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With the cell-based meat revolution lagging, snake meat offers an alternative to help lower our carbon footprintJa esittää sitten vaihtoehdon. Syökäämme käärmeitä!
Why did it have to be snakes?
More economical than trying to replicate and tweak nature into growing steaks and sushi might be finding new sources of cultivated meat. In “Python farming as a flexible and efficient form of agricultural food security,” published in Scientific Reports, Daniel Natusch of Macquarie University in Sydney and colleagues explore the reptilian option, which is already a staple in Asia.
Snakes are great food sources. They don’t eat often, compared to chickens, cows, and goats. And 82% of the mass of a live snake can become “useable products,” the researchers write.
They analyzed the growth rates of 4,601 reticulated and Burmese pythons at two farms in Thailand and Vietnam. The animals were fed weekly on wild-caught rodents and fishmeal, and weighed and measured weekly for a year.
Both species grew rapidly, up to 46 grams (about a tenth of a pound) per day, females gaining faster than males. Growth rate in the first two months of life best predicted later body size.
The researchers also selected 58 snakes at the farm in Ho Chi Minh and fed them different proteins, including chicken, pork waste, rodents, and fishmeal. For every 4.1 grams of food consumed, the investigators could harvest 1 gram of python meat. “In terms of food and protein conversion ratios, pythons outperform all mainstream agricultural species studied to date,” the researchers write.
A bonus? About two-thirds of the snakes fasted for 20 to 127 days, while not losing much of their body mass.
And yes, snake meat tastes like chicken.
Perustelut ovat hyvin järkevät. Ötökkäruoassa järkevillä perusteluilla ei ollut osalle ihmisistä niin minkäänlaista merkitystä.