0:00:14.441,0:00:16.659
So, power of small.

0:00:16.659,0:00:19.057
This could have also been[br]deconstruction.

0:00:19.057,0:00:21.440
We have seen [br]the universe deconstructed,

0:00:21.440,0:00:23.273
we have seen [br]management deconstructed,

0:00:23.273,0:00:26.523
we have seen construction [br]being deconstructed,

0:00:26.523,0:00:28.857
and ego being deconstructed,

0:00:28.857,0:00:31.509
and I'm going to deconstruct [br]a cow for you.

0:00:32.023,0:00:34.342
Which might seem a little bit odd,

0:00:34.342,0:00:35.863
and why would you do such a thing,

0:00:35.863,0:00:36.783
and I will explain.

0:00:36.783,0:00:40.896
First of all, [br]are there any vegetarians in here?

0:00:42.342,0:00:45.201
It's hard to see, about 4 or 5, [br]which is pretty much

0:00:45.201,0:00:50.296
the average for the Netherlands, [br]and for every industrial population.

0:00:50.296,0:00:52.391
You can doze off for a while...

0:00:52.391,0:00:54.192
I'm talking to [br]the meat eaters right now.

0:00:54.192,0:00:56.250
After five minutes,[br]you can wake up

0:00:56.250,0:00:57.967
because then it becomes [br]really interesting,

0:00:57.967,0:00:59.901
but I'm first going to tell you

0:00:59.901,0:01:03.240
what the problems are [br]with meat production.

0:01:04.865,0:01:07.601
So it all has to do [br]with that these animals,

0:01:07.601,0:01:10.493
these pigs and cows[br]were never really designed

0:01:10.646,0:01:13.857
and never had an evolution [br]to serve as dinner for us,

0:01:14.395,0:01:16.979
so they are not necessarily efficient,

0:01:16.979,0:01:19.018
and in fact,[br]they are very, very inefficient:

0:01:19.018,0:01:23.553
for every 15 grams [br]of meat that we eat,

0:01:23.553,0:01:27.686
we have to feed those animals [br]100 grams of vegetable proteins.

0:01:27.686,0:01:31.901
And so they have [br]a bioconversion rate of 15 %.

0:01:31.901,0:01:36.364
Already as we speak, [br]livestock is using 70%

0:01:36.364,0:01:39.745
of all our arable lands in the world.

0:01:40.905,0:01:42.326
And what's even worse,

0:01:42.326,0:01:45.190
the World Health Organization [br]is predicting,

0:01:45.190,0:01:51.209
that in 2050, meat consumption [br]will be double what it is right now

0:01:51.209,0:01:56.626
because of growing middle class[br]in India, China, Brazil, Africa.

0:01:58.078,0:02:01.033
So you can do the math, [br]that's not going to work,

0:02:01.033,0:02:02.933
and we need to come up [br]with a solution.

0:02:02.933,0:02:05.475
That's not the only problem, [br]so food security is serious,

0:02:05.475,0:02:06.992
but that's not the only problem.

0:02:07.735,0:02:08.883
By now, we also know

0:02:08.883,0:02:11.532
that these animals, [br]being ruminants,

0:02:11.532,0:02:18.729
actually excrete a whole lot [br]of methane and CO².

0:02:18.729,0:02:21.239
Now the ruminologists [br]among you might say,

0:02:21.239,0:02:24.159
well, actually, [br]they don't fart methane,

0:02:24.159,0:02:26.261
they belch methane, but, you know

0:02:26.261,0:02:28.760
either way it comes out, [br]and it gets into our atmosphere

0:02:28.760,0:02:32.126
and it's a greenhouse gas,[br]it's a very noxious greenhouse gas.

0:02:32.126,0:02:34.114
So, that's another issue:

0:02:34.114,0:02:38.523
20% of all the greenhouse gas [br]emission comes from livestock.

