Here's a crazy idea: Combine bioprinting and tissue engineering to “print” animal products and tackle some of the planet's biggest problems. Animal farming, after all, accounts for about half of all human-caused greenhouse gases, taking place on one-third of the available, non-frozen land on Earth, all to feed people's appetites for 300 million tons of meat a year.

有这样一个疯狂的想法：将生物打印技术和组织工程结合在一起，来“打印”畜产品，解决这个星球上最大的问题。毕竟，畜牧业只发生在地球上 1/3 的可用非冰冻土地上，而它释放的温室气体占人类活动产生的温室气体总量的一半。这些都是为了满足人类每年消耗 3亿吨肉制品的需求。

Modern Meadow is a Missouri-based startup that engineers tissues to create lab-grown edible meat, in a process that eliminates many of the negative environmental effects associated with traditional livestock practices.

Modern Meadow 是美国密苏里州的一个新兴公司，他们通过改变组织结构，生产实验室培育的可食用肉。这种肉类生产过程能够消除传统畜牧业对环境产生的许多负面影响。

The company claims that by carefully layering mixtures of cells of different types in a specific structure, in vitro meat production becomes feasible. It's set a short-term goal of printing a sliver of meat around two centimeters by one centimeter, and less than half a millimeter thick, which is edible.

该公司声称，通过在某一特殊结构中将不同类型细胞的混合体按片层状整合到一起，体外肉类培植有望实现。它定下短期目标：通过实验室打印出长 2 厘米、宽 1 厘米的可食用肉片，厚度不超过 0.5 毫米。

The company explains in a submission to the United States Department of Agriculture: “The technology has several advantages in comparison to earlier attempts to engineer meat in vitro. The bio-ink particles can be reproducibly prepared with mixtures of cells of different types. Printing ensures consistent shape, while post-printing structure formation and maturation in the bioreactor facilitates conditioning.”

该公司在呈交给美国农业部的一份报告中解释：“与早期体外培植肉类的尝试相比，此技术有一些优势。不同类型细胞的混合体确保生物墨水颗粒能够源源不断地被生产出来。打印可以保证肉类形状一致，打印好后，在生物反应器中进行的结构成型和成熟能够促进肉类的形成。”

However, it admits that the road ahead is strewn with difficulties. “The consumer acceptance of such products may not be without challenges. We expect it will first appeal to culinary early-adopter consumers and the segment of the vegetarian community that rejects meat for ethical reasons. With reduction in price, it can reach the masses with religious restrictions on meat consumption (people restricted to Hindu, Kosher, Halal diets) and finally populations with limited access to safe meat production.”

然而，该公司也承认，前路困难重重。“该类产品的市场接受度可能是个挑战。我们期待它能够吸引一批喜好烹饪的早期消费者和那些出于伦理道德原因拒绝肉食的素食主义者。随着价格的降低，在肉类消费上有宗教禁忌的大众（如食用印度、犹太、清真食物的人们）将接受该产品，较难吃到放心肉产品的群体最终也将接纳它。”

Whatever the final outcome, lab-grown edible meat is no longer in the realm of science fiction. It is coming.

无论最终结果如何，实验室培育的可食用肉不再只存在于科幻小说中。它的时代即将来临。