With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirming that the first child in the United States has tested positive for bird flu, our political leaders should, among other things, consider a massive increase in public funding for cultivated-meat research. 

For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells. Since animals are removed from the process, the risk of zoonotic pandemics would be dramatically reduced.

Though the new protein has been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, it is currently too expensive to mass produce. Further development in the field of cellular agriculture could overcome these cost barriers. Any politician, at either the state or federal level, who cares about preventing future pandemics, should support government funding for cultivated-meat research.

Jon Hochschartner
Granby, CT