0:02:38.523,0:02:43.809
So, a vegetarian with a Hummer [br]is actually better for the environment

0:02:43.809,0:02:47.539
than a meat-eater with a bicycle. Right?

0:02:47.539,0:02:49.443
(Laughter)

0:02:50.113,0:02:52.331
And then there's of course [br]animal welfare issues.

0:02:52.331,0:02:55.371
I won't dwell on it but we all know it [br]and we sort of hide it

0:02:55.371,0:02:57.639
and we don't want to talk about it, so,

0:02:57.639,0:02:59.760
can we have a solution [br]for that problem?

0:02:59.760,0:03:02.869
And in fact in 1932, [br]Winston Churchill of all people

0:03:04.618,0:03:08.402
mentioned in his book [br]"Thoughts and adventures" that

0:03:08.402,0:03:10.596
why would we actually [br]grow an entire chicken

0:03:10.596,0:03:13.340
if we only eat the breast and the wing?

0:03:13.340,0:03:14.984
And he was befriended,

0:03:14.984,0:03:17.151
--he was of course a statesman, [br]so what did he know about biology?--

0:03:17.151,0:03:18.976
but he had a friend, Alexis Carrel,

0:03:18.976,0:03:21.154
who was a Nobel prize[br]winning physiologist

0:03:21.154,0:03:25.599
and he at the first time, at that time, [br]could keep organs alive

0:03:25.599,0:03:27.404
outside of the body.

0:03:27.558,0:03:30.817
He couldn't make organs, [br]he couldn't create them,

0:03:30.817,0:03:32.902
but he could keep them [br]alive outside of the body,

0:03:32.902,0:03:34.707
and from then they went on dreaming,

0:03:34.707,0:03:37.917
what if we can also [br]create these organs?

0:03:37.917,0:03:41.483
At that time it just [br]wasn't possible but nowadays,

0:03:41.483,0:03:45.049
thanks to the advances [br]in the medical field,

0:03:45.049,0:03:48.538
we have stem cell technology, [br]we have tissue engineering,

0:03:48.538,0:03:49.804
and we are getting there.

0:03:49.804,0:03:52.976
So, let's see how that works.

0:03:52.976,0:03:54.600
Let's deconstruct this cow.

0:03:54.600,0:03:56.593
You take a biopsy from a cow,

0:03:57.953,0:04:00.594
that will give you [br]a small piece of muscle,

0:04:01.016,0:04:04.313
and muscle of course [br]is the main ingredient of meat.

0:04:04.313,0:04:06.253
Not the only one,[br]I'll come back to that later,

0:04:06.253,0:04:07.835
but we have this piece of muscle,

0:04:07.835,0:04:09.596
and if you look at [br]that piece of muscle

0:04:09.596,0:04:11.318
under the microscope, [br]you'll see muscle

0:04:11.318,0:04:14.972
and you'll also see fat tissue,[br]which gives some of the taste.

0:04:14.972,0:04:21.600
And if you then look [br]even closer at this material,

0:04:21.600,0:04:23.578
you will see the skeletal muscle,

0:04:23.578,0:04:26.747
the muscle cells, and [br]there are tiny cells in there

0:04:26.747,0:04:28.416
that are stem cells.

0:04:28.416,0:04:31.079
Muscle stem cells, [br]that only can make muscle.

0:04:31.079,0:04:33.844
They're sitting there, [br]waiting to repair the muscle

0:04:33.844,0:04:35.384
once it's injured.

0:04:35.384,0:04:39.374
Think about Robben at [br]the European Soccer Championship

0:04:39.374,0:04:41.368
three or four years ago.

0:04:42.340,0:04:45.873
So they are sitting there, [br]waiting to repair

0:04:45.873,0:04:48.570
and they have a couple [br]of very nice characteristics.

0:04:48.570,0:04:50.954
Being stem cells, they can divide,

0:04:50.954,0:04:53.775
they can multiply [br]to tremendous numbers.

