Chapter 144: Cultured Meat (10)

Chapter 144: Cultured Meat (10)

Jake, a farmer who owned a corn farm in Michigan, sat in his field for thirty minutes. Last night, the ears of hundreds of corn suddenly began to turn dark red and go bad. He felt uneasy since then, but his entire field was devastated by the morning.

...

He didnt care about the last rally before the legislative debate; his harvest for this year was about to be destroyed. A much deeper issue than all the protests and marches they had done had occurred.

The battle between the traditional livestock industry and cultured meat? All of the feed for livestock in those traditional livestock industries was about to be cut off.

A food crisis in ten years? A crisis would start in the United States next year, as half of the entire corn production in the country was used for livestock feed. All of that was about to disappear. Then, the price of livestock feed would naturally increase, and so would the price of meat. That was the problem for livestock farmers, but it was even worse for corn farmers.

Jake!

Someone from behind shouted. Pendleton, an old friend of Jakes, was driving his truck over.

So? Did they have any treatments at American Farmer? Jake asked.

American Farmer was the most famous distributor of agricultural supplies. They bought pesticides from pharmaceutical companies and supplied them to farmers.

No.

Pendleton shook his head.

What about Husbandry?

Someone already bought all of it.

Right

But they only had about ten thousand liters. They said it was sold out last night.

Damn it.

Jake let out a deep sigh.

Damn it!

Jake kicked the wheels of the truck.

Lets go in now, Jake.

I failed last year, Jake said in a depressed voice.

...

Our crops failed last year, too! Im the fxxking idiot for listening to the axxholes at the USDA[1] and not using resistant seeds! Jake shouted.

... Since the harvest decreases a lot if you use resistant seeds. We were greedy. Who can we blame?

I thought they had it completely contained.

Everyone thought so. Its not our fault.

Pendleton patted Jake on the shoulder.

How the hell did it spread

Apparently, there was some left in the wheat fields, Pendleton said.

Really?

You know Winterwheat Company in the winter wheat fields? The first red mold-infected seed came out from one of their farms. The department heard about that and investigated it, and it turned out to be the origin.

Winterwheat. Did those idiots even contain it?

They did. But the investigator missed that spot because they didnt plant wheat there last year.

What? How could the fungus be there if there was no wheat?

It was a bit damp, and the red mold was left there as a filamentous body in between the moss in the dirt.

Oh

And when they planted wheat in that spot this year, it got infected and became the first infected seed. The USDA thinks it started from there because its the exact same thing that spread last year.

Sigh

How much did you lose last year?

About three hundred thousand dollars.

You think its going to be worse this time?

I am going to go bankrupt at this rate. Its over.

...

Its not just small farmers like us that are going to get crushed. All the big agriculture corporations will take a hit as well. They are all in trouble.

Both of them dropped their heads in despair.

Jake! Pendleton!

Young-Joon stood up and began his cross-questioning.

You stated that cultured meat is dangerous because it contains growth hormones, is that correct?

... Yes, Steven replied with a shaky voice.

Do you know where that growth hormone comes from?

I understand that it comes from Kochia leaves.

Do you know that Kochia leaves are consumed for food?

... I do not know.

It is commonly used for food in India and Pakistan. It is difficult for plant growth hormones to be active in living animal bodies when administered orally. The reason is because it cannot pass the stomach wall.

...

That is why people in India and Pakistan do not have any health problems even though they eat a lot of Kochia leaves. However, it is different when it is dissolved in cell cultures. The growth hormone can act on and divide cultured meat because the receptors are all exposed at the cellular level. This means that the hormone is effective in cultured meat, but it has no effect in the human stomach, Young-Joon said. The hormone does not enter our body as the culture medium containing it is removed during processing, but even if it does, it is a food used in India and Pakistan.

...

Furthermore, cultured meat is also very unlikely to be infected with bacteria or viruses because it is grown in a sterilized space. Let me ask you, Steven. Are the barns where traditional livestock farmers raise their cows, pigs, and chickens, sterile? When you handle the animals, do you use equipment that has been sterilized at high temperature and pressure using equipment like autoclaves?

... No.

Do you install HEPA filters and air barriers in your barns to control air coming in from the outside, and do you use floor adhesive pads to remove contaminants from under your feet?

... No.

Then, do you sterilize empty barns with UV light and OPA-based disinfectants?

Do farmers wear sterile clothing, masks, goggles, waterproof boots, and hair caps when they enter the barn to feed or care for livestock?

...

Watching Young-Joons attack, Diego whispered to Mckinney, Steven looks like hes going to cry any minute

Young-Joon went on.

The medium in which we grow our cultured meat contains indicators, so any virus or bacterial infection is reported immediately. The cultured meat tanks are basically automatically diagnosed twenty-four hours. Does a system like that exist in your barn?

... No, it does not.

You claimed that eating stem cells can cause them to become cancerous in the body, is that correct?

...

Is that correct?

Yes

Are you certain?

Steven covered his face with his hands. In a pained voice, he replied, That is my understanding

Do you know that A-Bio uses stem cells to treat glaucoma?

... I did not know that.

We directly administer stem cells into the patients eye by injection when we treat glaucoma.

...

Four hundred thousand American patients were cured like that. Not one of them developed a tumor. Do you know why that is?

Steven replied that he did not know, but he knew. The stuff about stem cells and cancer was not to attack Young-Joon, but to scare the people who were watching this hearing on television since it would be beneficial to Steven if even one person believed it, no matter how many scientific explanations Young-Joon gave.

However, the scale had been tipped too much. The red mold that had emerged right before the hearing gave Young-Joon an enormous amount of power. Steven berated Young-Joon about acting like a prophet, but he actually became one.

We have developed a technology that automatically kills undifferentiated stem cells. This technology has also been applied to cultured meat, Young-Joon said.

To Steven, it sounded like Young-Joon was telling him that he was going to destroy him like Schumatix if he kept getting in the way.

Cultured meat is safe. Do you have any objections to my question so far? Young-Joon asked.

...

Steven dropped his head. Young-Joon turned to the speaker.

Thank you. I conclude the cross-questioning.

As Young-Joon went back to his seat and sat down, the speaker glanced at Steven, then said, First member of the negative party, please present your statement

It was Young-Joons turn again.

I will begin.

He walked over to the Foodscan machine.

1. United States Department of Agriculture