Google founders invest 250,000 euros in funding artificial beef project

Google co-founder Sergey Brin announced Monday that he invested 250,000 euros to fund a project called "cultured beef," which is aimed at developing synthetic meat for consumption. Reports suggest this project has the potential to revolutionize livestock farming and human habits of consuming meat.

The project is still in the concept verification stage, so no sellable products will be available in the short term. However, research from Oxford University shows that producing synthetic beef would require 99% less land than current livestock farming methods and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

In addition to environmental benefits, synthetic beef can help meet market demands. It is reported that the demand for beef is increasing, and there may be a shortage within the next 40 years. Furthermore, with synthetic beef, livestock could avoid high-density farming, thus reducing reliance on antibiotics, which tend to remain in fat cells and may cause cancer in humans.

"There are three scenarios for the future," Brin said in a video. "Everyone becomes vegetarian, I don't think that's likely; we continue to ignore the issues causing environmental degradation; or we innovate."

Under the leadership of biologist Dr. Mark Post, a research team from Maastricht University extracted a set of stem cells from a cow and cultivated 20,000 muscle fibers over a period of three months. These muscle fibers can be made into a hamburger patty. Dr. Post stated that theoretically, only a small number of sample cells are needed to produce ten tons of edible meat.

The first synthetic beef patty has been sent to food critics for cooking and tasting. Reports indicate that after being cooked, the patty was juicy and brightly colored, with the texture of real beef, but lacked sufficient aroma. This shortfall was expected by experts, as synthetic beef lacks fat cells.