0:04:53.775,0:04:56.073
Actually, from one stem cell,

0:04:56.073,0:05:00.160
we can make[br]10,000 kilos of meat, theoretically.

0:05:00.160,0:05:04.727
So, that is one of [br]the crazy features of these cells,

0:05:04.727,0:05:06.763
they can divide, [br]they can multiply,

0:05:06.763,0:05:09.845
they can make [br]an entire mass of muscle.

0:05:10.772,0:05:13.560
But these particular skeletal muscle cells

0:05:13.560,0:05:18.420
are even more, sort of special,[br]because they merge.

0:05:18.420,0:05:19.951
They have to merge because

0:05:19.951,0:05:23.908
a muscle fibre is actually [br]a large fibre with lots of nuclei.

0:05:23.908,0:05:26.014
It's a merger of a number of cells,

0:05:26.014,0:05:28.166
and they do that [br]pretty much by themselves.

0:05:28.166,0:05:31.101
The only thing that we do [br]is we starve them,

0:05:31.101,0:05:32.439
and once we starve them,

0:05:32.439,0:05:36.912
they stop proliferating and[br]they start to merge into large fibers.

0:05:36.912,0:05:39.491
And then there is another cool thing,

0:05:40.221,0:05:43.677
that if you put them in a petri dish

0:05:43.677,0:05:46.170
and you provide anchor points.

0:05:46.208,0:05:48.208
-- and we use velcro for that,

0:05:48.208,0:05:57.354
klittenbands, I bought this morning [br]at the Hema here in Haarlem.

0:05:57.354,0:06:01.272
And so we use actually [br]the loop part of the velcro,

0:06:01.272,0:06:03.968
it works a little bit better [br]than the hook part,

0:06:03.968,0:06:06.761
don't ask me why [br]but it's just empirical.

0:06:06.761,0:06:10.037
And we actually use [br]the same from the Heima.

0:06:10.037,0:06:13.287
And if you put that [br]in your petri dish

0:06:13.287,0:06:16.026
and you provide [br]anchor points for those cells,

0:06:16.026,0:06:17.822
they start to grab on it.

0:06:17.822,0:06:20.928
They are actually [br]exercise junkies, if you like,

0:06:20.928,0:06:23.379
so we don't have to do anything [br]they exercise themselves,

0:06:23.379,0:06:25.403
they grab onto these anchor points

0:06:25.403,0:06:28.867
and provide tension [br]and they form a muscle,

0:06:28.867,0:06:30.577
I will show a picture [br]a little bit later.

0:06:30.577,0:06:33.698
They form a muscle, provide tension, [br]start to contract even,

0:06:33.698,0:06:37.681
and with that they will [br]exercise themselves

0:06:37.681,0:06:41.099
and they will grow tissue, [br]muscle fibers, small muscle fibers.

0:06:41.099,0:06:45.760
If you just take a large number [br]of those muscle fibers,

0:06:45.760,0:06:53.373
20,000 to be exact, you can assemble [br]a patty, a hamburger,

0:06:53.373,0:06:56.204
and that's exactly what we have done.

0:06:56.204,0:06:57.900
Of course you can also add fat to it.

0:06:57.900,0:07:03.045
Now this hamburger contains[br]60 billion cells, so that's a lot.

0:07:03.045,0:07:04.844
You need to culture a lot of cells

0:07:04.844,0:07:09.433
and you need to somehow find [br]a way to do that efficiently

0:07:09.433,0:07:12.628
because, remember, we have to be[br]more efficient than a cow or a pig.

0:07:13.766,0:07:18.015
Currently we are using [br]an inefficient system for it,

0:07:18.015,0:07:20.799
and eventually we are going[br]to use a bioreactor,

0:07:20.799,0:07:23.950
a silver tank like this of 25,000 litre

0:07:23.950,0:07:27.087
that is a sizeable pool, [br]an olympic pool I guess,

0:07:27.087,0:07:30.408
but with that you can feed [br]40,000 people per year,

0:07:30.408,0:07:33.321
so that is already reasonable.

