Food scarcity is one of the biggest problems in the world today. Worldometers.info says that according to the United Nations, the human population is expected to reach eight billion people by 2024. As long as the population continues to increase so dramatically, food shortages will become more and more of a problem. What if we could produce food in a lab instead of on a farm or factory? Dutch scientists Mark Post did just that. Post and his team of scientists at Maastricht University have created the first laboratory-prepared meat in the form of hamburgers. The result was an edible piece of in vitro (cultured) meat, very similar to the real thing. Another name for this lab-grown meat is "Schmeat". Austrian nutritionist Hanni Ruetzler and US journalist Josh Schonwald carried out the taste test in London in August 2013. Both agreed that the lab-prepared burger had an extremely similar texture to the real thing, but something was missing, perhaps some seasoning . However, this is an important step for laboratory-processed foods. But how was this burger created? An article from CBC News titled "World's first lab-grown, cooked and eaten hamburger" covered the trial. The first step was to raise enough money to make the burger. Sergey Bring, co-founder of Google, funded the $330,000 project out of concern for animal safety. Once the funding was secured, the next step was to take muscle stem cells from an organically raised cow. These cells are taken through a small biopsy that is absolutely harmless to the cow. Then the cells were placed in a nutrient solution in which they grew into small strands of flesh. Twenty thousand pieces of meat later and you have a five-ounce hamburger ready to eat. But what does this actually do to help us as human beings? CBC News...... middle of paper...... Funding from Google co-founder Sergey Bring marked the beginning of the cultured hamburger project. Finally in August 2013 the first cultured burger was tasted in London. In Vitro meat supports the greatest results obtained so far. Mark Post's burger could change the world for the better. Compared to the conventional meat industry, the cultured meat industry is more environmentally friendly, more efficient and is much less cruel to animals. Unfortunately, most people I know couldn't afford a three hundred thousand dollar hamburger, but the next step is to solve this problem. Once efficient industrial breeding is created, cultured meat could be offered to the public at an affordable price. According to Mark Post and his team, it is estimated that cultured meat will be commercially available within the next decade or two, and I believe that, once it does, it will change the world.