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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSpecial report: 'In vitro' beef - it's the meat of the future
A week tomorrow, at an exclusive west London venue, the most expensive beefburger in history will be nervously cooked and served before an invited audience. Costing somewhere in the region of £250,000, the 5oz burger will be composed of synthetic meat, grown in a laboratory from the stem cells of a slaughtered cow.
The scientist behind the "in vitro" burger believes synthetic meat could help to save the world from the growing consumer demand for beef, lamb, pork and chicken. The future appetite for beef alone, for instance, could easily lead to the conversion of much of the world's remaining forests to barren, manicured pastures by the end of this century.
The precious patty will be made of some 3,000 strips of artificial beef, each the size of a rice grain, grown from bovine stem cells cultured in the laboratory. Scientists believe the public demonstration will be "proof of principle", possibly leading to artificial meat being sold in supermarkets within five to 10 years.
Stem cells taken from just one animal could, in theory, be used to make a million times more meat than could be butchered from a single beef carcass. The reduction in the need for land, water and feed, as well as the decrease in greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants, would change the environmental footprint of meat eating.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/special-report-in-vitro-beef--its-the-meat-of-the-future-8735104.html
MADem
(135,425 posts)I'm not a big beef eater, but every once in a blue moon I enjoy a steak. If it's a fake steak grown in a lab, it reduces the guilt over killing the cute little cows...
Warpy
(111,367 posts)during the first cold snap when I crave it. I ate a steak last year, prepared simply with a chipotle rub, pan seared and finished in the oven. It was grass fed beef so I couldn't cut it with the side of a fork, but it was good.
Still, if this goes into production, it's likely to produce very lean beef that is super tender without being loaded with an unhealthy amount of fat. The environmental impact will be lower and the suffering involved with becoming meat will not be an issue.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Usually when some other sport is picking up the check! Heh, heh!
I hope they clone that kobe beef--that's some nice stuff, but crazy-expensive right now!
peacebird
(14,195 posts)The whole Star Trek idea of replicator food makes me feel like gagging. We all know how "good for you" GMO crops are (not). Can't wait to read the unbiased scientific studies about this mess.
Response to peacebird (Reply #2)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)We don't eat beef or pork every day, and use the meat as a side dish or "condiment" to the grains and veggies. That said, I will still avoid petri-dish products just as I avoid grocery store pink slimed 'beef'.
Response to peacebird (Reply #13)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cirque du So-What
(25,989 posts)Extraction: Dr. Mark Post and his team at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, take muscle stem cells from living cattle through biopsy.
Cultivation: The cells are placed in nutrient broth-filled petri dishes that help the cells to grow.
Expansion: The cells are attached to biodegradable scaffolding platforms where they are exercised to promote bulk growth and are then stretched upon Velcro boards.
Combination: The 3000 muscle strips and approximately 200 fat strips are minced together to created synthetic hamburger meat.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/2013/04/ill-have-the-test-tube-burger-please/
Nothing in there about modifying the DNA whatsoever.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)Did't the industry have a nice healthful sounding description for that as well? And inChina some enterprising souls found they could add melamine to milk so it tested as higher in protein... Sadly plastic 'protein' didn't work out so well for the babies who drank it.
Let's just say I do not trust corporations (who *will* put profit margins above safety), and who will be determining how to produce this "meat" at the lowest possible cost.
MADem
(135,425 posts)by tossing an ammonia product on 'em, and then whirled in a blender and mixed up with lips, noses and arseholes and other unsavory chunks.
It's not stem cells in a nutrient base.
Response to Cirque du So-What (Reply #9)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cirque du So-What
(25,989 posts)but I accept the possibility of some modifications causing health problems, even after clinical trials show no ill effects from consuming them. It's the effects that may not show up for years which concern me. Yes, there's far too much woo out there regarding GMOs, but as the technology advances, it's increasingly likely that Big Ag will become more cavalier with their modifications.
Response to Cirque du So-What (Reply #21)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Skink
(10,122 posts)Response to Skink (Reply #3)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Response to dipsydoodle (Original post)
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Amak8
(142 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,989 posts)Consumption of water resources and pollution of those same waters must also be considered.
Happyhippychick
(8,379 posts)To be a vegetarian.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,652 posts)Instead of dusty, tired cowboys grilling steaks around the chuck-wagon after a long day of cow punching ... geeks in lab coats sitting around a table eating from petri dishes with pickle forks.
stlsaxman
(9,236 posts)this stuff will never have been consiousness.
not to rub their faces in it but to honestly ask how they feel about this.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)Response to Berlum (Reply #15)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)If they can't make it cheaper than "real" meat, this isn't going anywhere.
US per capita meat consumption has been declining for years now, and the projection is for a continued decline (second to last page in this USDA outlook):
http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/949018/ldpm221.pdf
Most of that is because households can't afford to buy as much.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)I do not eat anything with hair, fur or feathers and would welcome synthetic meat. I have had a desire for a good fillet mignon and it would be nice to have it when if I knew that the animal was not killed.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts).
aristocles
(594 posts)These cells die to become burgers or steak.
flvegan
(64,419 posts)In vitro burger is one thing (thousands of beef "rice pellets" mashed into a burger like ground chuck. A "cut" of meat, with marbling and whatnot...I don't know about that. Hopefully, if this goes over well, they will go further with it and eventually they get it right for all beef from burgers to ribeyes.
I don't think I would eat it, regardless. The thought turns my stomach. No in vitro swordfish? Let me at it!
Initech
(100,107 posts)"I've seen how this ends. And it ends with Charlton Heston running down the street screaming SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!!!"
mick063
(2,424 posts)And I have been eating it. I would prefer to go back in time and eat a Wendy's or KFC from the 70's, but those days are long gone. You young folks would have died for a 1976 Wendy's burger. I lived off of them.
I'll eat these stem cell burgers as well. I'm hoping they don't get mixed into pink slime.
SA-Bound
(13 posts)I have no doubt that they can "grow" a substance that tastes like beef and has the same nutritional statistics.
We're used to eating muscle fiber, even when it's ground up. I think this is where they're going to have the greatest issues.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)Slaw Dogs. But there is no pretense that it is actually meat.
You can keep your laboratory-grown Soylent Petri.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)viruses, and bacteria. I know what to expect from big ag/big meat.