Hunger - The test-tube solutions

Capitalism wastes food

Test-tube meat, protein grown from stem cells in a lab has been acclaimed as the solution to hungry and now we can feed the planet. Except that we can already provide an adequate diet for everybody in the world.

"There is enough food in the world today to feed every adult 2000+ calories per day," according to Emelie Peine, an assistant professor of international economics at the University of Puget Sound.

The cause of most actual hunger that people experience is not because of a lack of food in the world -- lab-grown or otherwise -- but rather the result of poverty. They cannot afford to buy food. And with this lab-grown meat, they will still not be able to pay for it.

If  the test-tube burger did go into mass production it may make normal, cow-based meat cheaper, but that would mainly just help people who can already afford food but want to buy more meat, according to Gawain Kripke, director of research and policy for Oxfam America.

 Joshua Muldavin, a professor of human geography at Sarah Lawrence College thinks the connection between high-tech food production techniques and hunger happens because the people behind it "need to find ways to legitimate ongoing investment in this form of technology.