Waste not...Can lab-grown fruit ease food insecurity?

In the face of growing food security concerns due to climate change, scientists in New Zealand are attempting to grow fruit tissue in labs.

- Serena Solomon

While work on lab-grown meat has made headlines in recent years, similar work on fruit is less common. Scientists at Plant & Food Research in Christchurch are aiming to change that by growing fruit tissue from plant cells that they hope will one day taste, smell and feel like real fruit. Researchers hope the programme will help safeguard the country's food security.

"Here in New Zealand, we're good at growing conventional horticultural crops," said Dr Ben Schon, the lead scientist for the Food by Design programme at the government-backed Plant & Food Research, "but there's a lot of change coming in the world with population growth, increasing urbanisation and climate change."