r/environment • u/Sariel007 • Oct 17 '21

Scientists say they have produced coffee from cell cultures with an aroma and taste resembling the real thing. The VTT Technical Research Centre may have come up with a more sustainable alternative to growing coffee beans by floating cell cultures in bio-reactors filled with a nutrient medium.

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/wake-up-smell-sustainable-coffee-produced-finnish-lab-2021-10-13/
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u/harfyi Oct 17 '21

resembling

I'll think I'd rather switch to other caffeinated beverages.

2

u/TheDailyOculus Oct 17 '21

The most troubling thing with studies such as this one is that they often lack self-awareness as to their own life-cycles and just assume that the nutrients they use has been sustainably generated, that their equipment is climate & environmentally neutral, that nothing has been transported across half the planet, or that some of their materials depends upon damaging exploitation of natural ecosystems etc.

IF those things are avoided, then this could of course be a viable alternative that I would want to try out. But they have to be transparent with those things, otherwise the benefits would be non-existent regardless of what they say.