A meatball made using genetic code from the mammoth is seen at the Nemo science museum in Amsterdam, Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

(AP Photo/Mike Corder)

At a Glance

Australian startup company Vow created the mammoth meatball.It's a form of cultured meat, a technology being developed by dozens of companies around the world.Proponents say it's more sustainable and better for the environment.

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A​ company in Australia has made a meatball based on the genetic code of the long-extinct woolly mammoth.

D​espite April Fools' Day coming soon, Australian startup swears their creation is no joke but is aimed at drawing attention to sustainable meat alternatives that are more climate-friendly. It was unveiled Tuesday at a science museum in Amsterdam.

“We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different to potentially what we had before," Vow founder Tim Noakesmith told the Associated Press. "That there are things that are unique and better than the meats that we’re necessarily eating now, and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter and get people excited about this new future."

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No one's eaten or tasted Vow's woolly mammoth meatball and there are no plans to make more of them.

The meatball is a type of cultured meat, created in a lab from animal tissue cells. In this case, Vow used genetic data from a mammoth combined with genetic data from the African elephant, the mammoth's closest living relative. That was inserted into sheep cells and grown until there was enough to roll into a ball.

D​ozens of companies around the world are working on similar technology, also known as cultivated meat.

P​roponents say it's better for the environment and more climate-friendly. About of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from agriculture, including cows, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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T​he European Space Agency is that looks at the use of cultured foods for future astronauts.

N​o foods made from are currently available in the U.S., according to the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA says it's working with firms developing such foods to ensure that the processes used to make them are safe and follow U.S. food law.

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