0:07:33.321,0:07:35.466
Of course, I already said,

0:07:35.466,0:07:38.851
it has to be efficient [br]and it has to also be meat,

0:07:38.851,0:07:40.761
not some kind of substitute.

0:07:40.761,0:07:44.110
We have more than enough substitutes,[br]from vegetable proteins.

0:07:44.110,0:07:46.645
It needs really to be meat.

0:07:46.645,0:07:49.511
And nothing less and nothing more.

0:07:49.511,0:07:54.810
So mimicry is very very important, [br]now what do you want in meat?

0:07:54.810,0:08:00.263
You want of course taste, [br]you want it to be red or pink or whatever

0:08:00.448,0:08:02.415
but not yellow or white,

0:08:03.396,0:08:08.007
and you want to have that [br]particular mouthfeel of the meat.

0:08:08.517,0:08:12.645
So how do we do that?[br]Well, currently this is where we are.

0:08:12.645,0:08:17.894
This hamburger on your left [br]was assembled a couple of weeks ago

0:08:18.487,0:08:21.057
from 8,000 of those muscle strips

0:08:21.057,0:08:24.667
individually prepared [br]in these culture dishes,

0:08:24.667,0:08:25.872
taken out, harvested,

0:08:25.872,0:08:28.263
making a patty out of it.

0:08:28.263,0:08:31.054
And you see it's pretty close,[br]wouldn't you say?

0:08:31.054,0:08:32.989
Reasonably close.

0:08:33.649,0:08:35.762
On the other side [br]you see the cooked one,

0:08:35.762,0:08:42.409
actually, one is a regular one [br]from a cow, and the other is ours.

0:08:42.409,0:08:46.014
And most of the people we fooled

0:08:46.014,0:08:50.644
by letting them guess which one is [br]which, they found it hard to tell.

0:08:52.091,0:08:59.586
We did cheat a little bit here, [br]because we painted this hamburger

0:08:59.586,0:09:02.466
with beet juice from red beets[br]which are actually purple

0:09:02.466,0:09:04.610
so we added [br]a little bit of saffron to it

0:09:04.610,0:09:07.610
to make it a little bit [br]more yellow and red.

0:09:07.610,0:09:11.069
So the fibers are not quite red yet, [br]they are yellow to be honest,

0:09:11.069,0:09:12.884
because there is [br]no blood in the system

0:09:12.884,0:09:16.593
and what's more, there is [br]no myoglobin in the system

0:09:16.593,0:09:18.222
or not enough myoglobin.

0:09:18.222,0:09:20.892
Myoglobin is a protein [br]in those skeletal muscle cells

0:09:20.892,0:09:23.396
that is very similar [br]to hemoglobin in our blood.

0:09:23.396,0:09:26.910
It turns red if [br]it's exposed to oxygen,

0:09:26.910,0:09:29.477
and muscle cells typically [br]have a whole lot of it.

0:09:29.477,0:09:33.201
Now, there are a fair amount of clues

0:09:33.201,0:09:38.834
how you would induce [br]that myoglobin in these tissues,

0:09:38.834,0:09:41.386
and a talented postdoc in the lab

0:09:41.386,0:09:45.652
started to work on actually [br]starving the cells of oxygen.

0:09:45.652,0:09:49.062
So low oxygen, we have systems[br]for that, very easy to do,

0:09:49.062,0:09:52.779
and then you see that myoglobin [br]actually goes five fold up.

0:09:52.779,0:09:55.460
There was also a report that caffeine, [br]which is kind of interesting,

0:09:55.460,0:09:58.613
caffeine would also [br]induce that myoglobin,

0:09:58.613,0:10:01.058
so the only thing is [br]you couldn't eat hamburgers at night

0:10:01.058,0:10:03.340
but, you know, that's a minor detail.

