Abbatoir. One of those things we wish didn’t exist, perhaps something we hope we could uninvent. But that reality may in fact come to be in the not so distant future, with scientists in Nanjing among those at the global forefront for the drive to cultured meat.
屠宰场。我们希望其中一件事情不存在，也许我们希望我们能够取消发明一些东西。但事实上，这一现实可能会在不远的将来成为现实，南京的科学家们正处于全球培育肉研究的前沿。
At the forefront, yes. First, no. That title goes to Singapore, when on 19 December of last year, diners became first in the world to tuck into lab-grown meat. The price? A bit more than they would have preferred. The cost? Zero immorality.
走在最前面，是的。首先，不。去年 12 月 19 日，新加坡的食客成为世界上第一个享用实验室培育的肉类的人。价格？比他们想要的多一点。费用？零不道德行为。
The day after, Nanjing Zhouzi Future Food Technology, which also goes by the more catchy English name, Joe’s Future Food, received ¥20 million in financing from Matrix Partners China (经纬创投因). The funds are intended for the development and large-scale production of cultured meat and accelerating the application of related products.
次日，南京舟子未来食品科技公司（又名“乔氏未来食品”）获得经纬创投因2000万元融资。该资金主要用于培养肉的研发和规模化生产，并加速相关产品的应用。
Led by Professor Zhou Guanghong, who also works at the College of Food Science and Technology in Nanjing Agricultural University, Joe’s Future Food is recognised (by its competitor) as China’s first cell-based meat manufacturer.
在南京农业大学食品科学与技术学院周光红教授的领导下，乔氏未来食品被（被其竞争对手）公认为中国第一家细胞肉制造商。
In fact, it was back in 2009 when Zhou and his team first began their research on possible cell sources for cultured meat. Yet it took until 2015 and 2017 for them to respectively isolate high-purity pig and bovine muscle stem cells. By 2019, the team had developed production moulds capable of being scaled up for cultured meat.
事实上，早在 2009 年，周和他的团队就首次开始研究人造肉的可能细胞来源。但直到2015年和2017年，他们才分别分离出高纯度的猪和牛肌肉干细胞。到 2019 年，该团队已开发出能够扩大培养肉规模的生产模具。
Then came the big breakthrough. On 18 November, beginning with the cells of an animal and by replicating natural tissue growth, China’s first cultured pork was created in Nanjing Agriculture University. With their groundbreaking minced pork, Joe’s Future Food was founded the following month and China had joined the global cultured meat club.
然后就是重大突破。 11月18日，以动物细胞为起点，通过复制自然组织生长，中国第一块培养猪肉在南京农业大学诞生。凭借其开创性的猪肉末，Joe’s Future Food 于次月成立，中国也加入了全球人造肉俱乐部。
The first and not the last. Again a day later, laggards Beijing-based startup CellX announced on 21 December that it had completed a seed round for an unspecified amount of funding from a hotchpotch of investors from the Chile, China, Germany and the UK.
第一个，但不是最后一个。一天后，落后的北京初创公司 CellX 于 12 月 21 日宣布，它已完成一轮种子轮融资，投资金额不详，投资方包括来自智利、中国、德国和英国的众多投资者。
Back in Singapore, customers at the restaurant, 1880, were virtually united in the claim their cultured chicken was indistinguishable from meat procured by traditional means.
回到新加坡，1880 餐厅的顾客几乎一致认为他们的养殖鸡与通过传统方式采购的肉类没有什么区别。
But the feat was only made possible by the fact that the island state’s government had been the first to grant regulatory approval for the sale of cultured meat by restauranteurs.
但这一壮举之所以成为可能，是因为该岛国政府是第一个批准餐馆老板销售培养肉的监管机构。
That of course is what everyone wants to see happen in China too.
这当然也是每个人都希望看到在中国发生的事情。
Such a move could not come quickly enough. Especially in the case of pork, a staple food in China. The industry is never far from the headlines; spiralling prices and one sort of swine flu or another have created a demand for alternatives that is among the highest in world.
这一举措来得不够快。尤其是猪肉，中国的主食。该行业总是成为头条新闻。不断上涨的价格和某种猪流感造成了对替代品的需求，这是世界上最高的需求之一。
Worldwide, according to the National Review, some 95 percent of meat, eggs, and dairy items today are produced using industrial livestock methods.
根据《国家评论》，当今世界范围内约 95% 的肉类、蛋类和乳制品都是采用工业化畜牧方法生产的。
And it’s a growing awareness of these facts and increased pet ownership in China that may be behind an interest in alternative meats that is substantially higher than in many other countries.
中国对这些事实的认识不断增强，加上宠物饲养量的增加，可能是人们对替代肉类的兴趣远高于许多其他国家的原因。
In February of 2019, peer reviewed research publisher, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, revealed the results of a survey conducted among over 3,000 people in China, India and the USA. Fully 59.3 percent of Chinese respondents said they were very or extremely likely to purchase planet-based meat, a number double that for the Americans, at only 29.8 percent.
2019 年 2 月，同行评审研究出版商《可持续食品系统前沿》公布了对中国、印度和美国 3,000 多人进行的一项调查结果。整整 59.3% 的中国受访者表示，他们非常或极有可能购买地球肉类，这一数字是美国人（只有 29.8%）的两倍。
No wonder research firm, Euromonitor, predicts the market for plant-based and cultured meat in China to be worth $11.9 billion by 2023.
难怪研究公司 Euromonitor 预测，到 2023 年，中国的植物肉和养殖肉市场价值将达到 119 亿美元。
Hu Liangyu, analyst at ChemLinked, a Chinese Fast-Moving Consumer Goods market intelligence platform, spoke on the subject with KrASIA, which specialises in reporting on technology trends in emerging markets. “Artificial meat on the people’s plates may only be a matter of time,” Hu said. “It is possible that after ten years, artificial meat products will be popular, and the price is cheaper than traditional meat products. By then, real meat might be scarce instead”, said Hu.
中国快速消费品市场情报平台 ChemLinked 分析师胡良宇在专门报告新兴市场技术趋势的 KrASIA 上谈到了这一主题。 “人造肉出现在人们的餐桌上可能只是时间问题，”胡说。 “有可能十年后，人造肉产品会流行起来，而且价格比传统肉产品便宜。到时候，真正的肉可能反而稀缺了。”胡说。
And now firms such as Joe’s Future Food have the money to potentially make this a reality.
现在，像 Joe’s Future Food 这样的公司有足够的资金来实现这一目标。
Formed in 1976, Matrix Partners has a track record for choosing technology investments that really pay off. Just a few years after, the firm was among those willing to take a bet on a new startup that they believed had the potential to become an industry leader. That startup was Apple.
Matrix Partners 成立于 1976 年，在选择真正有回报的技术投资方面拥有良好的记录。仅仅几年后，该公司就愿意押注于一家新的初创公司，他们认为这家公司有潜力成为行业领导者。那家初创公司就是苹果公司。
