Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. grade B. commercialized C. demand D. unproductive E. sampled
F. protected G. process H. contributor I. transport J. cultivation K. consumption |
Eco-friendly, lab-grown coffee is on the way
Heiko Rischer isn’t quite sure how to describe the taste of lab-grown coffee. This summer he 【小题1】 one of the first batches (批) in the world produced from cell cultures (细胞培养) rather than coffee beans.
“To describe it is difficult but, for me, it was in between a coffee and a black tea,” said Rischer, head of plant biotechnology at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which developed the coffee. “It depends really on the roasting 【小题2】, and this was a bit of a lighter roast, so it had a little bit more of a tea-like feeling.”
People have to wait before they can taste the coffee, as this cellular agriculture innovation is not yet approved for public 【小题3】. Rischer predicts that VTT’s lab-grown coffee could get approval from the governments in Europe and the US in about four years’ time, paving the way for a 【小题4】 product that could have a much lower climate impact than conventional coffee.
The coffee industry is both a 【小题5】 to the climate crisis and very vulnerable (脆弱的) to its effects. Rising 【小题6】 for coffee has been linked to deforestation (砍伐森林) in developing nations, damaging biodiversity and releasing carbon emissions. At the same time, coffee producers are struggling with the impacts of more extreme weather, from frosts to droughts. It’s estimated that half of the land used to grow coffee could be 【小题7】 by 2050 due to the climate crisis.
In response to the industry’s challenges, companies and scientists are trying to develop and commercialize coffee made without coffee beans.
VTT’s coffee is grown by floating cell cultures in bioreactors (生物反应堆) filled with a nutrient. The 【小题8】 requires no pesticides and has a much lower water footprint, said Rischer, and because the coffee can be produced in local markets, it cuts 【小题9】 emissions. The company is working on a life cycle analysis of the process. “Once we have those figures, we will be able to show that the environmental impact will be much lower than what we have with traditional 【小题10】,” Rischer said.