0:10:03.340,0:10:06.386
Fortunately for us, [br]the caffeine really didn't work,

0:10:06.386,0:10:09.921
so we can revert to the lower oxygen,

0:10:09.921,0:10:14.004
and we can in that way [br]stimulate the myoglobin

0:10:14.004,0:10:16.679
and turn our fibers into pink fibers.

0:10:16.679,0:10:18.336
We haven't done that yet

0:10:18.336,0:10:20.266
because we have only one [br]of those incubators

0:10:20.266,0:10:22.333
with a low oxygen capacity

0:10:22.333,0:10:24.172
so all the others are[br]just regular oxygen

0:10:24.172,0:10:26.337
but that's just a matter [br]of how you organize it,

0:10:26.337,0:10:27.653
it can be done.

0:10:29.688,0:10:31.495
Of course we need to feed those cells.

0:10:31.495,0:10:33.795
-- now we get to efficiency --

0:10:33.795,0:10:34.775
We still need to feed them.

0:10:34.775,0:10:37.328
We need to feed them sugars, [br]we need to feed them aminoacids,

0:10:37.328,0:10:38.901
we need to feed them lipids.

0:10:38.901,0:10:43.194
Which by the way also gives us [br]opportunities to change,

0:10:43.194,0:10:46.067
use the biochemistry of the cell,

0:10:46.067,0:10:49.342
of that very smart cell, [br]which we really don't do anything with

0:10:49.342,0:10:53.279
other than feeding it,[br]and providing those anchor points.

0:10:53.279,0:10:55.971
We use the biochemistry of these cells

0:10:55.971,0:10:58.580
to produce more [br]polyunsaturated fatty acids.

0:10:58.580,0:11:02.475
We know they can do it, [br]because if grazing animals

0:11:02.475,0:11:09.000
have a higher polyunsaturated[br]fatty acid fat

0:11:09.000,0:11:11.810
than animals being fed[br]from a feed lock,

0:11:11.810,0:11:13.994
so we know they have [br]the capacity to do it,

0:11:13.994,0:11:15.583
they just usually don't.

0:11:15.583,0:11:18.364
So we can use [br]that biochemistry in the lab

0:11:18.364,0:11:22.290
because we have all those variables [br]very tightly under control

0:11:22.290,0:11:24.947
to make it more efficient,[br]to provide those proteins,

0:11:24.947,0:11:26.876
and aminoacids in the right way,

0:11:26.876,0:11:33.519
and to give fatty acids [br]to make it into a healthier fat

0:11:33.519,0:11:35.141
and a healthier burger.

0:11:37.821,0:11:39.522
So this is the system,

0:11:39.522,0:11:43.531
it looks like a refrigerator [br]but it's in fact the opposite

0:11:43.531,0:11:46.813
it's 37º C like our body, [br]we call it an incubator.

0:11:46.813,0:11:49.507
And the cells grow [br]in there for a while.

0:11:49.507,0:11:54.312
It takes about 7-8 weeks [br]to grow a muscle fiber

0:11:54.312,0:11:57.329
and so also 7-8 weeks[br]to grow a hamburger.

0:11:57.329,0:11:59.627
You could do it at home if you like.

0:12:01.164,0:12:03.494
Needs quite a bit of space still, but

0:12:03.494,0:12:05.360
eventually you can do it at home

0:12:05.360,0:12:08.942
in your kitchen if you have[br]the right equipment,

0:12:08.942,0:12:10.942
it's very very easy to do.

0:12:10.942,0:12:12.942
And in fact those stem cells, [br]which is kind of interesting,

0:12:12.942,0:12:16.006
that you could envision they survive

0:12:16.006,0:12:18.968
freezing drying, so you could envision

0:12:18.968,0:12:21.454
that over the internet, [br]we would eventually sell

0:12:21.454,0:12:24.406
little, sort of, tea bags of stem cells

0:12:24.406,0:12:29.120
from tuna, from tiger, [br]from cows, from pigs,

0:12:29.120,0:12:31.565
from whatever animal you can imagine!

