Politicians should support increased funding for cultivated meat research

To the Editor:

With tests of milk showing avian flu is now widespread among cows, our political leaders should support increased public funding for cultivated meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter. Since livestock are removed from the process, our pandemic risk would be greatly reduced.

The technology faces a number of hurdles. The most important of these is lowering production costs so the new protein can compete with slaughtered meat. Our legislators can help address this issue and others by backing more government money for cellular-agriculture development. It’s the right thing to do from a public health perspective.

Jon Hochschartner

Granby, Connecticut

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Politicians should support more funding for cultivated meat research