Global demand for meat is expected to nearly double by 2050, and some think the only way to meet demand without destroying the environment is via another approach: growing meat.

Scientists at Israel’s Tel Aviv University are working on the world’s first lab-grown chicken. The feasibility study is funded by Modern Agriculture Foundation, which hopes that “cultured meat” may one day replace traditional animal production methods.

The team is trying to make an entire piece of chicken, starting with a single cell. The idea is that cultured chicken cells would divide and multiply. Previously, a research team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands produced a lab-grown hamburger. It took five years.

Tova Cohen (@cohen_tova) and Eric Auchard (@auchard) report for Reuters:

 

Growing chicken in a lab would be a big step. It accounts for nearly a third of the world’s total meat, second behind pork, which it is expected to overtake sometime in the next decade, according to an OECD report.