0:12:31.565,0:12:33.290
And then you could in your own--

0:12:33.290,0:12:35.189
in the comfort of your own kitchen,

0:12:35.189,0:12:37.408
you could grow your own tissue.

0:12:37.588,0:12:38.723
You would have to know

0:12:38.723,0:12:40.406
8 weeks in advance[br]what you want to eat,

0:12:40.406,0:12:42.006
because it takes a while.

0:12:42.006,0:12:43.346
(Laughter)

0:12:43.346,0:12:44.650
But it's a minor detail.

0:12:44.687,0:12:48.169
Anyway. So the process right now, [br]what I'm trying to tell you,

0:12:48.169,0:12:50.470
the process right now [br]is not really efficient.

0:12:50.470,0:12:53.888
But we have all the variables [br]under control so that

0:12:53.888,0:12:56.024
we can eventually make it efficient.

0:12:56.024,0:12:58.801
And if we go from 2D to 3D culture,

0:12:58.801,0:13:01.206
we actually make [br]a huge step in efficiency.

0:13:01.206,0:13:03.284
So, that's our next step.

0:13:04.806,0:13:11.844
And we also are dreaming of feeding [br]those cells algae, salt-water algae.

0:13:11.844,0:13:13.806
I'm thinking that [br]the first factory is going to be

0:13:13.806,0:13:15.240
at the mouth of the Mississippi,

0:13:15.240,0:13:16.990
which is an algae dead zone,

0:13:16.990,0:13:19.236
a huge, huge algae dead zone,

0:13:19.236,0:13:21.482
that we can harvest those algae there,

0:13:21.482,0:13:23.730
mesh them up and[br]feed them to our cells,

0:13:23.730,0:13:25.851
because these cells [br]are not very picky.

0:13:25.851,0:13:28.451
So, you could combine[br]those technologies

0:13:28.451,0:13:29.849
to make it even more efficient and

0:13:29.849,0:13:35.450
you can also build in recycling [br]mechanisms to improve the efficiency.

0:13:37.434,0:13:39.164
And then of course [br]I've already told you that

0:13:39.164,0:13:41.342
these are exercise junkies.

0:13:41.342,0:13:43.374
They really perform labor in there,

0:13:43.374,0:13:47.379
but we want to get [br]from a muscle like this

0:13:47.379,0:13:51.472
to what I call a "Schwarzenegger bull".

0:13:52.641,0:13:55.325
This is in fact a blanc bleu belge.

0:13:55.325,0:13:57.380
I don't know whether [br]you recognize them,

0:13:57.380,0:14:00.455
this is a particular strain in Belgium,

0:14:00.455,0:14:03.405
and these animals [br]actually have a mutation,

0:14:03.405,0:14:07.788
a natural mutation in a protein [br]that limits muscle growth.

0:14:07.788,0:14:11.324
So, we don't want limitation [br]of muscle growth in the petri dish,

0:14:11.324,0:14:15.370
so, we are also using the stem cells [br]of these guys to see

0:14:15.370,0:14:18.996
whether we can improve[br]protein concentration.

0:14:18.996,0:14:20.694
Now, this is the cool part.

0:14:21.003,0:14:25.483
Imagine those cells where[br]we have taken them out of a biopsy.

0:14:25.483,0:14:27.522
They grow out of that muscle.

0:14:27.522,0:14:31.545
They have become from 1 to 10 ^14 cells, [br]10,000 kilos of meat,

0:14:31.545,0:14:35.316
and then we put them in a gel [br]in between two anchor points.

