Food and Drug

From Wikipedia…

In vitro meat may alleviate food shortages as meat for human consumption can possibly be collected from factory cultured animal muscle cells instead of live animals that consume animal feed made from corn. Due to a decreasing amount of farmers and a rising urban population, scientists employing the latest in genetic engineering figure out how to make an unlimited amount of meat without killing animals.[9] Even extinct animals can be used to produce meat as cells cultured from the DNA. A Dutch project is developing commercial in vitro meat production. Jason Matheny said that they could make a burger now that would cost thousands of dollars per pound. Technology levels will increase and so will demand; eventually causing the price of the in vitro hamburger to decrease until it is almost free to purchase. If measures aren’t taken before the year 2025, the cod will eventually join the list of extinct creatures whose meat can only be harvested through the in vitro method. Allowing meat to be harvested and grown without a single animal being killed or harm will appease most vegetarians and vegans. Rising grocery prices are caused by traditional farming methods that need fossil fuels and inefficient maintainence of natural resources that may never be renewed again. Traditional farming methods make it more feasible for farmers to grow plant-based foods as opposed to raising animal livestock to be slaughtered for meat. However, advertising and packaging costs dominate the price of prepared foods in developed countries while the cost of the commodity itself dominates the price in developing countries.

Scientists will eventually replace farmers as the most important member of the global community. Farmers, however, will continue to be useful in growing hydroponic vegetables that don’t require soil. Once the earth’s soil is no longer necessary for growing vegetable crops, more of it can be used to support forests that supply people with oxygen.

A cure for cancer is expected to be found by the use of medicinal nanobotsby then along with cures for malaria, the common cold, and AIDS. Currently, nanotech gene therapy has been able to kill ovarian cancer in mice without the bad side effects that cisplatin and paclitaxel cause; this technology could save 15000 women in the United States each year alone from dying of this disease. Nanotechnology will also be used to prevent dogs from getting fleas. By the start of the Nanotech Age, cancer tests will be done in pharmacies with devices that are built with nanowires to detect cancer proteins. The results promise to be highly accurate and the product promises to be inexpensive. They could take a very small amount of blood and detect cancer anywhere in the body in about five seconds – with a sensitivity that is a thousand times better than in a conventional laboratory test. Each nanowire detector is primed to be sensitive to a different cancer marker. The biggest advantage of the nanowire detectors is that they could test for anywhere from ten to one hundred similar medical conditions without adding cost to the testing device.