Industrial livestock farming is responsible for around 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also requires huge amounts of land and water and is thought to be contributing to the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. This is why more and more scientists and entrepreneurs are conducting research on alternatives to conventional meat production.

In California, Joshua Tetrick is working on a method of growing meat in a bioreactor. He multiplies the muscle cells of chickens in huge tanks and cultivates them with plant-based nutrients. The resulting cell pulp is molded into fibrous meat with the help of a plant scaffold. A kilo still costs many hundreds of dollars. But Joshua Tetrick hopes that production can be scaled up to a globally relevant level. After all, with ‘Good Meat’ he was one of the first two companies in the USA to receive a license for cultured meat.

At the University of California, Alison Van Eenennaam is trying to make meat production more efficient. Using the gene editing tool CRISPR she’s altered the genetic make-up of a cow so that its offspring are exclusively male. This is a great advantage, as male calves grow faster and consume fewer resources than female calves to produce the same amount of meat – thereby reducing the carbon footprint of livestock farming.

For Pasi Vainikka from ‘Solar Foods’ in Helsinki, these are all just intermediate steps on the way to a truly sustainable future food: he’s cultivating a whole new category of food in gigantic fermenters: Bacteria that are fed with CO2 and hydrogen and blended to create a product called ‘Solein’. A flavorless, protein-rich basic ingredient that can replace eggs and milk in practically all foods.

Science journalist Ingolf Baur meets some of the researchers and entrepreneurs seeking alternatives to industrial livestock farming around the world.

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Unmanned tractors controlled via GPS; drones that kill vermin in the fields from above; and highly efficient bull sperm used to produce genetically optimized calves. This is not science fiction. It’s the future of farming, today. “Smart farming” is the agricultural industry’s new buzzword. A survey of almost 600 German farmers has revealed that more than one in two now uses digital solutions to optimize their harvests. Fierce regional and global competition, declining subsidies, higher standards of food quality, environmental protection, and increasing demand are forcing farmers to be highly efficient. This documentary looks at three examples of “smart farming” in Germany. Breeding consultant Johanna Schendel creates optimized dairy cows by selecting the right bull semen. Asparagus farmer Heiner Bartels uses a smartphone to calculate the optimum time to harvest. And drone pilot Bernd Meyer is out to fight pests in maize fields from the air. All three are trying to use modern technology to modify nature to fit the needs of our society. But where are the limits?
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