0:14:35.316,0:14:38.545
And you see that on your left here,

0:14:38.545,0:14:41.396
and it's a gel and [br]here the anchors are not velcro

0:14:41.396,0:14:43.610
but are silk wires, it's all the same.

0:14:43.610,0:14:47.295
24 hours after this, [br]if you take the same picture,

0:14:47.295,0:14:49.072
they have organized that gel,

0:14:49.072,0:14:51.689
and they have organized it [br]into a muscle fiber

0:14:51.689,0:14:53.386
in between those anchor points.

0:14:53.386,0:14:55.545
Basically, already a muscle.

0:14:55.545,0:14:58.462
Then they need another [br]three weeks of maturing

0:14:58.462,0:15:01.086
to build a full muscle.

0:15:02.661,0:15:05.184
Now, we can also electro-stimulate them, [br]we can zap them.

0:15:05.184,0:15:08.859
then they will contract even more [br]and they will produce fibers

0:15:08.859,0:15:12.070
that are indistinguishable [br]from the real thing.

0:15:13.099,0:15:14.650
But of course, [br]that takes a lot of energy.

0:15:14.650,0:15:18.250
And in fact our muscle in our body [br]is not really electrically stimulated,

0:15:18.250,0:15:21.049
it's chemically stimulated,[br]so we might eventually

0:15:21.049,0:15:24.650
take another mechanism [br]and give the chemical stimulus

0:15:24.650,0:15:28.249
sort of in a repetitive manner [br]to train those muscles even more.

0:15:28.249,0:15:30.118
And now you would say,[br]the skeletal muscle

0:15:30.118,0:15:33.784
is not the only component of meat.

0:15:33.784,0:15:37.191
We want fat in there,[br]we want really marbled steaks,

0:15:37.191,0:15:40.383
we want, you know, juicy stuff.

0:15:40.383,0:15:43.609
And maybe you want a T-bone steak even, [br]if you are really into it.

0:15:45.039,0:15:47.106
So, can you make that as well?

0:15:47.106,0:15:48.555
And of course [br]we can make that as well,

0:15:48.555,0:15:51.159
we can pretty much make everything.

0:15:51.159,0:15:53.522
Excuse me, I'm going too fast.

0:15:53.522,0:15:56.002
We can make those-- [br]we can use those stem cells also

0:15:56.002,0:15:58.409
to create fat tissue.

0:15:58.409,0:16:00.658
And in fact, we have already done that.

0:16:00.658,0:16:04.723
For the current prototype [br]hamburger we haven't yet,

0:16:04.723,0:16:08.317
because it's really cumbersome [br]to do them all at the same time,

0:16:08.317,0:16:11.752
but it can be done and [br]we have shown that it can be done.

0:16:11.752,0:16:16.587
And currently we are using that [br]with very varied methods

0:16:16.587,0:16:19.585
that are compatible with eating.

0:16:19.585,0:16:22.503
Now currently we are [br]making these small fibers,

0:16:22.503,0:16:25.836
which is good for processed meats [br]such as a hamburger,

0:16:25.836,0:16:31.477
and which is, by the way, about 50 %[br]of all the meat consumption;

0:16:31.477,0:16:34.197
so, you know, even[br]if we would stick to that,

0:16:34.197,0:16:37.197
we would already make [br]a big step ahead,

0:16:37.197,0:16:40.835
but my ambition is actually [br]to make a steak or a pork chop.

0:16:40.835,0:16:45.503
So what would you need to do,[br]that's a limitation of tissue engineering

0:16:45.503,0:16:50.101
because the thicker the tissue gets, [br]the inside cells

0:16:50.101,0:16:52.752
will be deprived [br]of nutrients and of oxygen,

0:16:52.752,0:16:55.168
so they will start to die.

