Balanced News: Instead of Corn and Soy Farming, Use Lab-Grown Oil for the Planet, Scientist Says

A scientist at UC Irvine believes that lab-grown oil could replace monocropping soy, corn, and palm for cooking oils, reducing the negative impact on the climate. By synthesizing cooking fats, millions of acres of farmland could be returned to nature, billions of gallons of water saved, and mass contamination of the environment with pesticides and nitrogen runoff avoided. The study suggests that large-scale synthetic production of dietary fats through chemical and biological processes is possible, using the same raw materials as plants. This farm-free food production method could also have other benefits, such as reducing water use and pollution, increasing biodiversity, and decreasing the need for low-paying agricultural labor.