Lab Meat. Mmmmmmm

[chrmjenkins]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/artificial-meat-grown-in-a-laboratory-needs-exercise-1835269.html

Researchers at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands have successfully created in-vitro pork by extracting sample cells from the muscle of a live pig. Artificial fish has previously been grown successfully from goldfish cells.

The scientists multiplied the cells by mixing with other animal products to create the tissue. It is described as 'soggy' meat, but ways to improve the muscle tissue with stretching "exercises" are in the works.

It may be an estimated five to ten years before the animal protein product is "edible," but Stegeman, a sausage division of food giant Sara Lee, has invested in the project, as well as the Dutch government.

Controversy abounds. The animal rights group PETA expressed support of "cultured meat" as a good alternative to killing and eating animals. Other supporters suggest this process is an efficient means of feeding the world's population which is estimated to double in 40 years.

New Harvest, the research firm "advancing meat substitutes," believes other advantages to laboratory grown meat products include reducing fat content and eliminating diseases from farmed meats, such as salmonella.

Not producing meat from real animals would reduce the carbon footprint by reducing methane and other byproducts of industrial farming. But environmentalists believe that genetically modified "Frankenfoods" could pose unknown hazards to human health. No one has tasted the fake pork.

Would you eat this if the taste was comparable? Would you consider an all-synthetic diet so you could have your meat and eat it too?

Vegetarians, would you eat this?

[Queso]

As a veggie I wouldn't eat it.

[Iscariot]

Vegetarians, would you eat this?

Depends. My issue has always been sustainability.

[chrmjenkins]

As a veggie I wouldn't eat it.

Have you really considered it though? They could specifically reduce fat content levels to make the product healthier (as well as controlling levels of other harmful effects of meat). It could offer a nice taste alternative to the means of protein most vegetarians are used to.

[jav6454]

Honestly, I wouldn't eat it. Why? Well many reasons that will only spark a flame war. Also, I don't eat pork based products.

[Cave Man]

Honestly, I wouldn't eat it. Why? Well many reasons that will only spark a flame war. Also, I don't eat pork based products.

Yeah, I prefer flame-grilled over flame-broiled. Those broilies are nothing but trouble.

[Queso]

Have you really considered it though? They could specifically reduce fat content levels to make the product healthier (as well as controlling levels of other harmful effects of meat). It could offer a nice taste alternative to the means of protein most vegetarians are used to.
No, sorry. The whole idea of it actually quite repulsive to me. You tuck in all you like though :p

[skunk]

I would rather turn vegetarian.

[jav6454]

Yeah, I prefer flame-grilled over flame-broiled. Those broilies are nothing but trouble.

Well played sir, well played.

[abijnk]

I would rather turn vegetarian.

Ditto.

Sorry babe, I won't cook it for you either!

[rdowns]

I would rather turn vegetarian.


Me too. But I reserve the right to eat bacon. :D

[xlii]

Ten thousand years ago we wouldn't be having this discussion.

PS

Your ancestors ate meat...

[jav6454]

Ten thousand years ago we wouldn't be having this discussion.

PS

Your ancestors ate meat...

10k years ago, labs didn't create meat. Cows, deer, chickens, turkeys, wild boars, etc did.

[skunk]

Ten thousand years ago we wouldn't be having this discussion.

PS

Your ancestors ate meat...Not necessarily.

[Rampant.A.I.]

I think it's pretty safe to say that all of our ancestors, at one time, ate some meat when it was available.

I don't know. Depending on the quality of it, I would consider eating vat-grown meat.

But then, I read a lot of post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi and P.K. Dick, so there you go... :D

[barkomatic]

If they got the texture to resemble meat from an animal I'd eat it--not a valid reason not too. It promises to be more efficient to produce and would obviate the need for slaughterhouses. My problem with a vegetarian diet has always been that it simply lacks the necessary nutrients to be healthy--my body is designed to consume and digest meat and I need it to be healthy. However, I concede that it is a valid point that current meat production is bad for the environment and inefficient.

If developed successfully, I not only think people will be eating in-vitro meat -- there will be no other choices.

[xlii]

Animals that don't eat meat (grass, leaves, stems) have to pretty much eat all day. They usually have a food source that is very easy to find but they have to eat a lot of it just to get enough energy from it to survive. We on the other hand are omnivores. We can eat almost anything. Gives us a lot of versatility in the survival game. If one food source goes away we can eat from another. Meat is concentrated calories (marrow, fat). That allows us to spend less time eating to get the calories we need to survive and has allowed us to develop civilization which will eventually lead to our destruction... which kind of makes the whole thing rather pointless... if you ask me.... but then again you didn't.

[xlii]

One of the questions I asked myself once was why didn't eskimos (who pre European contact) ate a diet of almost 100 meat get scurvy? The answer was that the eskimos ate most of their meat raw and raw meat contains vitamin C. Of course the European sailors who got scurvy cooked their meat (which destroys the vitamin C in the meat) and had to discover that eating fruit was a good way to prevent scurvy.

[xlii]

I've tried to pump this book to my buddies but I don't think any of them have given it a read. Shame, it's a good one. This fiction novel takes place maybe 50 - 75 years from now during the middle of the biotech revolution. Biotech engineers are the new rockstars, creating new food sources, solving old problems... creating new ones. Who else could give you soy-o-chicken, and soy-o-sardines, and the latest, chicken nobs. Chicken nobs is the latest in lab meat. Combine a cow with a chicken with the regeneration ability of a frog to regrow it's limbs... and you got yerself a chicken nob maker.

The first chapter can be read on line. You might wonder who the h*** is this snowman? Yeah, he has some issues... he's been through a lot... but you'd have some issues too... if you'd been though what he'd been though. The story does get told... mostly in flashbacks.

Der link:

http://www.oryxandcrake.co.uk/excerpt.asp

[Iscariot]

Your ancestors ate meat...

Your ancestors ate animals and plants that pretty much no longer exist in their present form. They also were constantly mobile, got plenty of sunlight, and died by the age of 30 of easily preventable conditions.

[CorvusCamenarum]

I've tried to pump this book to my buddies but I don't think any of them have given it a read. Shame, it's a good one. This fiction novel takes place maybe 50 - 75 years from now during the middle of the biotech revolution. Biotech engineers are the new rockstars, creating new food sources, solving old problems... creating new ones. Who else could give you soy-o-chicken, and soy-o-sardines, and the latest, chicken nobs. Chicken nobs is the latest in lab meat. Combine a cow with a chicken with the regeneration ability of a frog to regrow it's limbs... and you got yerself a chicken nob maker.

The first chapter can be read on line. You might wonder who the h*** is this snowman? Yeah, he has some issues... he's been through a lot... but you'd have some issues too... if you'd been though what he'd been though. The story does get told... mostly in flashbacks.

Der link:

http://www.oryxandcrake.co.uk/excerpt.asp

It's a good novel. You will want to consider her newly-released follow-up, The Year of the Flood. Not a sequel in the traditional sense, but it expands upon the timeline.

[Counterfit]

Didn't we have a thread about this stuff a few months ago in Current Events?

[xlii]

It's a good novel. You will want to consider her newly-released follow-up, The Year of the Flood. Not a sequel in the traditional sense, but it expands upon the timeline.

Thanks, I will read it. Her Crake book was that good. After reading Crake... I read Handmaiden's Tale. A depressing slow moving story along the lines of an oppressive 1984. Religious Puritans running the country of New England. Trying to make it to freedom in Canada.

The best line in Handmaiden's Tale was when she got down on her hands and knees and found a quote written in blood in the closet, left by a former occupant of her room... "Don't let the bastards grind you down."