0:16:55.168,0:16:57.182
So, that's why we have blood vessels,

0:16:57.822,0:17:00.157
and I also make blood vessels,

0:17:00.157,0:17:02.157
I would like to make blood vessels, [br]it's not particularly

0:17:02.157,0:17:04.738
necessary in these tissues [br]because we don't have any blood,

0:17:04.738,0:17:08.515
but we still need a channel system, [br]in a flow system

0:17:08.515,0:17:11.518
to get all the nutrients and oxygen

0:17:11.518,0:17:14.280
to all the nooks and[br]crannies of that tissue.

0:17:15.516,0:17:17.289
And that can be done.

0:17:17.289,0:17:20.077
Friends of mine in California [br]have a 3D printer

0:17:20.077,0:17:23.198
where you 3D print, basically, [br]a steak, you print the cells

0:17:23.198,0:17:25.622
and you print the material, [br]and you print those little tubes

0:17:25.622,0:17:29.279
in a hierarchical manner and [br]you have an inflow and an outflow

0:17:29.279,0:17:33.169
and you can create,[br]in principle, thicker tissues.

0:17:33.169,0:17:35.998
So eventually we can create steaks [br]and pork chops if you,

0:17:35.998,0:17:37.955
again, are into it.

0:17:38.557,0:17:42.410
OK, so then there is another [br]final challenge, minor one.

0:17:42.410,0:17:44.622
Will people ever eat this?

0:17:44.622,0:17:46.879
It's coming out of a factory, [br]or out of a lab even,

0:17:46.879,0:17:52.190
it's sort of Frankenstein-ish, [br]creepy, you know, whatever...

0:17:52.190,0:17:56.877
So will people eat this? [br]And if you go with a microphone

0:17:56.877,0:18:00.293
through the streets of Haarlem [br]and you, sort of randomly ask people,

0:18:00.293,0:18:04.396
they'll say, "No way, [br]are you out of your mind?"

0:18:04.396,0:18:08.997
But if you rephrase the question: [br]"So, 20 years from now,

0:18:08.997,0:18:10.042
you walk into a supermarket

0:18:10.042,0:18:11.677
and you see those two products, [br]those two meats.

0:18:11.677,0:18:13.757
One is made in the lab, [br]it has an LM (lean meat) on it,

0:18:13.757,0:18:16.678
and it's cheap and [br]it's at the same price,

0:18:16.678,0:18:21.460
it's the same taste, and the same color [br]and the same mouthfeel,

0:18:21.460,0:18:23.708
and you have these other products [br]that now has an eco tax

0:18:23.708,0:18:26.117
is four times more expensive [br]because it's scarce,

0:18:26.117,0:18:28.057
and it also has this nasty little label

0:18:28.057,0:18:30.437
that animals have suffered [br]for that product,

0:18:30.437,0:18:32.598
what are you going to choose?"

0:18:32.598,0:18:36.708
I bet the choice is going to be, [br]you know, favorable

0:18:36.708,0:18:39.999
in terms of [br]this particular product.

0:18:39.999,0:18:43.479
Currently this hamburger[br]costs 250,000 euros.

0:18:43.479,0:18:47.709
Hmm, and I'd like to stress that, [br]and also to make the point

0:18:47.709,0:18:50.917
that it's not a real product yet, [br]it's a proof of concept.

0:18:50.917,0:18:53.792
Showing to the world, [br]guys, we can do this.

0:18:53.792,0:18:57.119
We can make this product [br]in an efficient way.

0:18:57.119,0:18:58.839
We actually have done[br]some calculations which

0:18:58.839,0:19:02.676
come down to [br]a much more reasonable price.

0:19:02.676,0:19:06.036
But we can do this, [br]and my ambition is

0:19:06.036,0:19:08.805
to gather a lot of people [br]and a lot of money

0:19:08.805,0:19:12.756
to do all the research [br]that's required to, sort of

0:19:12.756,0:19:18.308
take out all the small obstacles [br]and get these onto your plates basically.

0:19:19.103,0:19:20.517
Thank you.

0:19:20.517,0:19:25.843
(Applause)