Cellular agriculture is one of the hottest food technologies in today’s times and is being viewed as the future of food. Singapore, having already commercialised cell-based meat, has paved the way for other countries to follow suit. With the technology picking pace around the around the world, the road ahead seems bright.
To make it even more popular, especially amongst future scientists, Alex Shirazi, who is the host of the Cultured Meat and Future Food Podcast, and Anita Broellochs, Founder and CEO of Balletic Foods, along with California-based artist Gabriel Gonzalez, are set to launch a children’s book about cellular agriculture technology.
Titled “Where do Hot Dogs Come From? A Children’s Book About Cellular Agriculture”, the book is targeted at children aged 3 to 7, and aims to educate them about cell-cultured meat technology to inspire these young readers to develop a love for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Inspired by the childhood experience of Anita, who grew up on a farm in Southern Germany. She was in for a shock when she realised where all the sausages and meats were coming from, as she was friends with the cows living in her backyard.
The book takes the typical question of children where different foods, in this case hot dogs, come from into a different direction. Instead of the conventional answer that would make parents uncomfortable and would be difficult for children to come to terms with, the story turns a family BBQ into a scientific journey where the “mom” explains how hot dogs are made with cellular agriculture technologies.
The story has a happy ending for everyone involved, including the neighbourhood cow.
Cell-cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat or cell-based meat, is meat product such as beef, chicken, or even fish, created using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology and without the need for animal slaughter.
The team behind the book is using Kickstarter as their fundraising platform due to its reach towards the STEM demographic. Supporters of the project can contribute and back the project with packages starting at the $5 tier. Supporters can also be part of the project through larger packages that include getting illustrated in the book.
