“Human farms” to make animal testing obsolete by 2020

The term “human farms” seems a bit like the title of a low-budget horror film, but in reality these “farms” may revolutionize the way scientific and medical research is conducted in just a few years.

Animal testing in both the scientific and corporate realms has long been a controversial, yet common practice. According to PETA, more than 100 million animals are killed in the United States each year “for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing”.

However, with the development of “human farms,” the use of animals may become obsolete. A “human farm” does not constitute to the literal growing of humans. Instead, these farms refer to the use of preexisting human tissue to create different organs in the human body. In creating these different organs, scientists have been able to create organ systems that act and respond to testing as normal human organs would. 

These organ systems allow for testing to be done without harming actual animals or humans. Further, results from animal testing don’t always correlate to how a disease or drug will manifest within humans. Using these “human farms” could create more accurate and useful results in regards to experimentation.

Some of these organ systems are already being used for certain types of testing such as the five-organ systems to study asthma.