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Lab-Grown Cotton Enters The Market
(www.forbes.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Technology
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It's the same issue with cotton; it takes a lot of water and land. With this, one can feasibly use less land for more product; as well as avoiding child and slave labour which has been associated with cotton production in countries with lax or non-existent labour laws.
In short: Efficiency and ethics.
At scale, there is still the risk of cotton-growing in labs being outsourced as well, similar to how a lot of cheap shit comes from factories in China with terrible conditions. That can still be an issue.
Still, there tons of potential benefits to this.
And, given how huge the demand is for cotton, and how relatively simple/cheap it probably is to produce vs lab grown meat and other things or vs the usual cotton farming methods, it's gonna be a cash cow for the companies that make it. And for the companies that buy it at lower prices than farmes cotton, too (see also: microbial rennet having largely supplanted rennet harvested from calves, for cheese, because it's cheaper).