010, ORF Genetics also introduced a skin care product using bioengineered plant growth factors.

After 10 years, the company hopes to enter the market for cell cultured meat. "The population is growing and we need to feed everyone. We don't need to kill animals, we just get stem cells from them," said Arna Runarsdottir, director of protein technology at ORF Genetics. know.

Producing meat from the lab requires less land and energy, and produces less hazardous waste. Runarsdottir also commented that this is a more viable and environmentally friendly solution than the traditional meat production process. According to the BBC, a number of companies producing lab-grown meat products already use ORF Genetics growth factors.