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If Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith care about the environment, they should support federal funding for cultured-meat research.

For those who don’t know, cultured meat is grown from cells, without slaughtering animals. The greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater and land required to produce it are a tiny fraction of those necessary to raise livestock. 

Dr. Mark Post debuted the first cultured-beef hamburger in 2013. It cost an astonishing $280,000 to make. Since that time, the price has dropped substantially. Post believes a similar burger will cost $10 in the near future. As wonderful as this progress is, the price will need to be reduced further in order to compete with slaughtered meat. This can be achieved by publicly-funded research.

Jon Hochschartner

Granby, Connecticut